Teen Fiction

Spellcaster

Name: Spellcaster
Author: Claudia Gray
ISBN: 9780061961205

by Claudia Gray

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Overview

When Nadia's family moves to Captive's Sound, she instantly realizes there's more to the place than meets the eye. Descended from witches, Nadia can sense that a spell has been cast over the tiny Rhode Island town—a sickness infecting everyone and everything in it. The magic at work is darker and more powerful than anything she's come across and has sunk its claws most deeply into Mateo . . . her rescuer, her friend, and the guy she yearns to get closer to even as he pushes her away.

Mateo has lived in Captive's Sound his entire life, shadowed by small-town gossip and his family's tormented past. Every generation, the local legends say, one member of the family goes mad, claiming to know the future before descending into insanity. When the strange dreams Mateo has been having of rescuing a beautiful girl from a car accident actually come true, he knows he's doomed.

Despite the forces pulling them apart, Nadia and Mateo must work together to break the chains of his terrible family curse, and to prevent a coming disaster that even now threatens the entire town, including Nadia's family, her newfound friends, and her own life. Shimmering with magic and mystery, New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray's new novel depicts a dark and unforgettable world of witches, curses, buried secrets, and star-crossed romance.

About the Author, Claudia Gray

Claudia Gray

Claudia Gray is the pseudonym of New York-based writer Amy Vincent. She has worked as a lawyer, a journalist, a disc jockey, and an extremely poor waitress. Her lifelong interests in old houses, classic movies, vintage style, and history all played a part in creating the world of Evernight.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

High school senior Nadia Caldani is both the new girl in Captive’s Sound and a powerful novice witch. Her father moved what’s left of their family from Chicago to the depressed Rhode Island beach town after Nadia’s mother, who is also a witch, deserted them. A near-tragic car accident sets in motion Nadia’s relationship with the handsome but cursed Mateo Perez, and also alerts her witch sense that something strange lurks underneath Captive’s Sound. Enter Verlaine, another outsider who quickly becomes Nadia’s best friend, and Elizabeth Pike, an outwardly perfect girl who has her eye on Mateo. While Gray (the Evernight series) relies on a few too many paranormal clichés (two car-accident rescues, an overly broody star-crossed romance), she does a fine job of developing the good and evil witches around which her plot is built. The author’s intricate portrayal of witchcraft—including its theories, rules, spells, and history—raises this novel a notch above others in the genre, and Nadia is an appealing heroine as she juggles personal pain and looming supernatural disaster. Ages 13–up. Agent: Diana Fox, Fox Literary. (Mar.)

Kiersten White

"SPELLCASTER is a whipsmart read, sinister and delightful at once."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"…this is a compelling plot that mines the lore and history surrounding witchcraft to pit good against evil in a literally earthshaking battle."

Kirkus Reviews

Three wounded but valiant protagonists confront a monstrous evil with human roots in this promising series opener. Nadia's mother's abrupt departure left her family bereft and her training in the Craft unfinished. In Captive's Sound, the New England village where Nadia moves with her dad and little brother to make a fresh start, evil has had 400 years to grow. Too late to avert the car crash that coincides with their arrival in town, Nadia's rescued by Mateo, the mysterious local boy whose prophetic dreams foretold the crash. His dreams arise from the ancient family curse that prompted his mother's suicide. Breaking a central rule of the Craft, Nadia confides in Verlaine, the odd social outcast who caught her working magic; a tentative friendship develops. With Mateo's family history well-known, his only friends were Elizabeth, a beautiful, longtime ally, and Gage, a new boy in town. Now a supernatural bond strengthens Nadia and Mateo's mutual attraction. Determined to lift the curse, Nadia's horrified by what she discovers—her antagonist could easily defeat a fully trained witch. Rooted in unswerving devotion, this evil was chosen. Yet knowing it didn't have to be this way only makes it scarier. Gray switches the third-person narrative viewpoint among four compelling characters, keeping readers glued to the page. This riveting tale will keep readers up late and clamoring for the next installment. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)