The Price Guide To The Occult by Leslye Walton
Candlewick Press, 2018. ISBN 9780763791103
(Age: 15+) Themes: Supernatural, Fantasy, Rivalry, Black Magic, Dark
arts, Self harm. Seventeen year old Nor is the eighth generation of
Blackburn women on Anathema Island off north west Canada. The first
Blackburn woman, Rona, an extraordinary witch, had an affair with
one of the original eight settlers, and he and his friends try to
burn her out. But she escapes, bringing into the world her daughter,
the second in the line of witches. Each generation has weakened
powers and Nor, not wanting any part of it, is aware that her Burden
when it comes in her pre teens is more powerful than she expected.
But she is torn, and this is manifested in her self harm. Scars
ravage her arms and chest and all knives are secured in the house
where she lives with her grandmother. One day she discovers a book
"The Price Guide to the Occult", written by her mother, Fern,
delineating how much people can pay for her spells, some spurious
but others part of the heritage of the family. Fern abandoned her
daughter after using her blood for her own ends resulting in Nor's
first scars.
But the self serving woman has returned, and the animals and plants
that Nor can understand warn her, the island feels different and Nor
knows that the spells her mother sells can only mean one thing, that
the price is not money but blood and death. Fern is now a Black
Witch accessing the darker side, negligent of the results. Nor must
stop her.
Back home after a run, she feels apprehensive and finds her mother
in the kitchen. A power struggle ensues, Fern testing just how much
power her daughter now has, Nor trying vainly to curb the damage the
woman is doing to others in the house.
A cat and mouse game to the death ensues, with enough supernatural
touches to keep an intrepid reader hooked to the end. It is dark and
bloody, and some readers may find it hard to read, especially those
parts where Nor talks about her self harm.
The author includes an afterword about self harm, offering help from
organisations which readers can contact.
This is a book for the older reader.
Fran Knight