INTO MISTY RUSE

In this debut middle-grade novel, a tween gets caught in a dangerous situation involving a magical world.

Ever since magic returned with the Big Boom nearly 40 years ago, the continent of Harmonycan has never been the same. Magic is illegal, a government agency called FAHLT executes its users, and the world of anthropomorphic, animal-like biests is strictly separate and hidden from human society. It’s in the settlement of Hope Town that Zyk, a 12-year-old boy with a missing father, yearns to study the nature of magic: “It’s not enough to just read about them in FAHLT dispatches. I want to learn more about magical stuff for real.” During a covert investigation of a feroxcat sighting in the nearby forest, Zyk stumbles across a magical villain called Blight attacking a catlike biest named Pitch. Zyk takes the hit instead and blacks out, only to wake up in Misty Ruse, the biests’ community outside Hope Town. He discovers that he’s been cursed by Blight and can’t leave Misty Ruse. Fortunately, the biests turn out to be a welcoming group of many different kinds of species with varying abilities. Despite his concern for his mother back home, Zyk is excited to learn magic and make new friends while he remains in Misty Ruse. His cousin Eva soon joins him and, together with Pitch, they must not only experience the rites of passage of growing up magical, but also resist Blight’s continued attacks on the community. While much of the novel is simply focused on Zyk struggling to adapt to his new education and lessons about Misty Ruse, it doesn’t feel slow or poorly paced. Instead, readers will discover the wonders of this world alongside him. The occasional illustrations do break the effect, as their highly edited nature and lack of proper lighting make them confusing and off-putting. Still, Growler’s enjoyable fantasy series opener provides the magic school genre with some original twists in its vivid introduction of the biests.

An entertaining fantasy for readers interested in magic and science.