WITCH'S INHERITANCE

Home is where the trauma is when a magical crash course meets dark family history.

Recent Irvine, California, high school graduate Edelweiss “Edie” Birch seeks her inheritance: the Hart Creek, Maine, home of her estranged late maternal grandmother, Ludmilla Vovk. The pointy red-and-white structure out in the woods is a character unto itself, not least because it can grow chicken legs and move around like Baba Yaga’s house. Pale, red-haired Edie meets up with her aunt Darya and Darya’s student, Leander. The Vovk family came to America from Ukraine in the 1800s, bringing their “nature worship” traditions with them. They practice magic, including casting an annual spell that protects Hart Creek from menacing goblins. This task now falls on Edie’s shoulders, and she’d much rather offload the responsibility onto someone else. Edie and Leander, who has brown skin and Afro-textured hair, are young adults struggling with the weight of others’ expectations, although Edie’s are rooted in horrifying family secrets. Edie’s growth from passive avoidance to engaged action forms a satisfying character arc. The goblins, often depicted as silhouettes or bright, glaring eyes, turn out to be more than they seem. The color palette’s shifts—green and black during moments of menace and an intense flashback sequence in greens and reds against a black background—provide thrills amid the angst. References to Nathaniel Hawthorne and Stephen King are earned touchstones in Hender’s YA debut.

Atmospheric, well-realized, and terrifying.