This is, I suppose, technically a young adult novel since all the main characters are 17-18 year old seniors at Danvers High School in the year 1989; nevertheless, I enjoyed it immensely, occasionally laughing out loud and once being moved to tears. Our protagonists are the high school field hockey team, the Danvers Falcons, composed of 10 women and 1 man: Mel Boucher, Sue Yoon, Heather Houston, Julie Kaling, Little Smitty, Becca Bjelica, Boy Cory, Girl Cory (no relation to Boy Cory), Jen Fiorenza, AJ Johnson, and Abby Putnam. You will get to know them all as the book progresses. None of the athletic teams at Danvers HS have won much over the decades, but the field hockey team comes to believe that the dark forces possibly passed down by their witchy forebears, and currently epitomized by the smiling face of Emilio Estevez on the cover of Mel's notebook, may help them win. After a totally demoralizing defeat at summer hockey camp, Mel is the first to scribble a dark pledge into her notebook, but when the very next day the Falcons tie with a powerhouse competitor, the rest of the team begins to fall in line. They will just need to do a few things differently than normal. The humor is, at times, adolescent, but was just what I needed at this point in time. For example, one of the "bad" things they did to placate the dark forces was to leave an open can of sardines hidden in the teachers' lounge. This is a coming of age book, a book about figuring out how to be your true self, and a paean to friendship, teamwork, and faith in one another. The culture of the 80's is richly woven throughout the story, and there is a fair amount of history about the Salem witch trials sprinkled in, which the author claims is largely accurate. Highly recommended.
Reviews from
NPR, and
Publishers Weekly.
Barry also gives an interview to the
Paris Review about her choice of setting and subject.
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