NNtG: Shadow Zone: The Witches Next Door

It's been a while since we took a trip to the Shadow Zone. About a year, actually. It's still a series that hasn't given me any extremely awful books to read, but a couple that were still pretty disappointing. We have witches to deal with this time and usually witch stories are pretty good, so I can only hope that's the case with Shadow Zone. Though knowing my recent luck this will be a case of bubble bubble toil and DEFINITELY trouble. Let's hope not as we learn about The Witches Next Door.

This cover's great. Both in actually being kind of creepy and being wonderfully silly. We have our protagonist Jennifer with a great shocked reaction, backing away from what is definitely a screwed up looking scene. Our hooded witch over a cauldron really works for added mystery. Then there's our half-girl half snake which is actually a pretty cool design. How her body starts to blend into the snake body feels creepy in a way most covers rarely manage to convey, while not actually being super scary. If anything, it's a super intriguing cover. And pretty cool in its own right. That's usually a death sentence for these books.

Something smells like shit. Or even worse. Ever since two old ladies, Emma and Abigail Nightingale, moved into Jennifer's neighborhood, there has been a horrible odor wafting in the area. Jennifer and her mom are heading to Jennifer's piano recital. I hear lessons can be murder. However, the stench is super strong. Maureen Stephens, a snobby woman who lives in the neighborhood, says that she's ready to call the cops on the Nightingales. Jennifer's mom thinks it might be a bit extreme to call the cops on two old ladies, so they head to their house to get an answer. After some awkward silence, the door eventually opens. The two sisters apologize for the smell, and say it might be a bad recipe. However, Jennifer soon sees their shed and sees a cauldron inside, then hears a voice nearby whispering "We've come for you". At her recital, Jennifer is somehow unable to control her hands as they play perfectly. Her parents note that she might join the junior symphony with Todd Calavicci, who Jennifer dislikes because he's such a nerd. Well, this is a Shadow Zone book, and here's the "character the main character dislikes but learns to accept" right on time. 

A lot of Jennifer's problems have to do with recently moving and missing her friends, namely her best friend Megan. She's also conveniently reading Macbeth for school, which is wonderful timing. She does her homework in the school auditorium, as a lip-sync contest is about to announce who'll enter. Jennifer wants to, but also fears doing so. Todd tries to strike up conversation, which annoys Jennifer despite him really doing nothing wrong. When Jennifer mentions the witches and the cauldron, a pair of kids, Chelsea Stephens and Brian O'Donnell, mock Jennifer for the witch stuff, then suggest they all go visit the Nightingale sisters. And by visit, I mean throw eggs at the two possible witches. Suddenly the eggs then turn around and start hitting the kids. After the bullies leave, Jennifer apologizes to Emma and Abigail, then when she accidentally touches some of the liquid in their mixing bowl, she's suddenly shrunk and turned into a mouse for a second. Wait what? Did I pick up the wrong book about witches? The sisters say to pay no mind to whatever the hell just happened to Jennifer and that Brian and Chelsea are bad. They also say that Chelsea looks a bit like a snake, just in case you needed confirmation on who that is on the cover, I guess. The Nightingale sisters say that bullies always get what's coming to them. They also break the news that they're witches, and they've specifically been searching for Jennifer to make her a witch too.

Despite not being the one who was involved in the egging, Jennifer is still blamed for it and is forced to work for the Nightingales, who are more focused on wanting her to be a witch, and especially in drinking their tea. She goes to the basement to move some boxes and is attacked by a bat. She then hears the voice again. The sisters tell Jennifer that she passed the test, leaving Jennifer even more confused. That night, a fist made of blue smoke enters her room and squeezes her, but she manages to break free since it's still smoke. She then sees Todd panicking about a fire at the Nightingale house. But the sisters say that nothing's all that wrong. But still, he thinks that something isn't very scientific about whatever they're doing. As Jennifer returns to her room, she sees Harold, the Nightingale's pet cockatoo in the window, screeching the words "You're next" and "Dead". At school the next day, Jennifer sits with Kristy Geist and a few of the other girls, who are intrigued by everything going on at the Nightingale house. Chelsea shows up to mock her some more, to which Jennifer notices Chelsea eat a twinkie like a snake would. So she realizes that the sisters might be right about how much of a snake she is. 

Jennifer soon learns from her parents that Abigail Nightingale has specifically requested Jennifer take violin lessons. I hear they can be murder. Jennifer's already frustrated with everything else that she starts to consider the idea of being a witch. Getting back at Chelsea, her mother, even having her friend Megan show up. It would all be great. At the Nightingale house, Jennifer soon learns why the sisters have focused on her. Jennifer has the power. She's a person with the power to go to a special place of magic. And if you guessed that place was the Shadow Zone, good job, you've been paying attention. They mention that a witch's power begins to fade after 300 years and if they don't pass their powers to a new witch, they'll fizzle to nothingness. They then have Jennifer give a tonic to Harold the Cockatoo, who then transforms into Harold the Human Warlock. He was turned into a Cockatoo by the witches as punishment for betraying a witch named Sarah. He snaps at them, so they freeze him in place and plan to send him to Alaska. Why they chose NOW I can only chalk up to book convenience I guess. They then have their lesson with a floating violin. 

At school the next day, Chelsea mocks Jennifer some more and notes that she'll be wearing a green sequin dress at the lip sync contest. Todd talks with Jennifer noting that he saw something flying that wasn't jet propelled, so it might be the witches. He's also very interested in the cauldron and the potion as the chemicals might be a danger. So Jennifer decides to go along with him to check out the shed and the cauldron. However, when they check, the cauldron is no longer in the shed. They go inside, only to be caught by the Nightingales, who reveal that the witches serve as sort of balance and order in the universe. They also reveal more about Jennifer. See, Jennifer is a witch on account of her great-great-great-great grandmother. The Sarah that was mentioned earlier, who Harold snitched on over something not specified. And with the Nightingales now well over 300 years old, their powers are fading and they have to pass it over to Jennifer. They also mention their brews. A blue brew that serves as a spell ender and a rainbow brew called True Brew that turns whoever comes in contact with it into their true selves, which is more who they are at the time of the contact, which is why when the mixture hit Sarah she turned into a mouse. But this is a new Jennifer who seems more confident, so it would make her more true to this form I guess. Either way, they have to make her a witch and soon, before it's too late. Given we have about 40 pages left we're going to pad this for a while.

Jennifer returns home and asks her dad about any witches in the family, to which he notes that in 1692, one of her ancestors, a woman named Sarah, was burned at the stake on account of being accused of witchcraft, though he doesn't buy it was actual witchcraft. But that confirms it to Jennifer, she's a witch. At the Nightingales the next day, Jennifer is interrupted by her mother who is going to take her to French lessons. J'ai entendu dire qu'ils pouvaient être meurtre. Abigail and Emma invite her in and have her drink the True Brew which transforms her into a ram, which makes sense given she's always battering Jennifer with more lessons to learn and such. Jennifer and Todd panic and tell the sisters to turn her back, which they do. After seeing that, Jennifer has decided "screw this, if transforming people against their will is what being a witch is about, then I want no part of it." At school, Jennifer and Todd manage to join Kristy's lip sync team and is going to compete against Chelsea. Todd notes that the witches are worried about everything and that maybe Jennifer is missing the point of the True Brew, and that she is far less meek as she was before. But more concerningly, Jennifer's violin is missing. Oh gee, I wonder who could have stolen it? She manages to borrow a young girl's. But notably, it means she won't join the symphony.

At dinner, she talks to her parents about her issues with some of the lessons, notably French, and they seem more lenient on her, even happy to see that she'll be singing Surfin' USA at the lip sync contest. She talks with the Nightingale sisters who reveal that, shocker, Chelsea and Brian were the ones who swiped her violin. But more concerningly, the two are starting to fade from existence. They need to get this witch stuff done ASAP. Jennifer hears the voice again and manages to use her powers to bring them back to solid state. The sisters are relieved and give Jennifer some True Brew in rock candy form to take to the lip sync competition, just in case, AKA we need to pay off the cover. The lip sync contest goes through and Jennifer, Todd and Kristy do a good job. However, when they get backstage, they see Chelsea rummaging through Jennifer's backpack and finding the True Brew, which comes in contact with her skin, transforming her into a giant black mamba snake. She tries to attack Jennifer, but she and Todd subdue her long enough to turn her back. The experience, and knowing that Jennifer knows about the violin theft, is finally enough to get her to back off for good. 

Kristy, Jennifer and Todd win the contest and head to the Nightingales, who are in the middle of moving since Jennifer won't be their apprentice. Jennifer decides to accept the apprenticeship since she now gets what being a witch is all about. They then look at a painting where they see a young girl named Susan. The same one who let Jennifer borrow the violin. Her mother lost her job and her father is sick. Jennifer decides that her first official job as a witch is to help her out. Aww that's a nice ending. Not scary, but ah well.

Well Shadow Zone, you're back in the good graces. I really liked this book. But it does have a few problems. And if you know these Shadow Zone reviews, you can probably guess which problem is the main one. Again, the idea of the Shadow Zone is so poorly implemented. We get it in brief passing that Jennifer can pass through the Shadow Zone and that it's a world of magic and... that's it. No explanation of what that means. No other use of the Shadow Zone as something tangible in the story itself. It is the biggest problem that holds these books down. A gimmick that never gets a chance to be interesting. Sometimes a book uses it a bit better, other times it's just mentioned in passing and easy to forget it even was mentioned. I'd also say the other problem I had is that this book feels like it starts to get rolling, has a lot of really neat ideas and ends just when it starts to get interesting. We don't even get an explanation as to who the mysterious voice talking to Jennifer is, though it can easily be implied as the spirit of Sarah, her witch ancestor. Hell, the book starts to build the idea of Harold and then just ships him off super quick when honestly the idea of him as a more interesting villain could have been fun to follow. So much of this book feels like it wanted to be a series, and to be honest, I'd have been down for it. A book about an ancestor of witches learning how to become a witch? Hook that shit into my veins, please. Still a better option than the boy wizard and the awful author. 

I love the idea of the True Brew. That it turns someone into their true self. Though not specifically a true self set in stone, but more who they are and how they act at that point in time, like turning Jennifer into a mouse, while also noting that it was due to how she was so mousey at the time. And it's used enough to never feel too much like a crutch for the book, while also paying the cover off at least a little. Less girl/snake hybrid, but you still get enough snake action to not feel too shortchanged. I also really like Emma and Abigail. They're fun, they're funny, they actually do feel like very likable people, and you do want them to ultimately succeed in their goal. Granted, picking this one up, you might have wanted them to be the villains of the story, but that misses the point of the story, and in many ways, the very concept of Shadow Zone, which is not to judge a book by its cover, or witches by their unwashed ass-smelling cauldrons. 

Jennifer is a great lead. Constantly on the fence on wanting to be a witch, and worried that doing so would lead to bad things, like her being someone who would abuse the magic given to her, case in point the True Brew. She has a solid enough character arc and feels more confident by the end of the story. And she treats Todd better as well, staying true to how these books works. Todd works a fun secondary character. Not the most deep, but he does what's needed. Chelsea is a solid villain who treats Jennifer horribly all throughout, so if she was stuck as a mamba at the end, you wouldn't feel so bad, but the point of the story is that Jennifer is nowhere as bad a person as Chelsea is. Kristy exists mainly for the lip sync plot. Brian is kind of Superfluous Clay. He works as a second in command for Chelsea in terms of bullying, but disappears from any relevant role after the whole missing violin subplot. 

So yeah. I liked this one. Is it perfect? No. Does it have the issues that most of the Shadow Zone books I've covered have had? Definitely. But the characters are great, the book flows well, and I just had a good time with this one. It's not exactly the deepest horror story, but sometimes that's fine if the story is still fun as a supernatural romp. I just really wish it didn't end when it did because it feels like a story that got its legs cut out from under it before it really got started. Not a blue balls situation, just more of a "we've hit page quota" situation. Shame the series ended at 13 books and we never got any sequels, because this would be the one I'd definitely want more of. Still, an easy recommend. Also someone hook me up with that True Brew. That would fix the hell out of me. The Witches Next Door gets an A.