Review Detail

A coming of age fantasy both hauntingly and beautifully told. Reading this edition, now forty years after the original publication, this book is a study in how to be of the time and also timeless. It’s clearly a time before cell phones and the ubiquitousness of modern automobiles, but Laura’s identity as older sister and daughter speak to adolescent experiences that never change.

The story itself is simple. Laura, a high schooler, lives with her mother and little brother, rich only in love as they struggle to get by. One day, change comes fast and sudden - she wakes up with an awful premonition, her brother is marked by a sinister shop keeper, and her mother is head over heels for a customer from the bookshop. In the midst of sinister forces and emotions she doesn’t understand, she turns to Sorry Carlisle for help, for though he’s a witch (she wasn’t told, from a glance she just knew) he has a way of seeing the truth of things, no matter how ugly. This sets Laura on a path to confronting her own power, otherworldly creatures, newfound rage and attraction, and complicated, long-buried feelings toward her parents.

Honestly, the synopsis doesn’t leave much to surprise. Her brother Jacko needs help; Laura becomes a witch to save him. But it’s the art of the telling that makes the story. Descriptions are vivid, haunting, surreal. Dreams blur into reality.. This is for the readers who love words more than the destination. And although I’m definitely one of them, I enjoyed the mystery and build up more than the end.

There are some bits that are oddly jarring, if one forgets this was written decades ago. For example, one character secretly takes photos of a girl to hang on his wall. For shame, we say, surely the modern era does much worse with digital media and the internet erasing privacy. But while that’s true, I think we also frown upon less-than-stalkerish/voyeuristic actions more than ever, because there is so much opportunity. All that to say, a few characters might raise red flags that weren’t intended. (At other times, the near-horror elements are certainly intended to be skin-crawling).

All things considered, this was an excellent first taste of Margaret Mahy, with hints of gothic horror and the YA coming of age stories we know today.