The Beginners by Rebecca Wolff (not sure when. I believe she was at Friends for Middle School). The Beginners has all the trappings of a witchy, ghostly Gothic tale. Ginger Pritt, the narrator and protagonist, is a bright 15-year-old living in Wick, a tiny New England town with roots that stretch back to Salem. The dominant image is submersion, which is what happened to two neighboring towns when a reservoir was created. Dunking also turns out to be a good test for outing witches. Ginger tells us she does not go in the water. Her coming of age is abetted by a glamourous and enigmatic couple, who settle in Wick, and seem hell-bent (evil and demons silently lurk) on awakening her dreamy sexuality. Much of the narration is mesmerizing; I even fancied I heard the feminized voice of Vincent Price reading Poe to me.
