A Magical Double Feature: “Mooncakes” and “Witch for Hire”

Mooncakes

The publisher describes this work as: “a story of love and demons, family and witchcraft.” Broadly speaking, the work centers around Nova Huang, a budding witch, and Tam Lang, a werewolf. Some magical shenanigans are going down in their New England town, and they’re just the people to sort them out. Where do things go from there? What are my thoughts on the story? Read on to find out.

Pros:

• The story is good, clean fun
• The story includes wholesome LGBTQ+ representation
• The art isn’t show-stopping, but it’s clean and consistent
• The story is brief and breezy; I easily read it in a single sitting

Cons:

• The economy of story-telling and limited number of characters meant the plot was predictable
• The story’s brisk nature means that both world and character-building are limited. I wouldn’t mind this so much, if it didn’t leave a big question or two in the back of my mind as I read. For example: it’s not clear whether magic is “secret” in this world. In one scene, the main character is shown doing “magical jobs around town,” but in another, she has magical relatives asking if a visitor knows about magic and is OK to attend a family event.

Conclusion:

I would describe this work as “comfort reading.” It wasn’t an especially complex or “challenging,” work. It had likeable characters and a fun story, though, which is just what I wanted. It’s not a “sprawling fantasy epic,” but it’s not trying to be. Ultimately, if the premise sounds interesting, I think this one is definitely worth a look.

Check it out here.

Witch For Hire

First, a word from the publisher: “When a series of high school pranks get out of hand, teen witch Faye Faulkner is the only one who can solve the case in this spooky YA graphic novel. ” What’s my take on the work? Read on to find out.

What Worked For Me:

• I enjoyed the premise. It’s nice to have a power fantasy geared toward those who aren’t popular (for whatever reason). The fact that the “witch” is almost always a girl is an added bonus, with so much media being dedicated to boy’s power fantasies.
• I can appreciate the fact that this work tackled very adult issues (from bullying to domestic abuse) even though it is aimed at a younger audience (9th grade and up).
• The author, Ted Naifeh, seems to have a large back catalogue of work dealing with similar topics. In other words, if this work piqued your interest, you’ll have plenty more to read. There does not seem to be more Witch for Hire specifically, however.

What Didn’t:

• This is entirely subjective, but I didn’t like the art style. It’s not sloppy or poorly done, but something about it didn’t sit well with me. If I had to pick out something in particular, Cody (a high school freshman in the story) looks like a toddler to me. Also I don’t like how the level of detail in the faces seems to vacillate between “manga-adjacent” and beady-eyed.
• The perspective shift at the start of the story isn’t well telegraphed. We start entirely from Cody’s perspective, but the thought bubbles that appear are Faye’s. How would the reader know that on their first read-through?
• Faye’s end-game only makes sense if you don’t think about it too deeply. Bryce, Cody’s older sister, wants to get Faye suspended / expelled for allegedly defacing student cars, laptops, and more. In response, Faye is able to incriminate Bryce for literally cutting the brake-lines on her mother’s car. Faye says she used witchcraft to do this, but also says the evidence was readily available. If that’s the case, why wouldn’t the authorities have found out? Also, if she didn’t report the crime herself, what level of witchcraft would she have to perform to summon a cop? Most importantly, how would any of that negate the allegations against her? I guess you could argue that having Bryce’s father preoccupied with the brake-line cutting would leave him unable to also put pressure on Faye via the school’s administration. That explanation doesn’t feel particularly satisfying to me, though.
• The work deals with some heavy topics, including bullying, outing, domestic abuse, mental health, and attempted murder. I don’t mind heavier topics, and I don’t think these topics should be excluded from media aimed at younger audiences (as an aside, this work is suggested for those in the 9th grade and up). No, what bothered me about this was that the issues in question seemed like they were more in service of the main character’s arc. Bryce’s boyfriend is outed as gay at the prom, presumably by the story’s supernatural antagonist, Shy Shelbi. Eventually, everyone hurt by the creature gathers together to defeat it with the power of friendship. In the friendship circle, the outed character says, “I’m … I’m not ashamed.” That’s great and all, but we never really see the character again. It’s supposed to be this big “hurrah” moment that encourages the reader to cheer on Faye and her witchcraft, but I just felt annoyed by the tokenism.

Conclusion:

This book’s topic, teenage witchcraft, has been a popular one for decades. “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “The Covenant,” and “Buffy: the Vampire Slayer” all come to mind. While the three I just mentioned are often lauded as among the best in the genre, I’d describe Witch for Hire as just “OK.” In short, unless you are really into this genre or out of things to read during the spooky season, you can probably skip this one.

Check it out here.

You may also enjoy…

• “Squad” by Maggie Takuda-Hall
• “Moonstruck” by Grace Ellis

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