Spell Bound, by Jacob Z. Flores

[Ulysses]

Spell Bound
Jacob Z. Flores
Dreamspinner Press, 2015
Four stars

The first of the “Warlock Brothers of Havenbrook” series, “Spell Bound” left me with mixed emotions. What I liked best is the world of Havenbrook, a New England legacy of the witch trials of 17th-century Salem, in which we have witches, wizards and warlocks. Each kind of magical being can be male or female; their designation indicates what kind of magic they represent. Witches are white, the most empathetic, and the most sensitive. Wizards are gray magic, all about balance and logic (not unlike Star Trek’s Spock, I guess). Warlocks are the masters of black magic, which is not evil, just chaotic. They tend to be cold and self-interested (sort of Slytherin-ish).

Hunted to near extinction in the Colonial era, magical beings have long since gone underground, passing as human and quietly ruling the magic that fills the world, unbeknownst to non-magical folks. I enjoyed the way Jacob Flores sets up this world, and then introduces the various magical families, each with their own role and personality, as they live in genteel tension with each other, maintaining the balance of magical power.

It is in this context that we meet Mason Blackmore, the teenaged son of the most powerful warlock family, with his elder brothers, the genius Thad and the player Pierce. Still grieving for his mother, Mason maintains a pose of aloofness in high school, assuming that it is better to be feared that bullied. Having not realized his magical power yet Mason is afraid behind his mask of arrogant indifference.

And then Drake Carpenter literally barges into Mason’s life and turns it upside down. A big blond Texas farmboy, Drake strikes up an approach/avoidance dynamic with Mason. Mason is powerfully attracted to this beautiful young man, but also leery of him and his strange ways.

Strange happenings, including two mysterious murders, begin to force Mason to see things differently as his magical community is challenged and possibly threatened. I liked that he begins to question his own attitude, as his attachment to Drake forces him to look closely at the people around him. At one point he notes to himself: “I don’t need to be an ass to be a badass.” Caught between human classmates who don’t know who he really is, and a family who fears that he might not be up to snuff, Mason is just another insecure seventeen-year-old—with a big difference.

This could have been a YA book, had not Dreamspinner’s audience-pleasing policy demanded two extended (and quite unnecessary) sex scenes. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Drake and Mason; but explicit sexuality wasn’t necessary to make this story sing. Drake and Mason are both interesting young men, and the not-quite-clear nature of their relationship and their fundamental misunderstanding of each other creates quite enough dramatic tension.

But, in spite of these flaws, this is a kind of American gay Hogwarts scenario that I have always looked for, and I’m delighted to have found it. I did buy the second in the series. I want to see what happens next.