The Circle: The Engelsfors Trilogy--Book 1
In this first installment in the Engelsfors Trilogy, a small Swedish town has a big magic problem. It has become the seat of some spooky paranormal activity, namely a series of suspicious student suicides. Thankfully, the Chosen One has been summoned; only there’s not one but six teenage girls imbued with magical abilities. Minoo, Vanessa, Rebecka, Anna-Karin, Ida, and Linnea rarely get along, but like it or not, they have to work together to hone their newfound magical abilities and defeat the shadowy figure who stalks them in the night. If that weren’t a big enough problem, the girls also struggle with usual high-school troubles—eating disorders, absent parents, drug and alcohol abuse, bullying—which, at times, overshadow the looming presence of evil. The Scandinavian setting provides a chilly atmosphere to an otherwise dark story of struggling teens and a rash of suicides, but the multilayered, cinematic plot is buoyed by the girls’ determination, as well as the understated and idiosyncratic presence of magic. Grades 9-12. --Sarah Hunter