Witch by Fiona Horne

Allen & Unwin, 2013. ISBN 9781742378695.
Witch by Fiona Horne is the story of Vania, a 15 year old, bright and funny girl from Australia. When she and her family moves to Sumerland, California, Vania feels like she has a special connection with the place. Upon arriving at her new school, Vania instantly becomes enemies with the pretty, popular girl Cassidy. Cassidy's boyfriend Bryce however, befriends Vania and as a result, a little way into the book, Cassidy and Bryce break up and Bryce turns to Vania and her unpopular friends. Besides Bryce and Vania, there are three other members of their group. Amelia and Alyssa are identical twins who both happen to be psychic and Dean, who is descendant from the ancient Native Americans of Sumerland. Together the five of them all have an interest in witchcraft, and with the help of Brenda, a spiritualist, the group form a coven.
Not everything is however, sugar coated in the coven, Vania has feelings for Bryce and to make him jealous she casts a love spell on popular kid Matt. Things backfire and the spell has to be reversed, which is very humiliating for Vania. Vania gets her tea leaves read and it is reveals that she is in grave danger. As the five work together to unmask the secrets of Sumerland their lives will never be the same.
The first thing I discovered when I started to read the book was the predictability of the story line. Although the idea of the witchcraft and the coven is not something I have encountered much of the overall plot was not very exciting and took me a while to get into. From reading the first few chapters I already had a basic idea of what was going to happen; the new girl moves to a new town and falls for the popular boy but he has a mean girlfriend who makes him chose with the classic line 'it's either me or her'. In the end there is some great danger, in this case, there is someone plotting to kill Vania because she is the only remaining pure witch. After the danger has passed the nice girl gets the boy and the mean girl is left with nothing, a very basic story line with no twists.
For those looking for a light read with not much thinking involved then I would recommend Witch. The writing is very easy to read and it is interesting enough to enjoy. The font is also quite large and the book is not very long so for something simple, this is probably ideal.
Isobel Davies (Student)