Book of Shadows

September 1, 2017
Melanie and her high school friends unleash sinister forces when they turn her private journal into a book of magic spells. Mel Vong has a bit of an anger management problem. She hopes keeping a diary will ease the pressures of attending her high school, where nearly everyone belongs to the local megachurch. The ultraconservative teens and their parents believe that Mel's best friend, Lara, a Wiccan, is a pawn of the Devil. At a used bookshop, Mel finds the perfect journal: a black, leather-bound book with creepy gold designs on the cover. When Mel is unable to write ordinary thoughts in such an extraordinary book, Lara suggests she use the journal as a magical spell book, a Book of Shadows. So along with Lara's boyfriend, Caleb, and his friend Lucas, the girls write spells inside the book. (Mel's surname implies she's Asian-American; Lucas is African-American, and the other characters are white.) All's well until new spells appear in handwriting none of them recognize. Soon, the teens are up against deadly forces that threaten their whole town. The story is told through Mel's digital journal, convincing in its narrative gaps and laced with profanity, and the Book of Shadows; both are now in the hands of "Montague Verano," a putative scholar of the paranormal. Mel's story, the third in the Diary of a Haunting series, is dark, chilling, and suspenseful. Ancient evil and modern-day mayhem collide in this explosive twist on the demon-possession tale. (Horror. 14-18)

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