"Hither & Nigh" by Ellen Potter

Hither & Nigh (Oct. 18, 2022) by Ellen Potter.

<This is the first novel in a series.>

Welcome to the Last Chance Club, a place where Mr. Luther Boot will give magic lessons. To refuse them will mean expulsion from school. The students in this club are an assorted group. There’s Nell Batista: criminal truancy, skipping school to gamble in Washington Square Park (a chess hustler). Then there’s Annika Rapp, her former best friend and a beautiful bully, Crud (Carmen) Butterbank, who’s built like a linebacker and is rumored to be violent, and The Viking (whose name is Tom Gunnerson), a rich kid prone to stealing (and Mr. Boot despises him, for some reason). Nell isn’t falling for the magic bit. She’s got city kid smarts, and she has little imagination. The imaginative one was her brother, River, who disappeared three years ago. Nell has accepted that magic exists by the time she’s forced through a Wicket into the Nigh by an Imp. The Nigh is “a vast place. New York City is only a tiny part of it.” The Nigh is created from the imaginations of Human children. The Folk can do none of this magic, and they’re governed by the Minister, who’s simultaneously tiny and terrifying. It’s the Minister who has Human children abducted and brought to the Nigh. River is there, somewhere. The Nigh is a lot like NYC but different. Magicians ride astride, not horses, but giant dogs or dogges (DOH-eggs). Statues, like Bethesda, can talk. And there’s a Statue of Liberty, but it’s a man with no crown holding a television remote control. Nell’s life has been topsy-turvy since her brother went missing. How can she make sense of a world that’s topsy-turvy with enchantment? If she makes enough sense of it, can she find River and save him?

            Where there’s a parallel NYC, there will be middle-grade domestic, fantasy adventure where magic and mystery alight and chopsticks can be calibrated to work within a highly charged Oomphalos. Right? In the case of Potter’s story, yes. The fantastical details are a boon for fantasy readers. There’s a strong foundation with distinct character development, the writing employs solid world-building and middle-school snark and, even when it comes to magic, learning must occur. While Nell cues as Latinx, the other characters appear to default to Caucasian. A novel that I found to be a fast read, readers learn right away that magic isn’t only for the good kids.

            Note 1: An Oomphalos ”is a place where energy converges and makes magic not only possible, but probable.” (p. 69)

            Note 2: Zoophenloft layers are “a coping mechanism, so that we can get on with our lives after unpleasant events.” (p. 123)

            Note 3: “A Wicket is a way in to the Nigh. And a way out of it.” (p. 194)

            Note 4: A skrill is squirrel-like. It’s like a long-bodied weasel with a flat, short face like a pug. Dusty blue in color. Tiller is a skrill, and he understands English. When he talks, one feels the words, for they’re not spoken aloud. (pp. 190, 193)

            Note 5: An Imp is always a boy. “They’re creatures neither dead nor alive. They live in an in-between place, alone, hungry for the company of other children.” Imps can be cruel and want to steal children for fun, for entertainment, to prove that they can or for profit. (pp. 185, 233)

            Note 6: Mrs. Nerriberry is good Folk. She is a friend to Pilliwiggins, Noodgers, Fletchers and Auguries (Fates). No one is a friend to Sewer Mahambas (will eat you and therefore kill you), Boggedy Cats (will also kill you) and other nightmare creatures of the Ramble.