Modern Fantasy Reflection: Blackwood

Bond, G. (2012). Blackwood. Nottingham, UK: Strange Chemistry. 

 

Miranda Blackwood has never belonged but she’s never lived anywhere else but on the island of Roanoke. Her family was cursed when the 114 original colonists disappeared long ago. The island faces present-day mystery when 114 more citizens disappear and Miranda’s father is murdered. Miranda teams up with Phillips, who left the island to escape the voices of the dead. It’s a race against time as they battle to find the missing while avoiding federal agents and dead alchemists. They are on a quest to break the Blackwood curse and remove the red serpent birthmark that appeared on Miranda’s cheek when her father died. Phillips and Miranda grow closer, but with ancestors on opposite sides, another conflict occurs when they must push aside romantic feelings and battle darkness if they are ever going to escape the island and save their families.

This is a young adult modern fantasy that uses magical realism to tell the story. The supernatural elements such as a magical gun and ghostly alchemists are inserted into a present-day Roanoke setting. There are traces of history due to being on the island of Roanoke, but it is not historical fantasy. The protagonists are ordinary high school students who are forced into a hero cycle to bring their world back to normal.

Curriculum connection: In Social Studies, teachers could begin a unit on settling the New World by discussing theories of what could have happened to the Roanoke colonists. That could lead into listing the hardships settlers of the New World faced.

SS-08-4.3.2

Students will explain why and give examples of how human populations changed and/or migrated because of factors such as war, disease, economic opportunity and technology in the United States prior to Reconstruction.

SS-08-5.1.2

Students will explain how history is a series of connected events shaped by multiple cause-and-effect relationships and give examples of those relationships.

Although this novel is pure fantasy, there are underlying themes about friendship and betrayal and sticking together. I would ask students what they would do if they had to choose between family and doing the right thing.

I would highly recommend this novel because the action rolls, making it hard to put down. The main characters have always struggled to fit in and they are finding out why. This identity conflict and the romantic elements make it an irresistible read for young adults.