Sweep: Book of Shadows
The Sweep series, Book 1
Cate Tiernan
Puffin
Fiction, YA Fantasy
Themes: Occult, Religious Themes, Witches
****
Description
Morgan is a misfit in her junior year of high school. She's lived in the small New England town of Widow's Vale all her life, but her friends are drifting
into different cliques, leaving her lonely and alone. Even her younger sister Mary K. has more of a social life than she does.
Then, he arrives.
His name is Cal, and he immediately steals Morgan's heart... and the hearts of half the girls in her school. It's not only his looks, though he certainly has
those in spades. There's just something special about him... something wild, something magical
Cal soon reveals himself as a practicing witch. He's about to shake up Widow's Vale, a small Catholic community, with his ancient and powerful religion. Morgan
finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into a world she never knew existed, but which seems to be calling her nonetheless.
Review
Early on, I was fairly sure that this was going to become a teen make-out book with Wicca as a backdrop. I was more or less proven wrong. Morgan's social, family, and personal struggles are well written, and nothing comes as easy as it might in other books. Still, I the fairly abrupt ending left me disenchanted. I knew this was the first in a series, but I was expecting more of a mytharc to be established before the conclusion. Instead, it's mostly about Morgan struggling to reconcile her growing interest in Wicca (and Cal) with her conservative upbringing and her own disapproving parents. At times, witchcraft was played more as an excuse for teenage rebellion than a religion, try as the book might to counter the view. Some of Cal's recruitment tactics, by which he forms his new coven, also rubbed me the wrong way - deceptive, almost smacking of a con artist or cult leader. Overall, though, this was fairly good, certainly better than I expected. I might read more in the series, but frankly the teen crushes and love triangles got a bit old to me. I also found it hard to believe that a modern teenager - even a Catholic teen from a small town - wouldn't recognize a pentagram when she sees one.