THE GLITTERING EDGE

An unlikely trio attempt to break a ruinous family curse in this fantasy debut.

Rising senior Penny Emberly keeps a low profile in her hometown of Idlewood, Indiana. She’s content with focusing on her mom, Anita, her best friend, and her cafe job. But everything changes when Anita has an accident that leaves her in a coma. Penny’s former crush, Corey Barrion, confesses that he believes her mother to be a victim of his family curse: Anyone a Barrion falls in love with will die—and his aunt has fallen for Anita. The curse is the fault of the Barrions’ rivals, the De Luca family; it seems that the rumors that they’re witches are true. Penny confronts “violent, volatile” Alonso De Luca, a striking goth classmate, and he eventually agrees to help find a way to break the curse. Thrown together, the three teens encounter setbacks as time runs out for Anita, and an ominous shadow figure appears. The third-person narration rotates among the three leads’ perspectives. Penny’s and Alonso’s characterizations ring true, but biracial Corey remains two-dimensional despite his family’s interesting dynamics—his mother is Cameroonian in an otherwise mostly white family (Penny and Alonso are cued white). Villaire does a good job with the magical lore, and the cliffhanger ending successfully sets up for a sequel, but a love triangle storyline feels extraneous, and some dialogue falls flat.

Filled with magical intrigue but ultimately casts an uneven spell.