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The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia<\/p>\n
Del Ray, $29<\/p>\n
ISBN 9780593874325; also available in large print, ISBN 9798217083688<\/p>\n
The Last Resort by Erin Entrada Kelly<\/p>\n
Scholastic, $17.99<\/p>\n
ISBN 9781546132431<\/p>\n
Reviews by Donna Lee Miele<\/p>\n
At The Sparkle Bookstore, we have a \u201cmagic mushroom\u201d game for fantasy fans. Readers drop a 20-sided die through the top of an iridescent green dice tower whimsically styled as a toadstool house for fairies and gnomes. The die tumbles down the stairs to the front stoop and gives players a number, which they match with a reading suggestion according to a key we\u2019ve provided: roll a 1 through 5, get a suggestion for a cozy monster read; roll a 6 through 10, get a suggestion for a royal intrigue; and so on. We\u2019ve also marked the suggestions as \u201cMage\u201d level for readers aged eighteen and older, or \u201cApprentice\u201d level for readers under eighteen. For October, I\u2019ve dropped the die for you and have come up with two spooky, magical reads, one for Mages and one for Apprentices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
First up: my Mage recommendation is The Bewitching, the latest novel by the amazing Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican Gothic, The Seventh Veil of Salome). Minerva, a doctoral candidate on a scholarship from Mexico at a prestigious New England school, investigates the mysterious occult history of a little-known author. Traces of her Nana Alba\u2019s teachings on witchcraft, good and bad, follow Minerva on a treacherous journey to the heart of a curse. With clear, deft strokes, Moreno-Garcia sets up three intertwining stories spanning Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century, a world of New England socialites in the 1930s, and an aging college campus in the 1990s. The real power of this novel is not so much in the connections of the three mysteries as in the lushness of the Mexican setting and the astonishing coldness of humans deformed into monsters by greed and the lust for power. Enjoy this one before it gets too cold and dark out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Greed and power play equally strong roles in The Last Resort, my recommendation for Apprentices craving a Halloween season read. Author Erin Entrada Kelly (The First State of Being, Hello Universe) has created a world and a ghost story that would be a wonderful inspiration for a carnival ride. Lila, on the cusp of seventh grade, finds herself estranged from her best friends and about to be dragged hundreds of miles from home to the funeral of a grandfather she\u2019s never met. What\u2019s more, she starts to see things after bumping her head in a near-accident\u2014people, to be exact, whom no one else in her family can see. Ghosts. Including her grandfather, who reveals that he was murdered. The story takes off on a madcap chase through Lila\u2019s grandfather\u2019s house, which hides a secret portal to the spirit world, and the surrounding neighborhood, which was the site of a terrible fire that took the lives of an entire circus troupe a hundred years ago. The ghosts left behind, including Lila\u2019s grandfather, have plenty of unfinished business to settle, and it all seems connected to one local medium\u2019s mysterious experiments in the occult. But has he gone too far to get what he wants? Author Kelly has a light, humorous touch, so that even when things get gruesome toward the climax of this ghost hunt the reader can come out chuckling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For those who like to linger in the worlds their favorite authors create, Kelly has included a wonderful \u201cEaster egg.\u201d The book directs children who are old enough to accompany an elder on a smartphone to internet-based quests: interactive experiences with ghosts from the world of the book, telling who they were, how they lived, and why they still haunt the world of the living. The ghosts, rendered in 3D \u201cPokemon Go\u201d style, will lead the reader on quests to solve the mysteries they embody. I am no fan of smartphones for young children, so I do recommend adult accompaniment to allow for real human interaction, even though I wouldn\u2019t flag any particular trigger warnings. I encourage adults to test-drive the game\u2014I was mesmerized. Kelly has called forth some really interesting, warm characters in the game as well as in the book.<\/p>\n
For Mage or Apprentice, in this time of hoarding for winter and stuffing our trick-or-treat sacks to bursting, enjoy these spooky reads reminding us that greed doesn\u2019t pay!<\/p>\n
Donna Lee Miele is a writer, freelance editor, and bookseller from Rockland County. She owns The Sparkle Bookstore in Sparkill, New York.<\/p>\n
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