Escape to Witch City

In the above “Excerpt”, author J. Latimer introduces readers to Emmaline (Emma) Black, the 13-year-old narrator/protagonist of Escape to Witch City, and to the plot of the novel. Magic is evil, anyone who possesses it is a witch, and witches must be found and disposed of. To that aim, every child in Queen Alexandria Black’s realm—including those of royal birth—must undergo blood testing the day they turn 13, and any child whose DNA reveals more than 5% witch blood is put aboard a train called the Witch Express and taken to Scotland. What happens in Scotland to those who are banished isn’t known, but the implication is that Scotland is a land of thistles and so a witch’s powers will be completely drained when they’re sent there.

On the day she’s tested, Emma’s blood shows she is 40% witch, an extremely high percentage in a country that has endeavored to stamp out witches for decades, and the highest percentage of all four of the noble children who test positive that day. So, along with her cousin Edgar—whom Emma hates because of something he did when they were much younger—a dark-skinned girl named Eliza, and a curly-haired blond named Maddie, Emma is put on the train to Scotland. Not so, Eliza informs them. This train isn’t taking them to Scotland. This train is taking them to a place where they’ll be hanged.

Eliza is the one among them who knows the most about witches and the lies the children have been told about witches because she was raised in a Coven. She’s also the one who knows the most about her power because the witches who raised her were helping her learn to use and control it. Her power is fire. It comes from within her and manifests in flames on her skin. It can be used to repel or to set things on fire. But, though she is learning to control it, Eliza still doesn’t have full control, and, if it gets out of control, it could kill her.

Maddie also knows something about her power which is to control people’s minds with an instant kind of hypnosis. She’s been aware of it and using it to her advantage since she was small. So far the hypnotic effect she has is short-lived, and, when her victims regain their senses reprisal can be swift and terrible, especially, the reader learns, when it’s dealt out by Maddie’s own mother.

Edgar and Emma though know very little about the powers they possess or how to control them. Edgar’s mother is Queen Alexandria Black, and Emma’s mother is the Queen’s sister, Isolde Black. All of their lives, the two royal children have been told witches burned London, caused the clock tower to collapse, murdered untold numbers of people, and massacred the Black family when they stole the throne. Alexandria and Isolde only escaped being killed because they were smuggled out of the palace and hidden. Their third sister, Lenore, was killed by the witches, and Alexandria and Isolde never speak about her.

Somehow (we aren’t told how) the Blacks regained the throne, and when Alexandria became queen, she formed a special squad of witch hunters and implemented mandatory testing for witch blood in children on their thirteenth birthday. So, all of her life Emma has done everything she could to suppress the power she has to hear people’s heartbeat and even to cause people’s hearts to stop. All of his life, Edgar (Ed) has denied he has any power at all. The ravens that flock to him when he’s distressed terrify him.

“Brainwashed the lot of you,” Eliza tells them and goes on to explain that the fanatical witches have been wiped out because the good witches wouldn’t take them in. And, if they don’t want to hang, they have to use their powers to escape the train they’re on and find their way to Witch City, which the Queen denies exists, but it does. It’s the only place they’ll be safe.

Emma listens carefully. When she tried to research her family’s history and the history of London in one of the palace’s libraries, she discovered multiple pages had been cut out of every history book, a fact that caused her to question what she’d been taught by the royal teachers and her mother and aunt. Instinctively, she believes Eliza and knows they have to escape the train. Convincing cowardly Edgar to do anything to help them is another matter.

Escape they do. Out of the frying pan into the fire, so to speak. Because, with the witch hunters hard on their heels, they come face-to-face with the In-Between where terrors they couldn’t have imagined lie in wait. And if and when they get through that, more secrets and terror are waiting for them in Witch City where streets shift, buildings disappear, familiar landscapes are replaced with the unfamiliar with no warning at all, and people are trapped in the two-dimensional form of a drawing on a page.

Unexpected changes, altered history, accepting diversity, fully accepting oneself (the good and the bad), growing up in abusive households, and forgiveness are all running themes in Escape to Witch City. Depending on the age of the reader, each theme could provide interesting and important points for discussion.

Readers who know J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter; Disney’s Mary Poppins; Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”, Hitchcock’s The Birds, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Superhero books and movies will recognize the devices Latimer has borrowed to explore the themes and give a sense of place, and the nods the author gives to those sources in the text. Because there is extensive use of familiar material, to some this book will feel derivative. However, readers will likely be drawn in by the unique twists in the way the mystery unfolds, and those who aren’t familiar with the works the author has drawn from won’t notice them.

Pre-teen and young teen female readers will identify with Emma, her curiosity, her determination, her grit, and with her dislike of being forced to wear uncomfortable clothing that is deemed ‘proper’ for someone of her station, and with her love-hate struggles with a parent who is at best domineering. Male readers will, I think, have a harder time identifying with Edgar who is a distinctly unlikable guy until late in the book. The fact that he becomes vulnerable in the In-Between and that he does change helps, but this seems to be a book that will find its appeal mostly among young female readers.

Of the powers the children possess, only Emma’s is unique. Eliza’s ability with fire, Maddie’s ability with mind control and Edward’s birds are all definitely derivative in what they are and in how they’re used. As such, they may feel like old hat to readers who have read or watched a wide range of fantasy. Lenore’s and Alexandria’s powers are also very familiar.

Overall, the pacing is fairly brisk. There is plenty of tension, both inner and outer, and the reader is kept guessing at what revelation or threat lies in the next ‘city-scape-shift’ (or in the next hallway).

Escape to Witch City is a brave book that delves into several modern-day problems though it’s set in 1822. That said, perhaps the thing young readers will have the most difficult time understanding or coming to terms with is identifying with kids whose parents are capable of murdering their own children. Fairy tales certainly contain wicked and murderous step-parents and parents, but they don’t attempt to explore how the kids in those tales are affected by discovering a parent tried to kill them (other than that the kids escape), which sets fairy tales firmly in the realm of the unreal. Latimer does explore how the discoveries they make affect Emma and Edgar. But, because the book is written in Emma’s point of view, the exploration is extremely limited. And I wonder how important it is for middle-grade readers to be discussing filicide.