The VANISHING HALF

A middle grade book about a girl who is taken by a witch and then enmagicked. Her powers are fueled by the moon. The People of Protectorate give away a baby to the "evil" witch so that she doesn't destroy the people. The story follows the girl as she grows up and finally brings teh truth to the people of the Protectorate.

A false story is propagated by the Elders and the Sisters of the Protectorate that there is an evil witch in the forest and she needs one baby per year to not destroy the town. So, every year the youngest in the town is delivered to the witch. Antain, who interned for the Elders doesn't believe the story and thinks that the witch can be killed. He is broken by the cries of th ewoman whose kid was taken away. Th ewoman is locked up in the tower of the Sisters and she communicates in a magical way with Antain that her daughter is alive and well.

The daughter, Luna is taken by the witch and she accidentally fed her the moon. This makes the child "enmagicked" which means that she will have powerful magic but it will be uncontrollable and will cause harm to others. So, the witch, Xan decides to bring her home to her other friends, a swamp monster Glerk and a tiny dragon, Fyrian. When the girl grows up she does start hurting people and Xan finally puts a spell on her to lock her magic till she turns 13. This weakens Xan so that when Luna comes to power she will die. And Luna phases out everytime something magical happens or someone evens utters magic near her.

As she grows, so does Antain and now he has a wife and a baby who is the youngest in the Protectorate. And he plans to kill the witch before she takes his boy. The Elders believe that he mmight do so and then it would lift the sorrow from the people of the Protectorate. So they cant let him survive and plan to murder him in the forest. The Head Sister is sent out on this mission. As the Sister leaves the town, the fog of SOrrow is lifted and people have Hope. Th elocked mother breaks out of her prison to find her daughter. Xan in her weakened state is flying towards the forest to recover Antain's baby. Luna and the monsters follow Xan on their own to protect Xan. All of them meet in the forest. And then the volcano erupts. Xan teaches Luna how to make protective bubbles around the houses of the Protectorate and everything is fine at the end. She lives with her mother. Xan and Glerk walk away into the sunset. The Sister and the Elders are put into jail.

Characters:

• Xan: "evil" witch

• Luna: Baby who drank the moon

• Glerk: Swamp monster, the Bog

• Fyrian: A teeny tiny dragon

• Antain: The boy who is willing to fight for what's right

• Sister: Evil witch who feeds on sorrow of the people of the town and thus created the fake story.

• Elders: The rich elites who share the fake story of the Sisters in order to remain rich and let other people suffer.

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

What to like about the book?

• Whimsical characters. There are so many characters to love.

• The writing is very atmospheric. I could see the town and the forest in my head.

What I did not like personally?

• The Ending was somewhat rushed.

• Characters realising their full potential and directly being able to use that power is not my cup-of-tea.