The Sacred & the Divine

Christensen (Welcome Home, Stranger, for adults) and Henderson layer sweeping fantasy with chaste romance and spiritualism in this beguiling story about occultist sisters determined to save their town and their reputations. In 1848 Redcliffe, Mass., the Wolfsons—17-year-old Avery and 16-year-old twins Daisy and Morrigan—are beloved for their divination and tarot skills. Daisy has a “healing touch” and prescience; Morrigan sees visions of the past; and Avery, who prefers breeches to gowns, intuits “unseen things in the present moment.” As Daisy becomes entangled in a love triangle with feuding newcomers—infuriating Jasper, whose skepticism of magic matches Daisy’s passion for it, and Jasper’s charismatic enemy, Nate—a demon, and the mass hysteria that’s summoned upon its arrival, turns Redcliffe against the sisters. The teens’ search for a remedy to the demon’s influence exposes family secrets, and the truth about Nate and Jasper. Close third-person narration centering Daisy is steeped in immersive period details. Slow pacing and unresolved plotlines prove occasionally frustrating. Nevertheless, the collaborators cleverly assemble a hero’s journey narrative by highlighting the novel’s mystical elements—chapter headings’ numerical designation refers to specific tarot cards that, when pulled in sequential order, portend personal transformation. Protagonists read as white. Ages 12–up. (Oct.)