Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, January 2024

“Under the Ghost Star” by Erik VanBezooijen

Reviewed by David Wesley Hill

For someone rooming with the severed head of her grandmother in the depths of a cursed forest, and who has never had contact with any other human being with the possible exception of her dead parents, Kuma is a pretty savvy young witch. At the tender age of thirteen, she’s already an accomplished necromancer, even though granny Bogdana, quite understandably a waspish curmudgeon, refuses to give Kuma the special insignia due her on her birthday in this magical coming of age story, “Under the Ghost Star” by Erik VanBezooijen, the January offering of Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores. Soon, however, Kuma has a chance to prove herself, when an old friend of grandma Bogdana, the undine Julna, enlists her aid to fulfill a vow the elemental and the decapitated witch made years ago … to resurrect the dead chimera Traejun, who is prisoner of the death god Choronzon. What follows is a fantasy tale with enough tension and imagination to keep this reviewer reading with interest, although, unfortunately, the ending leaves behind so many loose threads of backstory and plot that ultimately I found myself unsatisfied by the denouement … All in all, a story that would have benefited from a lot more world-building … or a lot less.