Josephine Angelini’s new series has a unique concept, one that marries science fiction and fantasy (into what she calls “sci fantasy”). I’ve seen the melding of these two genres bandied about the past couple of years as the “next big thing,” but I haven’t actually seen a lot of published stories that truly fit the description. Usually, the story falls pretty firmly on one side of the SF/F line, so I was really excited to give this one a shot.

Aside from the SFF combo, the concept is unique in other ways: the storyline involves female witches whose magic is derived from the energy within their bodies, activated by certain foods and other stimuli. However, this magic only works the proper way in one of the two parallel worlds featured in the book, which is tough for our protagonist. Lily lives in our world and has suffered terrible allergies most of her life, crippling her socially and ensuring she’s always in danger of suffering some life-threatening attack. When she’s unwittingly taken into a parallel world where witches rule, she learns that her allergies are actually side effects of her magic, which has been held dormant within her body so long without release that it’s causing her harm. In this alternate world, she’s immensely powerful. Unfortunately for Lily, this kind of magic doesn’t work in our world – but that doesn’t stop her from trying to get back to it.

Lily didn’t get to this alternate world on her own. She was brought there by Lillian, an alternate version of Lily, also a powerful witch. Because of her power, Lillian rules over Salem, and she’s not kind or fair. She’s set up magic as the one true way of doing things, meaning that doctors and scientists as we regard them are persecuted. According to Lillian, there is no room for science in a world ruled by magic.

Lily isn’t sure why Lillian brought her to this other Salem, but she knows she wants to get back home. She’s taken in by Outlanders, a group of people who live outside the walls of Salem. They don’t have any of the protections offered by Salem and its ruler, meaning they’re at the mercy of the Woven, terrible creatures that started out as animals but have now become something else. The leaders of the Outlanders want Lily to develop her own magic so they can use it to make a better Salem for themselves. Some of the Outlanders have counterparts in our own world (like Tristan, Lily’s best friend) and some don’t (like Rowan, a boy who once worked for – and loved – Lillian before joining the Outlander cause).

It’s difficult for me to communicate how complex the concept and world-building are here. In some ways, the story is set up as a basic good vs. evil tale, with the Outlanders as the righteous rebels and Lillian as the power-hungry despot to be taken down. It’s complicated, though, because we get some of the story from Lillian’s perspective, and it’s clear she has goals that are not entirely selfish. She brought Lily – a person who could theoretically be powerful enough to defeat her – to her world, after all, and she must have had a reason for doing so. The matriarchal society of alt-Salem is also fascinating and something not commonly seen in SFF. What will draw a lot of teens, though, is the idea of Lily meeting herself – Lillian – in this alternate world. They’re like and unalike in various ways that fluctuate over the course of the story. At first, Lily believes she’s completely different from her alt-self and tries to convince the Outlanders of it; but after some time, she starts to doubt it. This comes at about the same time we as readers start to doubt Lillian’s characterization as entirely evil.

I really liked the ideas behind this story. It’s so creative and so fresh, even when it’s using some common tropes (romance, witches, tearing down a despotic regime). The magic system and world-building in particular are standouts. I don’t think the story is entirely successful in its execution, though. Lily as a character is a bit flat. She’s immensely powerful in alt-Salem, but her actions are mostly reactive (things happen to her, she doesn’t make things happen). That’s not a criticism of Lily as a person (I think a lot of us mostly react to things), but it’s not great for a character in a novel. For a lot of the book, I felt like I was stuck in exposition, even while the characters battled Woven. Lillian’s motivations remained murky up to the end, which is too bad, because she is by far the most fascinating character. This is a series, so perhaps Lily will come into her own a bit more in the sequel – and we’ll get to spend more time with Lillian.

My review copy came with a letter from Angelini stating that the magic system she writes about is based on actual science, which is clearly a marketing ploy, but it’s also fascinating to consider. This would be a good pick for fans of both science fiction and fantasy who want something new and something that makes them think. It’s also a worthy entry into the growing parallel worlds subgenre.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Trial by Fire is available now.