E. Latimer

That first chapter was a great hook. The protagonist watches her sister die and even inside her head there's the ambiguity of whether she could have saved her, but the knowledge that either way she didn't try, she didn't want to. It left that slight edge of unease where I could understand her (in)action, but still wonder how much of her motivation was justified self-defense and how much she's being influenced by the dark urges inside her, whether she might have done (or will do) the same to show more someone who deserves it less. I love a girl with violent tendencies who always has to fight not to be monstrous, so I was taken with Evie as the main character straight away. It does lose a little of its punch as it's revealed just how persistently and extremely evil and violent Evie's sister was towards her. Calmly watching someone drown is still an eerie thing to do, but nobody would have been jumping to save her in Evie's place.

The woods of the Afterdark had a great nightmare-like quality to them with the impossibly shifting scenery and obscuring darkness and fog. The creatures that it produced which could pass as humans for their whole lifetimes or as easily turn bestial and hungry could definitely get some good uncanny horror going. I would have liked more development of the Afterdark and more of a look at its 'mind' though. It's creepy in the combination of its utter inhumanity, but the sense of a focused, perhaps growing, intellect and drive and I wanted more of that. show less

The After dark opens with an accidental drowning, but don't feel sad. The person was a vicious monster of a teen and the world is probably better off for the death. In chapter six we find out that teen tried to commit murder. I'm more disturbed that Evie's cat, Bella, is mentioned in chapter six, but we don't know Bella's current status.

Because of that death, Evelyn 'Evie' Laurent is sent to Northcroft, a boarding school on an island off the West Coast of Canada. The campus is surrounded by show more Hemlock Woods, the oldest forest in the Pacific Northwest. How old is the school? Its bell tower was one of the original buildings, over 300 years old. The school's logo is a silver shield with the motto, 'VERITAS ANTE OMNIA -- TRUTH BEFORE ALL'. (That's pretty funny considering that the school's online information is carefully filtered. This includes information about Northcroft's secret society, the Crown and Grave, whose members are known as 'gravesmen'. Their secret leader is called the Rook and wears a mask to ceremonies.)

There's a curfew bell before sunset and the girls' dormitory has blackout blinds on automatic timer. Another interesting thing is what another student, Holland Morgan, former TV star, says about one of the founders, Ezekiel Blackwood, who apparently was not a nice guy at all. Evie already knows about him because she's descended from one of Northcroft's founders. Was it Blackwood? Students who are descended from the founders are called 'True Northman'. Evie is glad her claim to that status is unknown.

Most of the chapters are from Evie's viewpoint, but some of them are from Holland's. Holland likes attention. Her roommate, Beth, has become jealous. This is a problem because Holland is drawn to Evie and vice-versa.

Hemlock Woods is definitely dangerous. Students go in there sometimes after curfew and don't come back. Beth did come back, but she's not the girl she used to be.

Another girl goes missing. The students are told she was found and medically evacuated, but was she?

Evie is drawn to Hemlock Woods, the only place where red hemlock is known to grow. Holland comes along because she fears for Evie. Holland is so worried that she's determined to become a member of the Crown and Grave, hoping to learn secrets that will keep Evie safe. If she succeeds, that might turn out to be a grave mistake (pun intended). show less

Escape to Witch City by E. Latimer was one of my LibraryThing Early Reviewers wins, and I'm very glad of it. This fantasy involves an alternate London, England, on an alternate Earth where magic is real. The year is 1822 and witches are not welcome. The last known coven was rooted out in 1807.

Our 13-year-old heroine is Emmaline Dorathea Black, better known as 'Emma'. Her mother is Lady Isolde Black, younger sister of the widowed Queen Alexandria. Emma and her mother are more likely to scream show more at each other than show affection. Isolde is cold and superior. Just reading about the dresses she forced Emma to wear made me wince in sympathy. Probably the best thing that can be said about Isolde is that the queen is worse. Both sisters are fanatical about ridding their country of witches.

In this world, thistles can weaken witches. The queen and her sister drink thistle wine. Thistles are hung all over the palace. Witches are hanged with ropes made of thistles. At least the ones for the East Wing, which fell into disuse after the king died, are so dried out that they don't drain Emma's energy. (If your reader's senses are tingling with suspicion, Emma also finds that fact worrying.)

Emma is escaping her mother and a fitting for another ghastly dress in the first chapter, so she heads for the East Wing. While there, she narrowly evades a troop of Witch Hunters. She learns that their main quarry is her Aunt Lenore, who was supposed to have been killed before Emma was born. This prompts Emma to head for the huge, disused king's library in the East Tower. There she searches a number of volumes from the history section, only to make a disquieting discovery about all of them.

Emma does not get along with her cousin, Prince Edgar, thanks to a game they played years ago that got Emma into trouble. There's an incident that involves both children in the throne room before Testing Day, (see chapter 4). Testing Day is something all children must endure when they are 13 years old, even Emma and Edgar. The children's blood is tested for the percentage of witch blood in it. We're not told the maximum witch blood allowed, but the percentages of three of the children who are our main characters are 20, 25, and 40 percent. They all failed.

An aristocrat's daughter, Maddie, is the other child who failed besides Emma and Edgar. Their parents' social standing doesn't matter. The children are hustled aboard the Witch Express, a train that is said to take witches to Scotland for rehabilitation. Another girl is shoved in the same car they're in. That's Eliza, who has dark skin and curly hair. Eliza was the only member of a coven of witches that didn't escape Captain Tobias McCraw and his fellow witch hunters.

Eliza tells the others that they aren't going to Scotland. They have a worse fate in store. This leads the four to attempt to escape the train. They wind up in the palace and are busy being chased when an unexpected ally sends them to the In-Between, a place they must cross to get to Witch City.

Each of the children has a special power, although Emma, Edgar, and Maddie have not been trained in how to use theirs. Emma has been spending years suppressing her ability, which seems the least useful among them. Edgar is terrified of his power. Maddie is able to make hers work only part of the time, and the effect doesn't last long. Eliza has a very dangerous power that she's still being trained to use.

The children find themselves in another London, but one that has been going back to nature for a long time, considering the size of its trees. Some of the buildings they enter look as if they were deserted in a hurry, with no time to pack. It's bad enough that they haven't found anything to eat. It gets worse because the city keeps shifting around. They have to hang on to each other during those shifts if they don't want to be separated. The most frightening thing about this New London is a humanoid creature that chases them. Its intentions appear to be most unfriendly.

NOTES:

Chapter 2: The King's Library is described, along with the titles of some of the books Emma searched through.

Chapter 4: The throne room is described. So is the incident that caused Emma to dislike Edgar.

Chapter 7: Eliza and Maddie are introduced. The Coventry Twins are mentioned. Maddie claims a third cousin of hers has been to Witch City.

Chapter 8: Maddie and Emma are tested. for witch blood and their percentages are given.

Chapter 9: The Witch Express is described. We're told Edgar's five titles.

Chapter 10: Eliza says her gran has the gift of visions.

Chapter 14:

a. Some other parts of the palace are described.

b. Elizabeth Barrett Browning must have married Robert Browning much earlier on this Earth. She was born in 1806, started writing poetry when she was 11, and It is 1822. Girls could get married at 16 back then. On our Earth, Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett marries in 1846. (Then again, perhaps this world's version was named Elizabeth Barrett Browning at birth.)

Chapter 15: We meet the ambassador to Irvingland, a country south of England. I am not sure if this lady is the same as the Ambassador Jaqueline mentioned in chapter 36. We meet Edgar's ex-nursemaid, Georgie. Emma remembers one of her former nursemaids, Judith. and why she was fired. The ambassador mentions the In-Between for the first time.

Chapter 16: Emma and Edgar experience their first shift in the In-Between.

Chapter 19: We meet the terrifying inhabitant of the In-Between.

Chapter 23: Emma figures out Edgar's power. We learn the percentage of witch blood Edgar has.

Chapter 24: The black cat introduced at the end of chapter 23 is described. It has green eyes. We learn that there is a photo of Alexandria and Isolde when they were younger in Edgar's backpack.

Chapter 28: A statue of a witch queen is described. Emma prefers it to the statue of the Thistle Queen back home. The cat's eyes are now black.

Chapter 29: The black cat's eyes are green again. We meet Gerty. Then we meet Lenore Black.

Chapter 30:

a. Londinium was the Roman name for what later became London. New Londinium is described. It shifts, but much more smoothly than the ruined New London of the In-Between.

b. It's the Ostara Festival, the celebration of Spring. (It was winter back home)

c. Only persons with witch blood can navigate New Londinium's streets, because it takes magic to do so.

d. A night in New Londinium is the same as an hour in the In-Between.

e. A water closet is a small room with a toilet in it. It can be within a bathroom.

Chapter 31: We meet Tobias McCraw's mother and Eliza's grandmother.

Chapter 32:

a. We learn about the ruined London and its inhabitant.

b. Maddie addresses Lenore as 'Ms. Black,' which means that abbreviation started being used on this book's earth more than 100 years before it was invented on ours.

c. The most common percentages of witch blood in the inhabitants of New Londinium are 15 and 20%. Tobias McCraw is the first zero percenter to find his way there.

d. Abigail Hopper was one of the founders of this version of New Londinium.

Chapter 32: The heart of the city is described.

Chapter 34: Candlewick's School for Magic is where the children will be attending later.

Chapter 35: The children go to the library.

Chapter 27: Emma learns her family's original last name, which is the same as a bookstore chain in our England.

I really enjoyed Escape to Witch City. The children are believable, neither too good nor bad. There was plenty of suspense in their adventures. Given the unsavory episodes in the U.S.A.'s past that I didn't learn until I was an adult, some of them not until I was an official Senior Citizen, I sympathize with Emma, Edgar, and Maddie as they learn how much they've been lied to about their country's history.

I was not surprised at all by a big revelation about Queen Alexandria. My smug satisfaction in being proved right about that helps soften my chagrin at not recognizing the joke between Edgar and his power until I was writing this review.

I heartily recommend this book to fantasy lovers tween-age and above.

Dog lovers are out of luck, but cat lovers have a few to enjoy. Raven fans are also in luck. show less

The moment I started reading this book I was hooked IMMEDIATELY. Evie is such a unique character compared to what I normally see in books and that made her chapters so intriguing to me. The Afterdark gives off such an intense and creepy energy that is so fitting for this book. There are mysteries riddled all throughout the story. It was one mystery after another and every character seems to have a secret. I was trying to guess what would happen but so many things surprised me. One character show more in specific had an absolutely shocking reveal at the end. This book reminded me why I love mysteries. show less