Book Review: Book of Shadows, by Cate Tiernan

Book of Shadows by Cate Tiernan

Introduction
     So, I mentioned that there I had a story behind this book.  It was published in 2001, when I was about twelve.  That's around the time I first picked it up.  Book of Shadows is the first book in a series of fifteen books, called Sweep, all centering about a girl named Morgan and how she discovers herself through the religion of witchcraft, Wicca.  When I was twelve or thirteen, I discovered this series at my library and delved right in.  For some reason, maybe the later volumes of the series weren't at the library or maybe they hadn't even been written yet, I stopped reading Sweep halfway through and it became a distant memory.  In later years, I couldn't even remember the name of it.  Back then, this is what the book looked like:



     A bit different than the image up top, huh?  So imagine my astonishment when I recognized the first book for the same series I had abandoned in my pre-pubescent years!  I had seriously just been scanning the shelves at this bookstore, and that yellow book jumped out at me and I instantly knew what it was.  Not entirely unlike the way Morgan, or heroine, finds herself unnaturally pulled to Wicca.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

    I bought the book (which is actually the first three books in one volume) to see if my twelve-year-old self had good taste in reading.  For the record, I did.

The Rundown

Title: Book of Shadows

Author: Cate Tiernan

Number of Pages: 186

Genre: Supernatural

ISBN: 0141310464 (for Book of Shadows by itself) or 0142417173 (for the volume with the first three books, like I have)

Summary

     Morgan Rowlands was a very ordinary 16-year-old before the mysterious Cal Blaire moved to town.  She isn't gorgeous and feels outshone by her best friend, Bree, and her little sister, Mary K.  She constantly describes herself as 'ordinary.'  To be honest, the first few chapters seemed reminiscent of Twilight.  Of course, this was written before that, so it really isn't.  And it's better than Twilight, though I'll explore that a little later.  The two books just seem to parallel each other at first, with the self-conscious main character and the love interest that seems to be hiding something unnatural.

     Because Cal isn't what he seems.  He practices Wicca, an ancient religion that ties to witchcraft.  And Cal is looking to start a new coven, or group of witches, in his new town.  Some of the other kids laugh it off, but some seem genuinely interested, and Morgan in particular finds that the more she learns about Wicca, the less she can deny it is part of who she is, and she may be close to unlocking great power within herself.

Shelf Potential

3.5/5

     This is where I rate how interesting the book seems when I first pick it up.  The cover itself seems aged and simple, pretty on its own, but I don't think it would really stand out much on a shelf.  The summary on the back does a good job of inspiring interest in the plot, and the inside excerpt is of a scene that peaks that interest even more.  I guess the reason I gave this section a 3.5 was because I didn't pick up this book for any of those reasons.  I picked it up because I remembered it.

Plot Potential

4/5

     This section didn't get a 5 because the whole 'supernatural love story' is an old cliche.  Magic has also become a cliche.  But this book got a 4 because reading a novel centered around Wicca is something I've never done before.  The fact that this magic story rises from something that actually exists make Book of Shadows unique and new.

Overall Execution

4.5/5

Tiernan has a writing style that is pretty common in Young Adult novels.  It was easy to read and not distracting. I especially enjoyed her diction, the way she uses phrases like "my mom clucked" instead of "my mom said."  Such phrases were happy little distractions that set Tiernan apart from other YA novelists.

     On the other hand, there were some grammatical mistakes I noticed right off the bat.  Someone did not do a very good job editing this manuscript.  These were distracting at first, but after I started to get immersed in my reading, I stopped noticing them, which was good.  They only occurred sparsely.

    This book is written in first-person past tense, which is pretty typical, with our main character, Morgan, being our narrator.  Each chapter has a short quote about witchcraft at the beginning, from the late 17th to the 18th century.  These quotes are mostly ominous, warning about witches, which is an interesting contrast from the text itself, where Morgan is discovering the positivity Wicca has on her life.  I appreciated the fact that these quotes were relevant to the story, because so often when authors do this, the relevance is so cryptic it is often lost.

     The other unique thing at the beginning of each chapter is that some of them contain short paragraph-long entries from either Morgan's journal or Cal's Book of Shadows, the witches' equivalent to a journal.  These are nice because they add to the mystery as we wonder what Cal is referring to in his pieces.  We also get a quick peek in his head now and then.

     The last thing I want to touch on about the execution of this book is the unusual way they spell 'magic.'  It is spelled 'magick' here, because they want to separate the word from the kind of magic magicians do.  I remember when I was younger this distracted me, but I found that this time around I didn't mind it as much.

Character Development

3.5/5

Morgan- I really like Morgan, the main character.  At the beginning of the book, I couldn't help comparing he to Bella from Twilight because she kept stating how plain-looking she was.  But when Bella says these things I always kind of got the feeling she was just saying them to get sympathy points (Mary-Sue style).  When Morgan says she's normal, you can tell she actually believes it, but she tries not to let it bother her too much.  That already makes her a stronger character than Bella.

     Morgan goes through many emotional problems in this book.  She has to deal with her parents' disapproval of Wicca, while she is discovering Wicca is a large part of who she is.  So she's torn between being a good daughter and being true to herself.  She also has to deal with her feelings for Cal while her best friend, Bree, has feelings for him as well.  In Book of Shadows, all of Morgan's conflicts revolve around deciding where her loyalties lie.

Cal- I don't have too much to say about Cal's character because he hasn't really been developed yet.  By the end of Book of Shadows, he's still mysterious.  We know he believes in Wicca, but there are hints (not subtle ones) all over that he knows much more about it than he lets on.  However, he seems to be an open-minded individual who is accepting of all.  He uses his religion to bring together students of all different cliques, which surprises Morgan.  Cal is cryptic so far, but we still have fourteen more books to figure him out.

Bree- Morgan's best friend's character goes through dramatic changes in this book simply because the way Morgan perceives her is different by the end of the book.  At the beginning, Bree is the number one confidant in Morgans's life, but by the end, Morgan realizes the friend she thought she knew wasn't the best thing for her.  Hats off to Tiernan for using Morgan's perception of her friend change the dynamic of their relationship.

Everyone Else- Here is where Tiernan loses the point and a half.  Aside from Morgan's family members, everyone else in the book is quite unmemorable.  Over the course of the first chapter or so, Morgan's first few days of school, she names all her classmates (first and last names) and it's pretty overwhelming.  Am I going to have to remember all these people?  Even the eight other classmates who decide to join Cal's coven are pretty bland.  I really couldn't pin a personality to hardly any of them.  Yet they are always present at the Wiccan rituals, so won't they be even a little important?  A bit more development here would have been appreciated.

Age Group

13 and up

    I think I'm just saying this because I was originally around 13 when I read this, but there was some stuff in this book that I was surprised I read back then.  Morgan refers to the 'stoners' in school.  There's a skinny-dipping scene, although Morgan feels uncomfortable and refuses to participate, which I guess would make her a good role model for young girls.  Morgan has an aunt who is a lesbian.  There's even a reference to sex, although they call it "going to bed," so the reference may just go over some heads, like I suspect it did mine.  Nothing inappropriate really happens though.  The age of the main characters is 16, but I think this Book of Shadows could be understood by people younger than that.

Summary

Overall score: 3.875/5

    I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.  I wouldn't let the fifteen books in the series scare you off, because most of them are under 200 pages, like this one, and pretty easy reads.  I also wouldn't let the fact that it's centered around Wicca scare you off, either.  It was basically like learning about another religion while the other characters were learning about it, too.  And it's always good to broaden your horizons and learn new things.  If anyone is interested in borrowing Book of Shadows, just let me know and I'll lend it to you... after I finish the other two books in my volume, of course.  In case you are wondering, the next two books in Sweep are called The Coven and Blood Witch.  If you want to read something else by Cate Tiernan, she wrote another series called Balefire, apparently about two identical girls who meet by accident and have the same strange birthmark on their cheeks (don't ask me, that's all I know), and her newest work, Immortal Beloved, about... immortals, as far as I can tell.  Go to catetiernan.org for more information.

     I haven't decided which book in my Book Buffer I'm going to read next, but I promise to put out another review before too long.  One more thing, before I go.  I would appreciate any feedback on the review of this book, since it's my first.  Too lengthy?  Was there something more you'd like to know about?  Please let me know!

Things are a'changin!

So, I've decided to re-purpose this blog, just like you'd re-purpose an old chair to make it new and exciting and something people actually want to sit on.  Oooh, that metaphor kind of halfway fell apart at the end there.

Anyway!  I don't think my blog should be diary-style anymore.  All good blogs have a shtick. I need a shtick.  I have come up with one!

I'm going to re-do Paige's Leaf as a blog that reviews books.

I know.  I'm a genius.

You want to know how genius this idea is?  I don't even have to change the name of my blog.  It fits perfectly!

So, I've decided to do this because I like to read and I like to share what I read.  I think this will be a good thing.  I read mostly YA (Young Adult) novels because I think that they're more interesting and imaginative than OA (Old Adult) novels, although an OA might pop up once in a while.  The first book I will be reviewing is called "Book of Shadows" and it's the first book in the "Sweep" series by Cate Tiernan.

(***Note to self:  Research proper ways to grammar-tize book titles and series titles.  This will probably come in handy when it comes to your new book blog.  Also, if you ever decide to go by Caitlyn, your first name, change the spelling because, when shortening it, Cate is way cuter-looking than Cait.  Bleh.***)

I don't know how this book will be, because I haven't started reading it yet, but it does have a fun story behind it for me.  And whether it's good or not, you people will be hearing about it!  Here's a short synopsis:

"Morgan thinks witchcraft is laughable when her best friend Bree drags her to a meeting of the Cirrus Coven. But during a ceremony led by Cal, Morgan's long-time crush, Morgan feels a shock. Suddenly everything looks brighter, clearer. Morgan doesn't want to get involved with witchcraft-but she feels like witchcraft is choosing her. "

Yes, it's from back when Harry was huge and every book was about magic.  Oh well.  Should be fun.  The last thing I'd like to share with you is my Book Buffer.  These are the books I keep on my shelf so I can be sure I'm never out of something to read.  A buffer between what I'm reading now and reading nothing at all.  These are books you can expect to see reviews of in my blog in the upcoming months.  Here is a picture of my Book Buffer, as it looks right now:

"Oooo!"  "Aaaah!"  "Oh, my gosh, Paige, we are so excited about this new direction you are taking!"

I know.  I think it'll be epic.

Day 1- Dec 24- Ft. Lauterdale, FL

Greetings!  By the time you read this, I will be back in the United States, but right now, I am at sea.  Since I cannot get Internet connection in the middle of the ocean, I am writing these blog posts each day on the ship and I will upload them when I return.  Also, I will upload them in reverse order, so Day 1 will be first on my page, and Day 2 second, and so on, so you can easily start at the beginning.

Right now it's actually Day 2, but let me tell you what yesterday was like.

Becki and I woke up at 10:00, since we were supposed to leave my aunt's at 11:30.  We packed up our room and got dressed, then hung out until it was time to leave.  The harbor is about 45 minutes away from Aunt Jan's, so we played our DS's on the car ride.  Once we arrived, we got through the check-in process very quickly, since Aunt Jan and Uncle Stan had a suite, so we were able to skip all the lines.  We got on the ship almost at one, so we were right in time for the staterooms to open.  Becki and I found ours quickly and spent several minutes freaking out.

We were unaware that our room would have a balcony.  This was a huge surprise.  We were so excited.  We unpacked our backpacks, and followed with our suitcases, once they had been delivered.  Back home, I bought tiny Christmas trees and ornaments at Hobby Lobby, so Becki and I had fun decorating.  We also had a little wreath that we hung on our door with dental floss.

Then we decided we were hungry, so off to the buffet we went.  We tried not to eat too much, since we had dinner in a mere three hours.  After that, we went back to our stateroom to make our final phone calls before the ship left, but the stupid captain kept making noisy announcements about the upcoming muster station drill.  The drill, surprisingly, was far less painful than in previous years.  We were not required to bring our life jackets, and our muster station met in the roomy, air-conditioned theater.  It was pleasant.  We met up with some of our younger cousins during the drill and, after considering Becki's and my goofy behavior (It was boring, okay?  We had to entertain ourselves.) we decided that we needed little-kid wristbands like them, since, in the event of a real emergency, we would probably be unable to conduct ourselves in a fashion necessary to save our lives.

After the drill, we hurried to our balcony to watch the ship pull out of Ft. Lauderdale.  We enjoyed watching the ship sail and the sun set so much we had to scramble to get ready for dinner.  Once there, Becki and I both had chilled watermelon soup and I had Prime Rib and Becki had Fillet Mignon.  Her's tasted better, so she won the dinner for the night.  We had Chocolate Cherry cake for dessert.  During dinner, our cousin Aubrey got seasick and had to leave early, so we tried to convince our cousin Emmy, her roommate and companion, to come to the casino with us and Adam since she just turned 18 and it's legal to gamble at 18 over international waters.  She resisted at first, but once she discovered Aubrey was going to bed, she decided to join us.

So down to the casino we headed.  Blackjack is our game.  I started off with $24 and the minimum bet per hand was $6.  At the end of the night, I had $52 (after I had tipped our dealer $5) so that made me $28 richer.  Becki did extremely well, making about $100.  We had planned on going caroling, but the casino had taken up more time than planned, so we went to the 18-20+ Meet and Mingle that the ship had scheduled, but unfortunately no one else showed up.  We ended up taking Adam and Emmy back to our room, where we ordered room service and watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Then we got tired, so we sent them on their way, and so ended the first day of our cruise.

Day Two- Dec 25- At Sea

Merry Christmas!  Except it's not anymore, for you guys or for me.  For me, it is actually Day 3, but I'll check in and tell you about my Christmas anyway.

So yesterday we got an early start.  We got up at 7:30 and had breakfast sent to the room so we could go to the Christmas Interdenominational Service they had at 9.  After that we grabbed some coffee and some seats in the big atrium.  Santa was there handing out presents to the kids (looked like cruise blankets and tote bags... I know, exciting, right?  Some of the really little kids got small toys, but we couldn't see what they were.) so we stayed and watched for a while.  Then we took a quick peek at Aunt Jan and Uncle Stan before returning to our room to open gifts.

I got Becki a lot of stuff.  I felt bad for her because she didn't like leaving our parents on Christmas.  I got her a stocking full of little fun presents, and then my main gift was a joke: six calendars for 2011, each featuring her favorite TV/Movie etc. stuff.  She got a kick out of it.  We spent a good half hour looking at them all.  Then I got her present to me: a bottle of perfume that is my favorite Bath and Body Works scent.  Very thoughtful!  I love it.  Becki, however, overwhelmed by the number of gifts I got her, insisted we go down to the shops on board and find another Christmas present for me.  I should put in here that Becki had got me a very nice jewelry box picture thing for Christmas, but she gave it to me before we left on the cruise because it was too big to bring.  So the perfume wasn't the only thing; it was just the 'on the ship' gift for me.

 What Becki looks like in the morning.

 What Becki looks like in the morning when presents are involved.

She's showing off the necklace, not the boobs.

So we wandered the shops for a while and found a few necklaces I liked, but nothing I loved enough to buy.  We ate lunch, then retreated to our room.  The rest of the day was spent hanging out in the room playing games.  It was a lazy, relaxing Christmas, and I was glad to spend it with my sister.  Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.

It was a formal night, so I wore a black polka-dotty dress.  We had bought small gifts for all the kids (jewelery for the girls, DVD's for the boys) and that was good because we received small gifts from some of their parents.  For dinner, Becki got the traditional turkey, and I got the beef and veal.  I am proud to announce I that I won dinner that night.  For those of you keeping score, that's Becki-1, Paige-1.  After a quick shoe change (ugh, high heels) we joined Adam and Zach at the casino.  It was a quick night.  I started out with $24 on a $6 minimum bet table and swiftly lost it all, as did my companions.  It was especially disappointing because we didn't even get to play for very long.

Discouraged, Becki and I returned to our room and fell into depression.  We felt isolated from our aunt's family and we missed our own, especially because it was Christmas.  To cheer ourselves up, we went to the upper decks and participated in the Pets at Sea program, which was basically Build-a-Bear on a boat.  I made an elephant in a sailor outfit, which I named First Officer Trunkington.  Becki made a purple fuzzy monster that she named Darcy, from Pride and Prejudice, but the name fit.  Making furry new friends helped a little (even though it was a tad awkward because it was in the kid's club on the ship) but we were still sad, so we watched an episode of Buffy and  went to bed, certain that we would wake up feeling better in the morning.

Day Three- Dec 26- Labadee, Haiti

Ah, finally!  I am caught up on blog enteries.  I am actually writing this on Dec 26, so it should all be fresh in my mind, and maybe tomorrow I can slack a little.

Today was another early start.  We were set to land in Haiti at 7, so we set our alarm for 6:30.  Becki, ever the anti-morning person, took one step onto our balcony, decided Haiti wasn't interesting enough to be up this early for, and went back to bed.  I stayed up and watched them hook up the ship to the dock.  By the time I was done, room service had brought us breakfast, so Becki had to get up again.  We had originally planned on leaving the ship fairly soon, but decided to go back to sleep until 9.

By the time we finally got on dry land, it was HOT.  And humid.  And uncomfortable.  It sucked.  We walked down the pier and into the town square, which must have been a half a mile away, until we finally got to the shops.  Becki walked through the first one, which was in a building and had a relaxed atmosphere, and instantly decided Labadee had nothing more to offer us.  I, however, insisted we power on and at least look at the line of small shop booths further in the square.  The shopkeepers there were much more... traditional Central American businessman.  "Come, look in my shop, miss," "Come see, for you only one dollar!"  We didn't stop to check out most of them firstly because they were making us uncomfortable, and secondly because they all contained wood carvings, which Haiti is apparantly famous for, but what our ship's newsletter had warned us against purchasing because of seizure-inducing, wood-burrowing pests.  Huh.  We stopped back at the original building shop on our way back so I could buy a card to send to Will, then boarded the ship again.  All in all, we were only in Haiti for about an hour and a half.  Not much to see, not much to do, not too exciting.

By now we were covered in sweat and rushed to our room to grab our suits and head to the pool.  We had stupidly not brought our suits into port with us because we only planned on shopping; neither of us care for beaches, you see.  After cooling down in the pool, showering, and eating, we spent another quiet few hours in our room.  We left to watch us sail out.  Adam had found a place at the front of the ship that was elusive to get to, and therefore almost empty of other passengers.  After leaving the ship deck, Adam, Zachary, Beck and I went down to look at the ship's shops again.  There was a raffle, but unfortunately, we didn't win.  We hurried upstairs to get dressed for dinner, then went to the dining room.

Tonight was one of the nights the adults went to one of the onboard restaurants for dinner instead of eating with the rest of the general population, so Becki and I were recruited to watch three of the younger kids, the youngest being ten.  Since we all eat dinner at the same table anyway, the first half of our job was easy.  Becki got the lamb and I got the garlic roasted shrimp.  I won dinner again today.  Becki-1, Paige-2.  Our cousin Aubrey, age 16, brought a boy to the table, which was a huge mistake.  This boy wasn't very bright, so we messed with him for a while.  Becki told him to call her Mrs. M, and I made him try and guess my name.  His first guess was Jessica, which I told him was correct, and he believed me.  Aubrey was glaring at me like, 'stop messing this up for me.'  It was awesome.

After dinner we hung out with the kids until their parents came home.  Then we headed to the casino for another disappointing night.  I lost another $25 quickly at the blackjack table.  I also fed spare change into the quarter slots.  I broke off from Becki and Adam to watch the cruise's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire show.  I met up with Aunt Eileen and Uncle Allen and they bought me my first alcoholic drink this cruise, a mudslide.  Finally, I came back to the room and started writing this post.  I would just like to let Nicole know it is 12:41 AM and I've been eating french fries while typing this.  Unavailable at this hour through the ship's cafe's, but available through room service.  Score.