With their estranged Aunt Jan as their guardian, twelve-year-old twin brothers, Horace and Edgar Eerie, still cope with the unexpected death of their mother. On the day of their school detention, the boys each face different supernatural events that bring out unexpected abilities in them.
In 1692, Salem, in the midst of the witch trials, Hex is absorbing the abilities of other witches so he can enter the present world and rule over the Hidden Ones, Humans, and control all magic—and Mother Nature. But first, he must collect the Four Seasons, totems that hold the seeds of each season. And he already has one!
With the help of their best friend, Horace and Edgar must travel back to 1692, Salem, and stop Hex. But dark family secrets are revealed, and those secrets might destroy the brothers before they have the chance of saving their family, friends, and their future.
Overall, this was a fairly strong and effective young-adult novel. The fantastic setup, where the brothers find themselves taken back in time to deal with this malevolent being trying to carry out a specific ritual that serves to imbue him with power over the elements, offers a fun starting point that works incredibly well. These early stages, looking at getting to know the brothers and their tragic backstory, are a great way to get some solid sympathy as they deal with the death of their mother while living with their aunt. By the time it gets to their travel back to the past and becomes involved in stopping the witch's plan, this is a bit underwhelming in the reasoning of how it happens, but the action that comes about here, trying to follow through on that, ends up allowing this to touch on a series of subjects that are appealing to kids. Touching on family, friendship, and compassion during this struggle, there's a strong storyline here with a great series of lessons for kids while setting up enough action later on as the journey to stop the witch's plan. The confrontations are fun and lively, never diving deep enough into the macabre to be too scary for the intended audience, but remain quite enjoyable in the end, giving this quite a lot to like.
4.5/5
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