Review: Debora Geary doesn't take the easy road.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 21, 2013
Debora Geary doesn't take the easy road. The beginning of the series is fairly tame, by comparison with some of the problems we face later in the books. She first gave us Tabitha and introduced us to children with Autism and the people who love them. Then there was Beth in A Different Witch who enlightened me on the subject of Asperger's Syndrome. Now she's dealing with "crazy", a subject near and dear to my heart. We meet the people of Chrysalis House who are unable to cope with the pressures of life outside those walls. Two of those people are central to the story, Hannah Kendrick who has lived there for twelve years, since she was fifteen. Hannah can't meet a new person without lengthy protocols to introduce the face slowly, first seeing pictures, eventually seeing them through a window, before meeting them face-to-face. Without following those protocols Hannah will have what is essentially a seizure brought on by debilitating visions of potential future events. These visions started fairly gently but within a couple of years became so intense that she would lose consciousness and be unable to function for some time after coming to. One of the most wonderful things in the story is her family, who continue to love and support her but understand that for her, living in the outside world simply isn't an option. Then there's Dr. Max. He's the best kind of psychiatrist. He doesn't give up, he sees Hannah as a person rather than just a patient and offers her options for her treatment rather than imposing his will on her. The only successful treatment they've found is serious sedation. Hannah is found by the fetching spell (and if you don't know what this is, you shouldn't be reading this book out of sequence, you really need to start with either To Have and To Code or A Modern Witch). Fortunately she isn't fetched, but the words "Help Me" are and Witch Central goes into action to locate the origin of the message and try to help.By the time you're reading this book I shouldn't need to tell you that Geary has created one of the most wonderful casts of characters I've ever found. They're by turns funny, wise and foolish but always caring. The world she has created is so real to me that when I was playing a game the other day and I caught a token that showed me where my balls would land my first thought was that my "aiming spell" had been activated. Because of the level of involvement this has achieved for me, this book made me cry. Happy tears, tragic tears and tears for the bravery of the characters.Really, by the time you get to this book you probably don't read the reviews anyway, you already know that when a new book comes out you're going to read it, no questions asked except "how long before the next one?" Still, when an author has done so much to make my world more wonderful, the least I can do is write a review to let her know how much I appreciate it.