But I’m trying to quit all that now, and I figured if having a diary helps Lara, it might work for me too. God knows I’ve done plenty of dumb things in my life-stealing, destruction of property, mouthing off to teachers, getting into fights. She says it helps, whenever she’s feeling frustrated or angry or upset, to write out her feelings instead of doing something stupid. But Lara is always scribbling away in hers. I’ve never had one before-I’m not really much of a writer, except when school forces me. It’s ironic, since my wanting a diary is what started this whole thing off in the first place. That’s what diaries are for, right? To keep our darkest secrets safe. I want to talk about it but I also sort of want to keep it a secret, which is why I’m writing about it here. Excerptīook of Shadows MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 4:15 P.M. Soon they discover that the spells suggested by The Book of Shadows itself do work-but not without wreaking havoc on the lives of the four teenagers. What they didn’t expect was a new spell showing up inside the book-and in handwriting none of them recognize.

Melanie doesn’t know much about that stuff, but Lara, her boyfriend Caleb, and his friend Lucas, get her started by writing their own made up spells inside the book’s tempting pages. Her Wiccan friend Lara tells her it’s better suited to be a magical spell book, called The Book of Shadows. But once she gets home, Melanie finds herself too intimidated by the heavy vellum pages to write her trivial thoughts on them. One day while browsing in a used bookshop, she finds the perfect blank book-smooth black leather with strange symbols in gold embossing. In the tradition of American Horror Story and The Craft, a young girl discovers a magical spell book and dives headfirst into the occult-but this powerful book comes with a dangerous warning: OPEN AT YOUR OWN RISK.Īll Melanie wants is a blank book to keep a journal of her private thoughts.

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