Emblem Island #1: Curse of the Night Witch by Alex Aster

My name is Tor, and I'm starting to regret my wish for a different legend. I never believed I'd be cursed by the Night Witch, because I didn't think she was real. I'm forced to complete a quest to find her along with my friends, Engle and Melda, and we only have a week before our lifelines say we'll die. Oh, and now I'm supposed to kill the Night Witch. The good news is I think we've figured out a map to locate her, but the bad news is we'll need to face impossible monsters and challenges. The worse news is that no one who has searched for the Night Witch in the past has ever returned alive, so we're guessing about everything we "know". I can't believe my friends are risking their lives because of me, and I wonder if it's worth it.

This book was a finalist for the 2020 Cybils Award in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction. The concept of three kids being sent on an impossible quest was fairly common in middle grade novels, and even the idea of them having special abilities wasn't unusual. Legends were marks found on newborns' skins and identified their talents. Engle had super vision, Melda was a leader, but Tor gave up his leadership emblem for the curse. Being emblemless was very rare and Tor wanted a new one, so it was easily predictable that he would get an extraordinary legend in the end. However, the ramifications of his new abilities will affect the book's sequel. Tor's insecurities made him vulnerable and identifiable to middle grade readers. Engle was the most entertaining character, as he was very impulsive and obsessed with food. If he disappeared, the others just needed to find a food source and they'd find him. The kids followed the progression of terrifying stories in a book in order to find the Night Witch, so these tales became introductions to upcoming chapters. It helped to predict events, but they weren't needed. Some chapters felt almost redundant. Overall, I enjoyed this book and recommend you give it a shot.