Wow. This packed way more of a punch than I was expecting! Moth is a 13 year-old girl growing up in a coastal town in Massachusetts. She feels kind of out of place and doesn’t really have any friends, but she goes along with life anyway. When learning about the witch hunts that took place in town in the late 1600’s, something strange happens to Moth. Running home to tell her mother, she learns that she is from a family of witches! Moth wants to learn as much as she can, but her mother forbids it. You can guess how well that goes.
Moth is a person of color, which is awesome. The characters come in a variety of shades and ethnicities and sizes. We also have a gay couple that is seen as sweet and does not slap the inclusion of LGBTQ+ in your face, which is appreciated. (Including an LGBTQ+ character in a story just to tick off a box is not great, nor is pointing a big blinking neon arrow at it saying “Look at what I put in my story!” Making it a plot point and/or completely normal is the way to go, as far as I’m concerned!) We also see some effects of single parenting.
The story goes along and feels pretty light, and then we get some more intense plot. And then we get some real intense plot that I was not expecting! And feels! Some scenes feel a little Sabrina-ish, but that is totally okay. (Like a mixture of the tv show and the Netflix series, but without the devil bits.) There are some things that are a little tropey, but that’s also okay. Some tropes are there because they made good stories! (And especially for juvenile materials, because maybe the reader hasn’t encountered those tropes yet!) The artwork is awesome! And there are some characters who I feel like I’ve seen them before, mainly the play director. I don’t know if this is a stand-alone or part of a new series, but it works either way, and I look forward to more from this author!
I was given an advanced copy of this title via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This title will be published on September 3, 2019.