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The Secret Circle trilogy by L. J. Smith
Jul. 30th, 2010 07:27 amThis is, quite possibly, the gayest thing I have ever read that did not actually involve canonically homosexual or bisexual characters. The bulk of the first book in the trilogy reads like Smith was intending to write the tale of the epic true love of Cassie and Diana, and then an editorial fist descended and demanded the insertion of a het love interest, so a dude was tossed into the mix and a prologue added and then Smith forgot that there was supposed to be a het romance most of the time, unless it was an opportunity to have Cassie angst about losing Diana’s love forever.
Anyway, The Secret Circle is a trilogy by L.J. Smith about a coven of teen witches who are the descendants of the only true witches in Salem. The plot is relatively typical for what I remember of 90s YA gothics (and a lot of which still holds true for YA gothics): teen girl returns to town where her family has a history with one parents, discovers powerful clique in school is connected to the supernatural. Hijinks, backstabbing, bonding, and teen wangst ensue, and an apocalypse is averted. The writing is decent but not amazing, the story is tropetastic, and the characters fairly common for their types (Diana and Faye are the classic Light and Dark Heroines, Deborah is the Tough Chick, Nick is the Bad Boy With a Mushy Center, Adam the Angsty Nice Guy*, and if this ever gets turned into a movie or series, fandom will never shut up about Cassie being a Mary Sue. I’ll shun the fandom because we don’t exactly agree about these things, I’m just saying…) and the series is absurdly addictive. It’s tropey, but it’s fun tropey.
You know, the 90s get a bad rap a lot of the time, and while they deserved some of it, a lot of the fiction was more willing to just be fun and go with it, which is something I miss. I knew I was hooked here when a character stood in front of her class, lit a match with her mind, and then set her homework on fire and everyone was in love with her for it.
Incidentally, for some reason, the omnibuses cut the middle book, The Captive, in half and divide it between the two volumes. They actually chose a good point to do this, but if you are like me, then this will cause you agonies if you don’t have both volumes.
*Actual nice guy, not Nice Guy.
Anyway, The Secret Circle is a trilogy by L.J. Smith about a coven of teen witches who are the descendants of the only true witches in Salem. The plot is relatively typical for what I remember of 90s YA gothics (and a lot of which still holds true for YA gothics): teen girl returns to town where her family has a history with one parents, discovers powerful clique in school is connected to the supernatural. Hijinks, backstabbing, bonding, and teen wangst ensue, and an apocalypse is averted. The writing is decent but not amazing, the story is tropetastic, and the characters fairly common for their types (Diana and Faye are the classic Light and Dark Heroines, Deborah is the Tough Chick, Nick is the Bad Boy With a Mushy Center, Adam the Angsty Nice Guy*, and if this ever gets turned into a movie or series, fandom will never shut up about Cassie being a Mary Sue. I’ll shun the fandom because we don’t exactly agree about these things, I’m just saying…) and the series is absurdly addictive. It’s tropey, but it’s fun tropey.
You know, the 90s get a bad rap a lot of the time, and while they deserved some of it, a lot of the fiction was more willing to just be fun and go with it, which is something I miss. I knew I was hooked here when a character stood in front of her class, lit a match with her mind, and then set her homework on fire and everyone was in love with her for it.
Incidentally, for some reason, the omnibuses cut the middle book, The Captive, in half and divide it between the two volumes. They actually chose a good point to do this, but if you are like me, then this will cause you agonies if you don’t have both volumes.
*Actual nice guy, not Nice Guy.