I just finished reading
Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman (a.k.a. Dr. Frank of the Mr. T Experience, a Berkeley punk band).
Cover blurb:
Andromeda Klein has a few problems.
Her hair is kind of horrible.
Her partner-in-occultism, Daisy, is dead.
Her secret, estranged, much older and forbidden boyfriend-in-theory, has gone AWOL.
And her mother has learned how to text.
In short, things couldn't get much worse. Until they do. Daisy seems to be attempting to make contact from beyond, books are starting to disappear from the library, and then, strangely and suddenly, Andromeda's tarot readings are beginning to predict events with bizarrely literal accuracy.
Omens are everywhere. Dreams; swords; fires; hidden cards; lost, broken, and dead cell phones . . . and what is Daisy trying to tell her?
In the ensuing struggle of neutral versus evil, it's Andromeda Klein against the world, modern society, demonic forces, and the "friends" of the library.
It's a very enjoyable book, a "young adult" novel for young adults with brains. I appreciated the fact that Dr. Frank did a lot of research about actual occult traditions, rather than just making up a lot of "fakus Latinus" Harry Potterish mumbo-jumbo. I like fantastic literature with a good historical anchor, so I'll get more pleasure from a reference to a work like Meric Casaubon's
A True and Faithful Relation... (familiar to me but not to the general populace, I would imagine) than a reference to some fictional work by Gilderoy Lockhart, however humorous the title. It's the same kind of feeling as getting an inside joke -- and Portman also has a few of those that made me laugh out loud. Finally, if I can have those sorts of "I see what you did there" moments and also gain some knowledge along the way (such as the fact that Aleister Crowley's name rhymes with
holy rather than
foully), then so much the better!