Monday, October 26, 2015

Trick and Treat 3: The Student Witch by Lyka Bloom

Good news for those of you who haven’t read the first two Trick and Treat stories – neither have I, and that did not lessen my enjoyment here one bit!

As concepts go, it is a simple one, but that simplicity is what makes it so wide-open for subsequent annual instalments. Here we have a dilapidated old mansion, long rumored to be haunted, and thought to be home to the mysterious Dorothea Wyrmwood. Despite the Halloween curse that has seen disappearances over the past two years, it is still the kind place teenagers like to explore on a foolish dare.

This year, it is four friends who decide to go search for adventure, but only one of them will really find what she is looking for. Lyka Bloom does a lovely job of establishing her characters and foreshadowing their fates, ensuring that we are more than just casual observers to what happens inside. We know these characters, and we sympathise/empathise with them, and that makes our sinister titillation at their transformations even sweeter.

Trick and Treat 3: The Student Witch is a fun story, full of magic and mystery, with a fantastic attention to detail. The mansion undergoes as many transformations as the four intruders, and the way Bloom brings Dorothea’s fantasies to life is quite delightful.


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