SUCH A WITCH

A magical, murderous take on Clueless.

Embry Woodcross, who has blue eyes and curly blond hair, is the queen bee at Raven’s Head School for the Magically Gifted. There, Embry works hard to make potions to help her fellow students, as well as playing matchmaker whenever possible. When a new student, “petite and pale” platinum blond vampire Oakley Riddle enrolls in senior year, Embry is instantly intrigued. The work Embry and her best friend, Amethyst Oberon, who’s also a senior prefect, put into making Oakley an it girl comes to a screeching halt when Oakley is found murdered—and Embry is the prime suspect. Suspended from school, Embry turns to the (literal) boy next door, blond, green-eyed Rye Knighton, for help clearing her name. In addition to the many elements that closely follow beats from the film Clueless, Henning’s magical world, in which all sorts of magical creatures from werewolves to zombies to selkies attend a magical school, will feel familiar to fans of the show Wednesday. The writing is fluid, the banter among the friends is fun, and the mystery surrounding Oakley’s death and Embry’s potential involvement make for a good story. There’s some racial diversity among the supporting cast members, including Ames, who has curly black hair and “flawless dark brown skin.”

A quirky, witchy murder mystery.