By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell
Sometimes being the youngest isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and no one knows that quite like 12-year-old Airrelle Bookman. In Sumayyah Beck’s debut middle-grade fantasy novel, Airrelle of the Maroon Witches, readers are taken on a journey through a story about growing up, family, friendship and magic. After her magic calls to her for the first time in the form of her first patron, a crane, which speaks to her, Airrelle’s witch training begins, and she learns that magic can be more complicated than it seems and that just because something’s always been there doesn’t mean it’ll continue to be.
Billing itself as the novel love child of Black Panther and Kiki’s Delivery Service, this read lives up to its comparisons by showing readers a magical world hidden within the natural world. In the enchanting Missen Dessalin, the world Airrelle grew up in, its inhabitants are kept safe from the outside environment and its problems and throughout history, the barrier, aka bomawall, has protected those inside from slavers and invaders. Within Missen Dessalin, anyone can be a witch, but not even someone like Airrelle with two full-blooded witch parents is guaranteed to become a Maroon Witch, meaning they’re able to leave Missen Dessalin and visit and even live in other witch communities.
It’s often assumed siblings resent their younger counterparts getting patience and resources they didn’t have growing up; Airrelle’s struggle is that everything from her family to the barrier that kept her community safe seems to be crumbling right as her witch training begins.
To successfully become a Maroon Witch, Airrelle has to obtain four patrons, complete four rites, master four skills and pass her initiation. As a witty witch in training, Airrelle can begin to take flying lessons and, with supervision, start to take journeys beyond Missen Dessalin and the safety it’s always provided.
While parts of the book fall into the trap of fantasy, first-book info-dumping, all and all Beck’s novel provides a distinctive and well-thought-out magic system. In the Missen Dessalin readers are offered an idyllic world where plants talk and middle schoolers can fly. More than that, we see a world untouched by humanity’s shortcomings, from war to pollution. Simultaneously, Beck manages to find strength in subverting many genre tropes throughout the story. For example, where many authors would make Airrelle’s astral soul journey the entire story, Beck makes it the beginning. Additionally, in a genre ruled by lonely, grieving orphans, (although the Bookmans are spread out) Beck steers clear of that tried-and-true source of angst and allows some of the conflict to revolve around struggles within an intact family. Sometimes this means relatable sources of stress, such as Airrelle worrying she can’t live up to how her older siblings performed during their witch training. Other times, it’s fearing for her parents while her beloved father is missing and her usually stable mother is dealing with a health scare.
Aside from Airrelle’s family, another strength within the story is the relationships she has with her fellow witches and witches-in-training. Standout relationships include her siblings and her longtime friend Hosniya. In particular, she builds a compelling friendship with a girl from the Overside, the world outside of Missen Dessalin, who saves her and becomes a fellow aspiring Maroon Witch. Moreover, throughout the novel Beck manages to critique the lack of care humans have shown the earth without being heavy-handed. Furthermore, Beck allows readers to imagine how the world could be by depicting characters deeply connected to and grateful for the plants and beings around them.
Ultimately, Airrelle of the Maroon Witches is a quintessential coming-of-age story for children that adults who still dream of stranger worlds can also enjoy. The novel is whimsical, witchy, heartwarming and perfect for readers trying to fill a Studio Ghibli-sized hole in their literary lives.