THE HEX WITCH OF SELDOM

by Nancy Springer ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1988

Another well-tuned fantasy from the author of Wings of Flame (1985) and Chains of Gold (1986), this one set in the here-and-now. Young Bobbi Yandro has psychic powers, though she doesn't know them for what they are; she's troubled by a misty visitation that seems to be the ghost of her father (he was killed in Vietnam), and another more frightening apparition that sometimes hangs above her stern but kindly grandfather (""Pap""), with whom she lives. For her birthday, she chooses a horse: a wild, black, blue-eyed, oddly intelligent creature that is clearly more than he appears. When Pap proposes to geld the horse, Shane, Bobbi flees. Eventually, Bobbi and Shane--a man driven into horse form by a lover's betrayal --arrive at the house of the witch Hazel, ""Aunt Witchie."" There Bobbi learns of the Circle of Twelve, demiurges inherent in the human psyche; Shane is one, Aunt Witchie is another, as is Bobbi--and their enemy is the Trickster, who wishes to destroy Shane, take Bobbi, and claim supreme power for himself. The approaching showdown--it involves Dad's ghost, Pap as a dragon, and Bobbi's mad mother, who thinks she's Scarlett O'Hara--is an imaginative one, fast-paced and well thought-out. Nimble and quite charming if featherweight work, with lots of YA appeal.

Pub Date: March 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Baen--dist. by Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION