VIVIAN VAN TASSEL AND THE SECRET OF MIDNIGHT LAKE

There’s a reason the popular role-playing game Beasts and Battlements originated in Midnight Lake, Wisconsin.

Twelve-year-old Vivian Van Tassel has extraordinary fencing skills, a short temper, a passion for Harry Potter books, and a dead mother—for which she blames herself. Moving to her mother’s hometown of Midnight Lake just exacerbates her negative feelings, as she endures bullies and nasty teachers at her new school. Still, despite insisting she doesn’t want friends, Vivian does gradually connect with four Beasts and Battlements gamers. Then, while doing a local history project, Vivian discovers unusual connections between B&B and Midnight Lake. Are the game beasts…real? She soon learns that vulturebears, leer spheres, and canimen belong to an “unholy alliance” fighting for Arborem, an ancient druid determined to eradicate humanity. Perhaps only Vivian, thanks to her mother’s special Silverthorn family heritage, can stop him. This fantasy adventure shines in Vivian’s struggle with grief and guilt and in its creatively crafted gaming elements. Following the prologue, though, active fantasy components disappear for many chapters, slowing the start, and some plot mechanisms feel contrived. As well, in our environmentally aware time, some readers might feel surprised to find a protective nature entity cast as the villain. Vivian and most human characters read White; one gamer is Black, and one has a Latine name.

This earnest but uneven fantasy will appeal most to role-playing–game fans.