Witch World

In this bloated series launch from the prolific Pike, when Jessie accompanies her graduating class to Las Vegas for the weekend, she meets a mysterious man with a knack for winning at cards. Soon after, Jessie is killed, but she returns to life to learn that she's a witch with superhuman abilities, able to dwell in two different worlds at once. What follows is a muddied sequence of events involving alternate realities and people with multiple counterparts. As Jessie learns the truth about her heritage, reconciles with her boyfriend, and fights to save the daughter she never knew she had, she gets further entangled in a millennia-old battle between two opposing witch factions. Readers may struggle with Jessie's convoluted narration ("Anyway, the first time we had sex, that was important. It had been in the shower, like I told him, or rather, just after we took a shower. But he was right about one thing%E2%80%94he had not spent time in the shower washing the oil off his hands"), and Pike's premise is needlessly complicated. A chaotic jumble of supernatural tropes. Agent: Jennifer Unter, the Unter Agency. Ages 14%E2%80%93up. (Nov.)