Season of the Witch

Starred review from August 26, 2013
Fredericks (The Girl in the Park) delivers an intense but hopeful tale of bullying, revenge, and grief. The summer before junior year, narrator Toni Thurman had a fling with Oliver, who was “kind of taking a break” from his relationship with his girlfriend, Chloe. After Oliver and Chloe get back together, Chloe and her friends launch a terrifying assault against Toni, starting with text messages, rumors, and threats, and culminating in a physical attack. As Chloe’s campaign spreads across the school, Toni’s response is a believable mix of bravado, sadness, and terror. Unable to stop the attacks, Toni connects with Cassandra, who has found power and comfort from her own problems in witchcraft. When the girls’ revenge spells seem to work—with tragic consequences—Toni tries to find a way to heal the damage. While the ending comes a bit too easily for such a complex story, Fredericks again proves her gift for conveying the intensity of adolescence, while exploring the ways girls’ sexuality is used against them and asking why “we all have to be predators and prey.” Ages 14–up. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

September 1, 2013
A teenager worries that a spell she cast against a school bully will have serious consequences in this intriguing psychological thriller by the author of The Girl in the Park (2012). High school junior Toni isn't looking forward to the first day of school. Popular Chloe is furious at Toni for making out with her boyfriend while they were split up and is sending her threatening texts. In addition, Toni's parents are struggling to recover from her father's affair with his graduate assistant. Worried and alone, Toni reaches out to Cassie, her best friend Ella's cousin, who is also suffering due to the recent death of her younger brother. Cassie tells Toni she's a witch and can help her punish Chloe. Toni plays along, but when tragedy strikes the same night they hex Chloe, Toni is terrified the magic actually worked. She avoids Cassie until Cassie threatens to cast a spell on Ella for insinuating to their family that she had something to do with her brother's death. Toni must broker a peace between the cousins while also learning how to be a better friend to both through nonmagical means. What seems at first to be a supernatural thriller is actually a realistic and frank treatise on karma and the redeeming power of female friendship. Fredericks displays an insider's knowledge of dramatic adolescent interactions through unaffected prose and dialogue-heavy chapters that make the pages fly. A refreshing take on the mean-girl trope. (Fiction. 13-16)

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September 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-High school junior Toni is completely ready to forget her ill-fated summer fling with Oliver, but unfortunately, his girlfriend, Chloe, has other plans, marshalling her minions to make Toni's life miserable. Like Laura with her glass menagerie, self-conscious Toni indulges in a bit of magical thinking, arranging and rearranging her glass figurines at home for the luckiest configuration to help her get through the school day. Toni's overweight best friend, Ella, returns from her summer at "fat camp" with shocking news-her cousin Cassandra is transferring to their school after the death of her autistic younger brother. Cassandra soon befriends Toni with the promise of exacting revenge on Chloe using witchcraft. Interestingly, the possibility of witchcraft or psychic ability is left open; while in all probability the girls simply imagine themselves to have special abilities, readers never really know for sure. This darkly honest look at bullying, high school cliques, and teen drama amid family tragedy will have readers glued to the page for every last unexpected plot twist and turn.-Madigan McGillicuddy, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, Atlanta, GA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013
Grades 7-12 All is not well at New York's elite DeKalb Community School. Toni's bte noire, Chloe, is on a rampage, seeking revenge for Toni's having dated her hapless boyfriend, Oliver. Tired of being bullied, Toni turns to her mysterious new friend, Cassandra, for help. Consulting her Book of Shadows, Cassandra offers that help in an unlikely form: a witch's spell targeting Oliver, whohaving failed to speak up in Toni's defenseis rendered mute for a week. Pleased by their success, the two girls decide to cast a more powerful spell against the vengeful Chloe, but this time, the results are tragic. Toni is left riddled with guilt and horrified when Cassandra then decides to turn her destructive talents toward others. Can Toni stop her? Is Cassandra a witch? Does she have evil powers? Fredericks' reader-pleasing new novel is a page-turning, well-realized horror story of revenge gone awry and the possibility of finding redemption in the power of goodness.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
Toni's ill-advised but inconsequential fling results in bullying at school. She meets the weirdly intense Cass, who uses the occult to take revenge on her enemies. Toni and Cass bond over witchcraft, until things start to spiral out of control, making it clear that there's something more going on with Cass. Fredericks writes well, despite the overt lessons and unsubtle emotions of the characters.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)