July 1, 2021
A young woman's magical heritage catches up with her in this novel centered around grief and relationships. Seventeen-year-old Edie is desperate to get away from her maternal grandmother, GG, with whom she has lived on a houseboat in small-town Maryland ever since her mother's unexpected death. Though she has always known her mother and grandmother were witches, she has eschewed her own magic after a troubling experience with it years earlier, but in Cedar Branch, she finds she can no longer evade it. Edie's leisurely paced journey from a place of withdrawn fear to an embrace of her full self unfurls into the telling of a budding friendship with kindhearted Tess and a growing romantic relationship with magically inclined Rhia, who also has not yet spread her wings as a witch. Chapters from Edie's mother's perspective are interspersed in the form of an old journal she kept during the time she became pregnant with Edie. The family secrets that are gradually revealed owe as much to contemporary domestic fiction tropes as they do to fantasy. Edie's first-person narration is earnest, and though an evil magic threatens her throughout, there doesn't ever seem to be any real doubt about her fate. Edie, her family, and Tess are White; Rhia is Black. An engaging offering with a light paranormal touch. (Paranormal. 14-18)
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August 2, 2021
Athletic, logical, white rising high school junior Edie Mitchell, 17, rejected her inherited magic three years ago. But after her mother dies and Edie moves from Baltimore to her maternal grandmother GG’s houseboat in tiny Cedar Branch, Md., her birthright has become more difficult to deny, especially with her ancestors’ ghosts always hovering nearby. When Edie inadvertently awakens a malevolent spirit, she must rely on two new friends and her mother’s diary—written when she was 18, a year before Edie’s birth—plus a scavenger hunt that her mother left behind to understand her familial inheritance and embrace her true self. Alternating between Edie’s perspective and her mother’s 2003 journal entries, Sibson (The Art of Breaking Things) deftly mirrors their experiences with parental loss and personality elements, adding emotional depth to the tender depiction of grief while allowing two romances to develop: one leading to Edie’s conception, and the other a sweet first for Edie, who feels sparks of attraction for the first time with occultist Rhia, who is Black. Ages 12–up.
September 1, 2021
Gr 8 Up-Seventeen-year-old Edie Mitchell is a magical teen from a long line of witches. Hailing from an ancestry of powerful women, Edie can harness the element of fire, albeit unwillingly on her part. Having lost her mother and getting shipped off to live with her grandmother on a houseboat in the Chesapeake area, she begins to discover a dark magic associated with a long abandoned family cabin on the water. After refusing to learn magic her whole life, she enlists her grandmother and new friends to help her grasp her craft and fight whatever forces have hold of her and her family. The author's sophomore release is full of natural wonder and green magic, perfect for teens interested in Wicca or fans of The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin. However, flat characters read too similarly to one another and there's repetitive writing. Sibson missed the opportunity to round out her excellent world building. VERDICT An engaging read with a wonderfully described landscape that lacks well-developed characters. Great for libraries with teens interested in Wicca.-Alexandra Remy, Windsor P.L., CT
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