Nightmare in savannah by lela Gwenn

Illustrated by Rowan MacColl

​Alexa moves in with her grandpa in Savannah after her parents are arrested for nonviolent offenses. Her google-able past makes her an instant target for the school bullies, but she also finds some friends a group of three girls: Chloe, Skye, and Fae. The four blow off some steam after school one day with a drunken bonfire in the forest, and they come back with more than they bargained for. All four start exhibiting signs that they've delved into the Fae world and are slowly transforming into fairies. To make it worse, Alexa's grandpa starts dating a woman who also seems like she has fairy magic, and she's not leaving Alexa's family and friends alone until she restores a powerful fairy to the Fae world - someone she feels is in Alexa's friend group.

---

This felt like a spin off of The Craft but with fairies. These magical girls go after their bullies and people get severely hurt or die because of their lack of control on their powers or everyone involved not caring for any sort of consequence of their actions. The pacing is all over the place with lots of narrative jumps. There were flashbacks with only context clues to tell you it was a flashback, rather than any other marking or change in coloring that would visually let the reader know what was happening. There are some majorly tragic moments that are more or less glossed over by the characters in favor of furthering the plot, so not only do they not care about consequences, they rarely actually face them as well. A better read is Squad by Maggie Tokunda-Hall, which has much better pacing and a more high-stakes to their supernatural abilities.

The characters are all in high school, and there are some moments when the characters are drinking and smoking. This would be better for high school audiences.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Publisher: Maverick (Mad Cave)
Publication Date: November 9, 2021
ISBN: 9781952303265 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 6/10, Suitability: High School, Graphic Fiction, Supernatural, Friendship, School Life, LGBTQ+, ​Mad Cave