Clarion Rating: 3 out of 5
Leftwich Blues/Elfwitch Rules is an engaging fantasy novel in which teenagers in an alternate reality receive powerful messages about faith and family.
Adventure, alternative worlds, and the strength of family come together in Jeffrey Cummins’s riveting young adult fantasy novel Leftwich Blues/Elfwitch Rules.
Chayse and Reed Leftwich are twins. They live in the rural Ozarks with only their mother. They are often left on their own while she works nights to provide for them. On one such evening, Chayse and Reed are confronted at their house by a strange woman, Miss Crutch, and two unfamiliar men who insist they are from child services. The children are taken to family court, where the judge determines that their mother is unfit to care for her family.
A young couple, who appear to be upstanding citizens and eager parents, are granted custody of the children. However, when their foster parents take them cave exploring only to trick them into entering an alternative world, Chayse and Reed discover that they are not doting parents, but rather the servants of Miss Crutch, who isn’t a child services agent at all but rather a powerful sorceress known as the Elfwitch.
In the divergent narratives of Chayse and Reed, the novel shows how each person reacts to authority, fear, and questions of faith. Chayse’s nature as a people pleaser, along with her desire for acceptance and stability, leads her to abandon her brother and ignore his suffering in order to protect herself, even if it means aligning herself with an evil entity. Reed rebels against the Elfwitch and refuses to give her what she wants; however, he rejects her out of anger, spite, and his anti-authority nature, and not out of any moral imperative to protect himself or his loved ones. Only after the two spend time in their respective situations do they realize that they serve a purpose bigger than themselves and that they need to look beyond their needs in order to save both this new world and the world they have always known.
The novel holds attention with its vibrant imagery, rich characterizations, and captivating story with a Christian message (here, hope and belief in God sustains people through difficult times). Drawing on symbols of light and darkness to highlight the dichotomy between faith and science, the novel casts those who uphold the values of God as noble and good, and those who question or even mock the idea as evil. However, the book’s design and prose undermine its delivery. The front cover incorporates images that hint at the story within but that do not connect to one another. Further, convoluted sentence structures, inconsistent spacing between clauses, and abrupt transitions make for stilted reading, while missing and incorrect punctuation marks impede the story further.
Still, Leftwich Blues/Elfwitch Rules is an engaging fantasy novel in which teenagers in an alternate reality receive powerful messages about faith and family.
Reviewed by Gail Hoffer-Loibl
November 12, 2022
A sprawling, engrossing fantasy that deftly explores Christian themes in a dramatic fashion.
Two siblings from Arkansas fight to survive in a magical world.
This debut novel follows in the footsteps of C.S. Lewis, creating a Christian allegory in a fantasy world. Twelve-year-old twins Chayse and Reed Leftwich are home alone while their adoring but overstretched mother is busy at work; their loving yet irresponsible father has moved out. Then a social worker shows up and takes them into custody. After a quick hearing, the twins are handed over to foster parents, but things get complicated when the couple take them from the Ozarks into another world, ruled by the Elfwitch. The Elfwitch demand that the twins hand over silver necklaces they were given by their mother. Reed refuses and is sent to prison while Chayse agrees and starts to follow the Elfwitch. Chayse learns about potions and the Elfwitch’s ambitions while Reed builds alliances with his fellow prisoners, breaks out of jail, and finds out about the new land’s problems. The people have turned their backs on the Judge who set down the Law and sent his Son as his representative, and the Elfwitch conspire to unseat the rightful queen. Chayse and Reed struggle to understand why everyone in this new world resembles people they know in Arkansas—including their parents—and eventually realize that defeating the Elfwitch and restoring the Judge’s rule are crucial steps in their quest to get back to their own realm. While the fantasy world’s Christian symbolism is not subtle (“So the Judge sent his Son. He said, ‘Surely, they will listen to my Son and return to the Law.’ But the people loved the Darkness more and called that the Light”), it is well integrated into the plot and the worldbuilding. Dramatic battle scenes, mysterious enchantments, monstrous creatures, and unfamiliar environments situate the story firmly in the fantasy genre, and the religious themes mesh with the plot. The writing is not entirely polished, but Cummins tells a solid and engaging story.
A sprawling, engrossing fantasy that deftly explores Christian themes in a dramatic fashion.
