October 19, 2020
When 18-year-old freshman Vivian Devereaux, who is white, pledges elite Kappa Rho Nu, known as the Ravens, at Savannah’s Westerly College, she makes friends for the first time after a life of frequent moves with her tarot reader mother. But alongside the intense sisterhood, Vivi learns that she’s a Pentacle, one of four types of elemental witches with fierce earth-commanding powers. For Vivi’s sorority big sister, Scarlett Winter, a water-wielding Cup who is Black, junior year means balancing her family’s impossible expectations, boyfriend Mason’s waning interest, and a secret that could destroy her entire future. When a banished Raven, Gwen, reappears and a sorority sister is kidnapped, Scarlett and Vivi work to defeat the evil threatening to expose their coven to the college and the world. Morgan (The 100) and Paige (the Dorothy Must Die series) blend the cloistered atmosphere of The Magicians with the Southern cattiness of The Belles, adding pops of giddy magic—“glamouring” the sorority house into a 1920s speakeasy—along the way. Though the series starter’s conclusion drags, wonderful worldbuilding, well-executed plotting, and page-turning surprises create the feel of a bingeworthy TV show, keeping readers engaged in Vivi’s and Scarlett’s alternating narrations. Ages 14–up.