Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Hexed: The Sisters of Witchdown - Michael Alan Nelson

Hexed: The Sisters of Witchdown
Michael Alan Nelson
Pyr, May 5 2015, $14.99
ISBN: 9781633880566

Gina and her friends sneak into the abandoned Worcester House, but she is the only one to see the woman’s reflection in the mirror.  Freaked out, a terrorized Gina runs home and turns on every light in her home.  Her boyfriend David calls trying to calm her down; and soon afterward her father the cop comes home and realizing her agitation tries likewise.  Her dad becomes distracted when he thinks he fleetingly sees a person inside their house, but on further inspection finds no one; unaware that Gina will see her too when it is too late.  The woman in the mirror yanks Gina into the looking glass.

Gina’s desperate dad Buck Pierce knows whatever happened to his daughter was not a normal kidnapping as she inexplicably was abducted under his nose in their home.  He pleads with underage teen thief Luci Jenifer Inacio das Neves, better known as Lucifer, to rescue his child.  With David and the other Worcester visitors getting underfoot while trying to help, Lucifer investigates the abnormal abduction.  The clues lead to the Seven Sisters of Witchdown who plan ritually to sacrifice their “guest”.

Targeting middle and younger high school students, Michael Alan Nelson’s transforms his excellent comic book series (published by Boom! Studios with Dan Mora as the artist) into an exhilarating urban fantasy novel.  The key is the strong characters especially the heroine (i.e., underage for tattoo removal w/o parental permission) who bring enough realism that readers of all ages will anticipate the confrontation between the good (Lucifer), the Bad (witches) and the stupid (victim’s family and friends foolishly in the way).


Harriet Klausner

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