Witch Saga

 

I learned of Phyllis Reynold Naylor’s witch books year before last, while doing some research for this blog (see Oct. 23, 2019). Naylor opened the series in 1975 with Witch’s Sister, which introduces Lynn Morley and Marjorie “Mouse” Beasley, best friends who’ve come to suspect an old widow in their neighborhood of witchcraft. Specifically, Lynn thinks the woman, Mrs. Tuggle, is recruiting Lynn’s older sister Judith for her coven.

Witch’s Sister is a subtle book about the pitfalls of making assumptions based on appearances rather than reality. Actually, I’m not sure Naylor set out to write a supernatural series at all. Sequels in 1977 (Witch Water) and 1978 (The Witch Herself), however, leave no doubt that the girls are dealing with something uncanny, while struggling with the skepticism—and criticism—of the adults in their lives.

The Witch Herself skillfully caps off the events in the previous books; it’s the best of the three (the best of the series), and the scariest. But one can never have too much of a good witch. In 1990, Naylor picked up where she left off 12 years earlier with The Witch’s Eye, writing as if the other books were immediate rather than distant predecessors. In Eye, the girls’ world has been modernized noticeably, which can be disconcerting for someone reading the series straight through. Also, there’s no actual witch this time (she supposedly burned to death in The Witch Herself), only an evil glass eye—creepy enough, but the story suffers from the absence of a flesh-and-blood villain. On the other hand, Lynn’s behavioral problems as she comes under the eye’s spell make for an interesting alternate reading about dependency.

In Witch Weed (1991), there’s still no witch, just a weird narcotic plant that’s somehow tied to what’s gone before. The adults are starting to catch on (finally!), but the need to recap everything that’s happened in the other books, for newbies to the series, while handled about as well as can be expected, can make for some tedium. By the time we get to The Witch Returns (1992), in which the crone of the first books is resurrected, we can’t help but wonder what in the world is keeping this apparently powerful hag (from England, no less) moored in one sleepy Indiana town.

As so often happens with the conclusion of sagas, The Witch Returns wraps things up narratively, but it doesn’t really deliver the payoff we crave after having spent so much time with the characters—and Naylor has created some good ones. It’s plain that, entering the home stretch, the author herself wasn’t sure where it all would—should—end. It’s not a terrible book by any means, but one wishes Naylor had maybe put the witch away for a year to brew.