Twilight Hauntings (Enchanter's Child #1)
by Angie Sage (Author)
Angie Sage, New York Times bestselling author of the Septimus Heap series, crafts a fantasy world where enchantment is illegal, Oracles knit octopuses, wizards run around in soggy underpants, and one girl is on a mission to save Enchantment and Enchanters, which might just save the kingdom.
Alex has a set of Enchanted cards. When she flutters her fingers above them, something magical happens: the cards come alive and create moving pictures of what is now and what is yet to come. But Enchantment is illegal in the city of Luma, and those who practice it are imprisoned forever in the Vaults--dark dungeons deep below the city. When Alex is betrayed by her foster sister Zerra, she knows she is in great danger. With the help of her little foster brother, Louie, she makes a daring escape. But Alex discovers she is not safe outside Luma either. Here lurk deadly Hauntings that seek out those who practice magic: Enchanters and their children. The Hauntings take many forms and Alex is hunted by a giant bird of prey, the Hawke, a murderous Night Wraith called the Grey Walker, and the eerie Xin.
But why do the Hauntings haunt Alex? Alex doesn't believe she's an Enchanter's Child, but she has no idea who her parents are. Her precious Enchanted cards are her only clue to her true identity, and she becomes determined to find out who she is. And, while she is at it, to get rid of the deadly Twilight Hauntings forever.
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School Library Journal
Gr 4-7--Sage kicks off the first book in her "Enchanter's Child" duology with a prologue that describes how the King's Enchanter gave up his baby daughter to an unknown woman in order to save her. Ten years later in the city of Luma, Alex knows nothing of her true parents; only the drudgery of doing household chores while her stepmother and foster sisters boss her around. She does have two comforts--her younger brother Louie and her hexagonal cards that can foretell the future. But Luma has banned magic and when one sister betrays her to the Sentinels, Alex and Louie must flee. They escape to a forest but are pursued by deadly Twilight Hauntings including river snakes, stinging butterflies, a giant Hawke, and the suffocating Gray Walker. Meanwhile, the ex-Enchanter Hagos Ravenstarr forms an alliance with the Hawke's former Flyer, Danny. They start searching for the magical items needed to destroy the Hauntings; the same quest Alex also undertakes. Sage has built a fully realized world populated by intriguing characters and terrifying monsters. She skillfully builds tension using plot twists that include friendship and betrayal, good intentions and misunderstandings, fearsome attacks and daring escapes, and family dramas of various sorts. VERDICT Fans of fantasy and adventure will snap this up and eagerly await the sequel. A first purchase.--Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT
Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Publishers Weekly
In this fast-paced fantasy, first in a duology, Sage (the Septimus Heap series) weaves an engaging tale of constant danger and capricious magic. When Alex, 11, an Enchanter, is betrayed by her foster sister for the crime of possessing Enchanted cards, she's forced to flee Luma for her life with foster brother Louie in tow. Now they must survive in a land where Enchanters and their works are illegal, and terrifying creatures called Hauntings hunt them at every turn. Determined to fight back against the system that imprisoned her birth parents, Alex goes in search of clues to her identity. Meanwhile, Danny Dark, a young man responsible for hunting down Enchanters, has a change of heart and partners with the King's former Enchanter, who's also determined to stop this persecution. Sage's world is inventive and weird, featuring creatures such as the enormous Enchanter-hunting Hawke and the talkative pokkle (a parrot/gecko mix). Following multiple viewpoints, including those of Alex, Danny, and a goat named Howard, the overlapping, interweaving narrative allows for a panoramic experience with an almost madcap intensity. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)
Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
"Fantasy fans will highly anticipate the next steps in Alex's journey in the projected sequel of the Enchanter's Child duology." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
JUV001000 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure
JUV013050 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Orphans & Foster Homes
Magic
Orphans
Fantasy
Identity (Philosophical concept)
Foster children
