Book Review: Spellbinding

Author: Maya Gold
Publication Date: April 1, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic Point

There's more than one way to be powerful . . .

It is during a routine school project that Abby Silva--sixteen and nearly friendless--makes a startling discovery: She is descended from women who were accused of witchcraft back in 1600s Salem. And when Abby visits nearby Salem, strange, inexplicable events start to unfold. Objects move when she wills them to. Candles burst into sudden flame. And an ancient spellbook somehow winds up in her possession.

Trying to harness her newfound power, Abby concocts a love potion to win over her longtime crush--and exact revenge upon his cruel, bullying girlfriend. But old magic is not to be trifled with. Soon, Abby is thrust headlong into a world of hexes, secrets, and danger. And then there's Rem Anders, the beautiful, mysterious Salem boy who seems to know more about Abby than he first lets on.

A reckoning is coming, and Abby will have to make sense of her history--and her heart--before she can face the powerful truth.

I bolt upright, wide-eyed and gasping. I try to shake that vision out of my head. I’m not at the bottom of a dark pond, unable to get to the surface, lungs ready to burst. I’m on a bright yellow school bus, which has just parked outside my other nightmare, Ipswich High School. This is real life, hello.

 

February 29. The date sends a chill up my spine. My mother was born on Leap Day. When I was little, I thought it was terribly sad that her birthday came only once every four years, but she reassured me that it was a blessing: She’d never get old.

 

Dad stands up, grabbing his coach jacket off a hook. “Nope. But one of her great-uncles took me aside at our wedding and said, ‘Joe, your bride may be lovely, but she’s got witch blood. They were hanging her people at Salem.’”

 

I’m staring, too, but not at the mess on the table or even at Dad’s slightly soggy new girlfriend. Like lightning. Her words echo inside my brain, backed by the same heart pounding, adrenaline drumbeat I felt when that red traffic cone moved yesterday morning. Did I make that happen?

 

“Does that mean Abby’s a witch?” Samson Hobby calls out. I feel my insides freeze as I think about Danielle’s sleeve catching fire last night. About everything that happened over the very strange weekend.

Ever since I was a kid I have loved everything about witches. I became obsessed with the television called Charmed, and read tons and tons of stories pertaining to witches and the Salem Witch Trials. I was so addicted that my mom became a little nervous! There are just certain events in history that I will read anything and everything ever written about them, fictional or non-fictional. I’m sure you can just imagine my facial expressions when I receive books like this one in the mail! I especially love stories about new witches that are just starting to come into their powers. Abby Silva has just traced her family history back to the Salem Witch Trials and all of a sudden strange and unexplainable things start happening to her. Just put yourself in Abby’s shoes; Two extremely gorgeous boys, one who may already know she is a witch, finding out that your mother descended from a line of witches, and doing all this while trying to go to high school! Let’s just say Abby’s life is about to change drastically.

 

Of course my favorite part of this book was the witchcraft and the link to the Salem Witch Trials. I would like to say that I wish there would have been more of that and less of the romance added in. I did enjoy this book and found myself constantly going back and reading the “witchy” parts. The historical side of this novel was written well and Maya Gold, the author, definitely knows how to draw readers in with historical facts and suspense. Some authors make this part of books too boring, but with Maya this part was my favorite. I loved the fact that Salem was the dominant setting and as I said before, I wish that Maya would have spent more time exploring its haunted streets.

 

Abby was the perfect voice to guide me through this book. I loved how I could sense that she had a huge inside struggle with her self esteem, and I loved watching her newfound witchy skills draw her closer to her deceased mother. I also loved Rem Anders, who shortly after the first few chapters becomes the new eye candy in Abby’s life. Rem was so mysterious and dreamy. He had this odd connection with Abby from the first time they met. He is able to telecommunicate with her, and I have to be honest I just thought it was the neatest characteristic to add to their relationship.

 

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Scholastic Point in exchange for an honest review***