Haunting the Deep

September 1, 2017

Gr 7 Up-Ghosts, witchcraft, the Titanic, and supernatural romance churn together in this elaborate but entertaining sequel to How To Hang a Witch. After surviving a deadly curse during the first part of her school year at Salem High School, 15-year-old Samantha Mather is ready to put drama behind her and focus on spending time with her father who recently awoke from a coma. It doesn't take long, however, for a new curse to reveal itself when Sam experiences a series of realistic dreams where she is a passenger on the Titanic. Dreams mingle with reality; her high school's dance theme happens to be the Titanic, and a series of terrifying events involving the ghost of a drowned man and the appearance of unexplained artifacts from the ship mar her waking life. The Descendants (a group of classmates who are descended from the hanged Salem witches) have evolved from enemies to close friends, and work closely with Sam to understand the magic behind the curse while testing increasingly complicated spells of their own. Jaxon, Sam's too-good-to-be-true neighbor and would-be love interest is also back, along with Elijah, the sexy 17th-century ghost and object of Sam's affection. Although the plot feels unwieldy at times with too many details and characters to keep track of, Mather's writing style is highly accessible and addictive. Descriptions of spell-casting and the possession of magical powers are intriguing but beg for more world-building details. Fans of Libba Bray's The Diviners and Maureen Johnson's "Shades of London" series will love this title. VERDICT A great addition to collections where supernatural thrillers are popular.-Kristy Pasquariello, Wellesley Free Library, MA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2017
Cotton Mather's umpty-great-granddaughters are back, this time with a Titanic mystery. Following the events of How to Hang a Witch (2016), narrator Sam Mather is settling into life in Salem, Massachusetts. Her dad has recovered from his coma, her best friend, the town baker's son, lives next door, and she's found a community with the Descendants--young black-clad women descended from innocents accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials who, rather illogically, practice actual witchcraft. A school project on the Titanic triggers a new round of paranormal distress, and Sam finds herself pulled back in time to the doomed ship via her connection to a distant relative who was a survivor. BFF Jaxon suddenly starts acting distant, as if he's bespelled, and her dad, concerned about the influence of witchcraft on Sam, suddenly threatens to move away from Salem. Elijah, the hot Puritan ghost Sam fell for in the previous book, has found a paranormal loophole and is now able to visit Sam again. And then there's Matt, the new British student at school, whose cockney accent is reproduced with many distracting apostrophes. Author Mather's ingredients make little sense, contrived in order to get Sam and readers onto the Titanic, but those who decide to hang their disbelief high will find that the scenes on the storied liner are effective in spite of the clumsy plotting. The primary cast is a white one. A jumble. (Paranormal suspense. 12-16)

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