Horn also tones down the darker aspects of the story through judicious use of humour and romance and elements of the coming-of-age novel. The context however is clearly contemporary, making the novel more of an “urban fantasy”. In “The Line”, the first of a projected series of novels, J.D.Horn taps into the time-honoured tradition of the Southern Gothic and borrows, somewhat indiscriminately, several tropes of the genre – witches, hoodoo, curses and prophecies, restless spirits, family secrets and sensational revelations, revenge and sudden bursts of violence. The anchor needs to be replaced but who will the Power choose? Ginny’s death threatens to disrupt the fragile balance between the two worlds. Ginny was one of a few powerful “anchors” who hold the “line”, a magical boundary which keeps demons and evil spirits from taking over the world of the living. But this is the least of the witching community’s worries.

When Maisie finds Ginny murdered, her head bashed in, suspicion falls on the Taylor themselves. While Maisie seems destined for great things, Mercy has inherited no magical gifts, much to the dismay and scorn of the rest of the family, particularly Great Aunt Ginny. … ( more)Ģ0-year old fraternal twins Mercy and Maisie Taylor are the youngest in a long-established, Savannah-based family of witches. Horn weaves magic, romance, and betrayal into a captivating Southern Gothic fantasy with a contemporary flair. and unleash a darkness the line of Taylor witches has been keeping at bay for generations.In The Line, the first book of the Witching Savannah series, J. But when a series of mishaps-culminating in the death of the Taylor matriarch-leaves a vacuum in the mystical underpinnings of Savannah, she finds herself thrust into a mystery that could shake her family apart. Mercy Taylor is all too familiar with the supernatural side of Savannah, being a member of the most powerful family of witches in the South.Despite being powerless herself, of course.Having grown up without magic of her own, in the shadow of her talented and charismatic twin sister, Mercy has always thought herself content. Those who know her well, though, can see beyond her colonial trappings and small-city charm to a world where witchcraft is respected, Hoodoo is feared, and spirits linger. To the uninitiated, Savannah shows only her bright face and genteel manner. Savannah is considered a Southern treasure, a city of beauty with a rich, colorful past.

Jilo by J.D. Horn