PLAYING THE WITCH CARD
by KJ Dell'Antonia
Three generations of witches summon their powers from tarot cards or, in some cases, cookies.
With just five days to go before Halloween, Flair Hardwicke couldn't feel less enthusiastic about the holiday spirit oozing out of every inhabitant of Rattleboro, Kansas. If anything, Flair is counting the days until Nov. 1, the "least-witchy day of the year" and the day when her magical heritage would remain blissfully hidden. Like her mother and grandmother before her, Flair has the ability to perform magic by reading a particular deck of tarot cards. Hand-painted by a Hardwicke ancestor and "fused with all the magic of generations of witches," these cards answer only to Flair. She hasn't seen the deck in almost 30 years, not since she stole them and hid them from her tarot-obsessed mother and gave up magic for good. But since her grandmother Marie's recent passing, Flair and her 13-year-old daughter, Lucie, have returned to Rattleboro in hopes of a new beginning, one without her cheating ex, David. Lucie would rather be anywhere than her mother's hometown, but to Flair, Rattleboro looks just the way she left it, although she can't help but notice a strange undercurrent running through town. One night, she unconsciously bakes a batch of Hardwicke tarot card cookies, and Rattleboro's Halloween festival director Renee Oakes can't seem to stop giving her threatening stares. Renee's mother, Loretta, might even know the Hardwicke family secret, though her son (and Flair's high school fling), Jude, appears none the wiser. Just when these spooky happenings begin to feel more sinister, Flair's mother, Cynthia, turns up with a bewitched David in tow...and the stash of hidden cards. Dell'Antonia's third novel is full of mysterious and eerie plot twists, and most chapters end with a low-stakes cliffhanger. However, Flair's unwillingness to listen to anyone creates too many frustrating moments of miscommunication and situations that could have been avoided, and Renee's constant irritation with her might echo the reader's own sentiments.
A complex tale about motherhood and witchcraft with an exasperating protagonist.