Enter Three Witches

Bren wondered, but not for long, why his normally cheerful, easy-going life had suddenly begun to seem hopelessly complicated. He was learning to run the lights for his school’s production of Macbeth, but that was fun, and so was almost everything about his first serious relationship—everything except the fact that he couldn’t bring his girl friend home. Bren had never really minded living with three witches, but now he did. How could he explain that his beautiful mother spent hours casting spells in her bat-haunted tower room while his grandmother told fortunes to paying customers in the living room and their housekeeper raised black chickens in the garden apartment for uses it was best not to contemplate? His father, after getting up in the morning to find a baby bat in his shoe and a python in his shirt drawer—the culmination of a long series of such events—had exchanged the spacious old house for a simple, brick box on the East side. To make matters worse, Bren learned that Erika, his girl, had been cast as First Witch in Macbeth, so now he felt himself to be wallowing in witches. She was also not one to take no for an answer and soon bent an agile mind to unraveling the mystery of Bren’s family. When on opening night only Erika saw three figures outlined in blue fire at the balcony rail, the amazing technical effects that followed were explained, if only to her. “One of the most intelligently funny young-adult fantasies to come out in years…” —2/LOCUS May 1991 “The combination of first romance and magic is a dynamic one, and Gilmore nimbly carries off the blend with wit and grace.” —Booklist, starred review