Edie in Between

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.