Life Stealer

December 15, 2016
A series of frightening waking dreams entangles trainee witch Clara Ash in a "soul tangle" with a life-destroying revenant. As the third of a four-part series, the story doesn't stand all that well on its own despite the Danish author's efforts to fill in background events and details. Still unsure of her witchly vocation and of her magical skills, Clara is terrified by visions of a growing patch of death in the forest. When the dark force that is killing trees and small animals reaches through to her during a confrontation with a bully, she fuses with it--and involuntarily leaves him mauled and comatose. Alarmed, her wildwitch mentors send her on a quest to track that force down. Said quest leads to a straight-laced academy for witches and then on a winding trail to a (seemingly) final confrontation with a vengeful nemesis she had defeated in a previous episode. In scattered ink drawings Eason mixes glimpses of an all-white human cast with views of Clara's outsized feline "wildfriend" Cat and other naturalistically rendered creatures both magical and mundane. The continuing themes, characters, and relationships probably won't leave new readers completely lost in the woods, but they do make it advisable to start at the beginning. A worthy series outing for fans. (Fantasy. 11-13)

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