Burn Mark (review)

In an alternative Britain in which a small percentage of the population develops witch powers in their late teens, witches are highly stigmatized and regulated by the Inquisition. Once registered, they have a choice: wear an iron collar to block their powers, be deployed in a handful of government jobs, or be executed by fire. For fifteen-year-olds Lucas and Glory, developing powers is life-changing. Lucas is the son of the chief Inquisitor; his entire life plan is now ruined. Glory has grown up attached to the Wednesday Coven, one of the most powerful families in a sort of supernatural mafia, but she finds that there has been some savage betrayals within the family in the name of ambition. When Lucas agrees to infiltrate the coven in service of the Inquisition, the two meet and uncover a tangled web of secret plots that implicates both the coven and the Inquisition in a recent series of witch attacks. There are obvious parallels to Black's Curse Workers series (White Cat, BCCB 9/10, etc.), and fans of those books will eat up the fresh perspective this brings to the supernatural genre. As in any good mafia tale, this is a world populated by charismatic, dangerous secondary characters with ambiguous motives and dubious morals, where paranoia is just good sense and trust rarely leads anywhere good. Glory and Lucas nonetheless fall into a snappy, suspicious rapport that will invest readers in both their growing relationship (refreshingly, not necessarily romantic) and their respective plights. The book handily resolves this plot but opens up some new intrigue in the secrets it reveals about both protagonists' dead mothers, leaving plenty of room for sequels. Readers will be eager to further explore Powell's well-developed world in all its brutality and magic.