This highly atmospheric debut crackles with tension and has a shivery horror tang.

Lexi's late father taught her that witches are as good, bad and various as humans, so she trusts the witch sisters who live at the edge of her village; unlike most of the sullenly insular villagers, she doesn't blame a lurking stranger when children start disappearing. Each night, a village child hears the wind singing a tune and climbs out the window to play on the moor, vanishing before morning. Early on, the text is highly descriptive of the setting, dedicating almost too many words to the heathery moor hills and the wind that "sang me lullabies. Lilting, humming, high-pitched things, filling the space around me so that even when all seemed quiet, it wasn't." Soon, however, the wind and moor descriptions become retroactively crucial, weaving themselves into the content of the plot. As a mob mentality unfolds in the village, tracker Lexi works harder and harder to defend the stranger and find the children. Part mourning and healing tale, part restless ghost story, the strengths here are Lexi's sophisticated characterization (strong, sad, fiercely protective) and the extraordinary sense of place.

Schwab's first book is more poetry than prose, concerned above all with the moor, the night, and the wind. Lexi Harris wants to be "of" the moor, but she's not sure how. Her father, who she thought held the secret, is dead, her mother is withdrawn, and her brutish uncle Otto is unsympathetic to Lexi's aspirations. He'd like to see her dressed like a "proper" girl, responsive to the advances of Tyler Ward; Lexi would rather buckle on her father's hunting knife and visit the witch sisters, Magda and Dreska Thorne. When a stranger comes to the village of Near, and children begin vanishing from their beds, Lexi is determined to solve the mystery—the more so because she's certain that the stranger is not to blame. Schwab puts more emphasis on mood than on plot; her characters are types, intriguingly sketched but underdeveloped. The details of the world of Near are likewise hints and tropes, and Schwab's use of present-tense, first-person narration heightens the sense of unreality, as though Lexi is less a fully realized person than a character the reader inhabits in a dream. Ages 12–up. (Aug.)

Gr 7–10—Lexi Harris, 16, has heard the legend of the Near Witch all her life. She and her sister live with their mother and overprotective Uncle Otto. Upon waking one morning, they find out that an unwelcome stranger has come to town. Lexi can't help but think that she saw him the night before in the form of smoke outside her window. Who is this mysterious person and why is he blamed after children go missing in the town of Near? The town witches, Magda and Dreska Thorne, are convinced that it is the Near Witch seeking revenge and must convince the oppressive men of the town that the culprit is not the stranger. Part fairy tale, part legend with a little romance, this well-written mystery will capture the attention of teens even though it may take a few chapters, and readers may feel uncertain as to when the story is taking place. Lexi and Cole, the name she gives the stranger, have chemistry and an innocent relationship that readers will enjoy seeing develop. The ending of the story is intense, and young adults will read frantically to discover the outcome.—Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI