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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cooper, Kate & Annie part the veil & change their lives, January 20, 2002
This review is from: Circle of Three #9: Through the Veil (Paperback)
With another great turning of the Wheel of the Year, Cooper, Kate and Annie continue to grow and change like the year itself. Cooper makes an important decision regarding the direction her music is taking her and new connections are made. She also is forced to deal with the unhappiness and uncertainty of her parents separation. Kate continues to deal with the fallout from telling her parents she's studying Wicca. This story finds her under virtual house arrest with no privacy, her belongings are searched, magical tools get taken away, emails and phone calls are monitored and she's unable to attend Wicca class, see or talk to her Wiccan boyfriend Tyler, or see her friends outside of school. On top of all of that, she's forced to see a psychiatrist too...could things get any worse?! Thankfully, the mood is about to change. But the focus of the story is on Annie. The wheel has now turned to the season of Samhain, the Witches New Year, when the veil separating the realm of the living and the realm of the dead is very thin. Annie is frightened and haunted by recurring dreams of her parents and the fire she accidentally started. She begins to hear their voices calling to her. She realizes that she must begin to deal with the guilt she's been harboring all these years concerning her parents untimely death. She starts by asking her aunt for a birthday gift to help her on her way to healing. Bird continues to enchant with three down-to-earth teen characters, practicing the Craft of Wicca, much like it is practiced today. The story has a somewhat syrupy ending, but it does remind those who practice Wicca, of some of the emotional, profound or life-changing experiences that they themselves may have experienced on the Wiccan path. Bird has really developed these characters well and this book brings readers closer to them than ever. All of this and a wonderful, beautifully constructed Samhain ritual too. Fans will enjoy this latest installment in the series. Others interested in the magical adventure that life can be are strongly encouraged to read the wonderful books in the Circle of Three Series.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"The Veil Has Been Rent. Will You Pass Through?", June 18, 2005
This review is from: Circle of Three #9: Through the Veil (Paperback)
"Through the Veil" is the ninth book in the "Circle of Three" series, which chronicles three teenagers' journey through a year-and-a-day of discovering and exploring Wicca. If you haven't yet come across these books, I suggest you stop reading now and head back to book number one "So Mote It Be", as the books are very closely tied together and it's near impossible to read them out of chronological order (which is annoying, but there you go).
The three girls are Kate, Cooper and Annie (the ex-popularity queen, the rebel and the nerd are their individual personalities in a nutshell) and in "Through the Veil" they are fast approaching Halloween - Samhain in the Wicca calendar. Samhain marks the thinning of the veils between the living and the dead, which is especially relevant for Annie considering her parents passed away when she was young.
This title deals mainly with Annie - she is approaching her sixteenth birthday, and has asked her aunt if she can take a visit to San Francisco for her present. She lived there with her parents before they were killed in a house fire that she accidently started. Now she's been having disturbing nightmares about them and seeks out a way to communicate with them. As such, a few Wiccan rituals are thrown in - a meeting with a physic, a circle taken place at Annie's old home, and the coven's Samhain celebration itself which involves some symbollic "role-playing" along the same lines as the events that took place in "What the Cards Said" and "In the Dreaming". Not that that's a bad thing - these gatherings are pretty much the only reason I keep reading these books.
Meanwhile Kate and Cooper are dealing with their own (less critical) problems. Kate's parents are vehemently against her involvement in witchcraft and react by sending her to a therapist, confiscating her Wiccan tools and forbidding her from seeing her boyfriend or from attending her Wiccan class. Cooper on the other hand has quit her band due to the fact they aren't interested in playing her Wiccan-themed songs (fair enough, I say - she doesn't half over-react!) and just found out that her parents are separating.
As you can see, the plot is all over the place and often comes across as messy with the constant switching points of view - if would have felt more focused if Isobel Bird had chosen one girl and developed her personal story more fully (Annie's is certainly the most important, but Kate and Cooper get just as much screen-time). On top of the three stories outlined above, Bird also crams in a love interest for Annie's aunt, a physic that communicates with Annie's parents, and a truly bizarre transsexual witch - I'm sorry, but I couldn't quite see the point of that particular character.
"Through the Veil" is one of the more interesting installments, despite the lack of a clear storyline and the hopelessly cheesy ending. "The Circle of Three" books are hardly high literature, but for me they're quick, mildly entertaining reads. The three girls are sympathetic enough to justify getting hold of other books in the series, but be quick - they're already out of print.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Through The Vail, November 28, 2001
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Circle of Three #9: Through the Veil (Paperback)
It was an accident that happened 10 years ago. Even though they are gone, Annie has never forgotten her parents. But as they approach Samhain, the day when the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnist, Annie wants to bring them back. But do they want to come back?
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