When My Heart Was Wicked

Reviewed by: Ann Marie Townsend - South Berwick Public Library, South Berwick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: October 14, 2015

Review

Sixteen-year-old Lacy is living with her step-mother after her father dies when her mother decides to take custody. Lacy does not want to leave, but is forced to. Lacy feels that when she is with her mother, she is pulled toward being a person she does not want to be. Her mother is self-centered, neglectful, and uses magic spells to get what she wants. Soon after moving, her mother's life falls apart, Lacy has to care for herself, and begins to fall under her mother's spell. After a bad experience with a boy, Lacy wonders if she is as confused and damaged as her mother. This book is a coming-of-age story about magic, but the reader is not sure what is real and what is imagined. Ultimately Lacy must make hard choices, find out who she is, get help to get away from her mother who is psychologically damaged and not capable of caring for her daughter. This is a first novel, good, but sometimes a little hard to follow.

Overall Book Score: fair