The Cost of All Things

March 30, 2015
Ari, Markos, Kay, and Win live in a version of our world in which a person can visit witchlike hekamists to request a spell—to forget someone (Ari), to find the will to live (Win), to be beautiful and have friends (Kay), or to relieve the weight of the world (Markos). Lehrman, a children’s book editor making her debut as a novelist, alternates perspective among these four protagonists, delivering a story that is squarely grounded in reality, despite its distinct paranormal overlay. Lehrman’s prose pulses with dark emotion—loss, grief, rage, frustration, confusion, doomed love, loneliness—and the steady desperation of her characters is both disturbing and compelling. The characters’ voices can sound overly similar at times, and the things that are left unsaid by everyone are so subtle that the book’s closing revelation may prove more confusing than illuminating to some readers. But Lehrman is adept at digging underneath the surface of her characters and bringing up what’s underneath into the glaring light, however uncomfortable this might make them—or readers. Ages 14–up. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM.

February 15, 2015
Reeling from the death of her boyfriend, a girl enlists the help of a hekamist to forget him just as other spells taken by those closest to her reveal their true, unforgiving costs. When Ari visits the hekamist who lives behind her high school, she's well-aware this won't be the first spell she's ever taken. When she was a little girl, her parents were killed in a fire, and her wrist still aches as a side effect of the trauma-erasing spell she took then. The death of Win, her boyfriend, drives her back without regard to the compounded consequences of taking on multiple spells. Through the alternating voices of Ari, Win, and their friends Kay and Markos, readers see a dense knot of intertwining spells-cast knowingly on some and unknowingly on others-slowly unraveling. And as the hekamist's daughter relates, spells protect themselves. They don't want to be broken. As the magic reveals its true power, each character charts remarkably complex courses in painful growth. Perspectives propelled by angst and obsession, like those of Kay and Markos, can drag, but the stories of Ari and Win shine in their depth. Though he's absent, Win's journey resonates, and the mark he leaves is felt long after the final page. An engrossing, emotionally resonant spin on the old adage: Be careful what you wish for. (Urban fantasy. 14 & up)

February 1, 2015

Gr 8 Up-The premise of Lehrman's debut is quite intriguing. Unfortunately, the novel does not deliver due to stereotypical characters and a story that turns convoluted very quickly. There are those who practice the art of "hekame" which allows them to cast spells to erase a person's memories, make them beautiful, or even help them hook friends forever. The story is told in the four voices of friends Ari, Kay, Win, and Markos. Win has recently died and Ari, his girlfriend, decides to spend $5,000 on a spell to erase all of her memories of Win. As she soon discovers, for every action there is a reaction. Though she dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina in New York, Ari begins suffering from physical clumsiness that prevents her from dancing-a direct side effect of the spell to erase her memory. Readers also learn that Markos, Kay, and Win have also purchased spells that affect them and their relationships with their family and friends. The theme that everyone is responsible for their own actions is redolent here. VERDICT Skip this novel and read E. Lockhart's We Were Liars (Delacorte, 2014) instead, which carries this theme to a much more satisfying end.-Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
Markos's best friend, Win, has died. Win's girlfriend, Ari, gets a spell to erase Win's memory--a spell that has unwanted side effects when mixed with friend Kay's secret spell, cast to keep Ari close. Unlikable characters deal with grief and consequences of wishes in this surprisingly prepossessing not-quite-fantasy novel; an unresolved and moderately depressing ending is grounded in realism.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)