The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith - OPTIONAL

The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith, 448 pgs. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021. $20

Language: PG-13 (19 swears, no ‘f’); Mature Content: PG-13 (under-age alcohol use); Violence: R (attempted rape, mutilple murders both on and off page, on-page mutilation of a corpse, mention of mutilation of corpses, recounting of episodes of domestic violence)

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

 

Frances is a 17yo seamstress surviving in 1911 New York City. She is mourning the loss of her brother who was murdered and has vowed to discover what happened to him. One fateful night, everything changes when a man attacks her and ends up dead. Even though they are her scissors that are stuck in his neck, Frances can find no rational way to explain what happened. Certain she will be condemned for murder a panicked Frances is saved when two nurses suddenly show up and declare that she is seriously ill and must leave with them immediately. Stunned Frances finds herself hustled off to a sanatorium for victims of tuberculosis. Once there, in the midst of her insisting she is not infected, she is informed that she is now enrolled in Haxahaven, school for magically inclined women.

New York in the early 20th century is the setting for a magical realism story, however, characters, and the magic system are underdeveloped. While Frances is put forward as a “chosen one”, what she is capable of and what that means for the world in which this book exists is never clear. Readers will become bogged down in a book with too many causes (women’s rights, white treatment of indigenous people, rich vs poor, industrial working conditions) that are never explored with a plot twist that is obvious from the beginning. In its favor, the characters as they are presented are likable and the historical aspect is in keeping with the time with few perceived historical inaccuracies. The main characters are white except for one who is Native American.

Reviewer: AEB