Rhymes With Witches

By Lauren Myracle

When I was in junior high, it was pretty much guaranteed that if I was handed a book written by Lauren Myracle, I would be quick to read it. I loved teenage drama stories about problems between friend groups, boy troubles and conflict–Myracle’s forte. What I did not expect from Myracle was a horror story, and this is exactly what Rhymes With Witches is.

I chose to read this novel because I loved Myracle’s books so much, but I think that if I had read this as a junior high student, I would’ve liked it much more than I did now. While the story was entertaining and provided an interesting storyline and characters, I did not find myself as lost in the story as I was with Myracle’s other books. In her novels, The Winnie Series, the protagonist, Winnie, is featured in books that follow her growing up from junior high until high school. Titles such as Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen follow Winnie as she learns and grows, and I did not gain that from Rhymes With Witches. The main character, Jane, did not learn from her mistakes so much as accept them. She succumbed to the orders she was dealt by the demanding popular clique, The Bitches, and while she knew a lot of it was strange and wrong, she did not object.

I know that a lot of girls deal with these issues in high school. Sometimes, others will try and peer pressure you to do things you don’t want to do. We learn time and time again that we should not take these orders and “just say no.” In reality, it is much more difficult and girls especially find themselves not being able to refuse certain pressures.

While this is realistic to have Jane undergo these issues, Myracle chooses to have her take it all and not stick up for herself and accept the fact that she is being treated extremely poorly and not always doing the wrong thing. The ending didn’t have to be more positive and inspiriting, but I would’ve loved to see Jane have a little bit more drive.

All in all, I did enjoy Rhymes With Witches and found it to be entertaining even though I did not gain anything of substance from it. This novel is a good read for a younger girl who likes high school stories with a darker twist.