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OLDER FICTION
Bakewell, Catherine

Flowerheart

352 pp. | HarperTeen | March, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9780063214590 $19.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780063214613 $8.99
(3) YA Sixteen-year-old Clara has attempted to train as a witch but is unable to control her magic. She is given a choice: have her magic bound, so she can access a fraction of her power with painful consequences for every spell or lose magic entirely. She chooses binding, but then her touch causes toxic flowers to grow from her father’s chest and poison his blood--a curse that only Clara can heal with a complex blessing requiring perfect magical control. She seeks help from her estranged childhood friend Xavier, who agrees to train her--if Clara will give her magic to him once the blessing is completed. The bargain seems an easy choice, until Clara begins to understand her magic and learns more of Xavier’s motives, which involve counteracting an illegal and dangerous potion originally intended to treat melancholy. Bakewell’s standalone YA debut delivers cottagecore aesthetics in a fantasy world where magic and mental health are intertwined. As Clara embraces her magic, its voice which always told her the “worst parts” of herself and “brought [her] low” becomes easier to bear and to control. Completing the blessing is only the beginning of Clara’s journey as she also helps Xavier bear the weight of past choices--and secrets--while exploring how to work within the rigid confines of the council to offer people a potion not to erase melancholy and “change who they are, but something that will give them the power to be themselves again.” Clara and Xavier are cued as white in this inclusive world where LGBTQ+ identities (including bisexual Clara) are embraced and celebrated with transgender and nonbinary secondary characters who are accomplished and conscientious magicians.
Reviewer:

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