November 7, 2022
The Craft gets a Gen Z update in Thomas’s uneven contemporary fantasy debut, the first in the Language of Magic series. Anna Everdell, 16, has lived with her abusive aunt Vivienne ever since her father killed her mother and then himself in a crime of passion. Vivienne, who believes magic is sinful, wants Anna to become a Binder like her, a witch who ties up her magic in a knotted cord that will strangle the wearer if she tries to use it. But when new-girl-at-school Effie invites Anna to join her coven, social “nobody” Anna can’t resist having friends for the first time. The coven fractures, however, when a curse against the school’s mean-girl clique goes too far, and secrets from Anna’s and Effie’s pasts threaten their futures. While the different types of witchcraft are fascinating, the prose is uneven, and the plot drags in the school sections. The ending is especially frustrating, leaving so many mysteries unsolved that it reads less like a cliffhanger and more like Thomas just stopped writing. It will successfully get readers invested in book two, but at a steep cost to the present volume. Still, Thomas’s dark supernatural teen drama has promise. Readers will hope she finds surer footing in the next installment.
January 1, 2023
Debut author Thomas builds a magical London subculture that sweeps the reader into its complexities via Anna, an orphan who lives with her aunt and goes to a normal school. Her aunt belongs to a group called the Binders, who believe that magic is a sin. When a magic-holder comes of age, the Binders do something to remove their magic. Anna, whose parents died because of magic, is waiting for this day to come. Her aunt controls her so intensely that she isn't able to see beyond her upcoming binding. But Anna is in for some surprises. Other witches at her school reach out to her to form a coven, and as someone who does not really have anyone in the world who cares about her, she is pulled in. Anna's coven is full of witches with differing opinions about their powers and their place in their community. They add a depth to the story and the book that readers will find compelling. The Language of Magic series is off to an engaging and fantastic start.
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