Spellbinder (published as Enchantress in some countries) is a young adult Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy novel by L. J. Smith. It's the third book in the Night World series and was published in October 1996. It was later reissued in the omnibus Night World 1, along with Secret Vampire and Daughters of Darkness.
Witch cousins Thea and Blaise Harman have been raised together ever since their parents died when they were young. Although Thea loves Blaise like a sister, they couldn't be more different and Thea doesn't always approve of Blaise using her magic and charms to toy with human boys, often with disastrous consequences. Having been expelled from numerous schools, the girls are sent to live with their Grandma Harman, who makes it clear this is their last chance before she packs them off to live in a convent in the middle of nowhere.
This time, Thea is determined to stay out of trouble and leave Blaise to her own devices. But then Thea finds herself falling for Eric Ross, a kind-hearted classmate who seems perfect for her...save for the fact he's human, with the laws of the Night World forbidding Thea from forming a serious relationship with him. When Blaise also sets her sights on Eric, Thea is determined to protect him, but in doing so she inadvertantly unleashes something she cannot control.
Not to be confused with the 1977 game Spellbinder, the 1988 film Spellbinder or the 90s television series Spellbinder.
Tropes found here include:
- Abuse Mistake: Thea tells Eric's little sister Roz the story of Hellewise Hearth-Woman and the witches' origins to cheer her up; although she's forbidden to tell humans the witches' history, she figures that Roz will just think of it as a fairytale. However, when Thea realizes Eric and his mother overheard, she flees from the house in a panic. When Eric persuades her to return, Mrs Ross is deeply concerned, asking if Thea's grandmother is saying things to "scare [her]" and says she can stay with them if she has problems at home. Thea is able to handwave it away, but realizes that Mrs Ross likely thinks her grandmother is part of some kind of cult and has more than a few screws loose.
- Artistic License – History: When Thea goes on a rant to Eric about the school Halloween decorations depicting torture devices, she points out a replica of an Iron Maiden, asking Eric if he knows they were actually real and were used to torture and kill innocent people. There's actually little evidence that iron maidens were a real medieval torture device; the first records of them date back to only the late 1700s and the only physical examples are supposed replicas built for museums in the 19th century. Iron maidens appear to have been invented by later historians, or potentially confused with similar but not identical torture devices. Thea is right about breaking wheels being used to execute people, though. It may also be justified given that it's a common misconception and Thea tends to think the worst of humans due to their historical persecution of witches.
- Axes at School: Randy, Blaise's ex-boyfriend from her previous school, turns up to Lake Mead High's Homecoming Dance armed with a straight razor. He cuts himself on the cheeks and threatens people with it, slashing one boy on the arm when he tries to talk him down. Eric and some teachers are able to tackle and disarm Randy (with some help from Thea using mild mind control on him) before anyone is seriously hurt, though it understandably causes the dance to end early.
- Bait-and-Switch: Blaise uses a magical necklace to hypnotize Eric into becoming infatuated with her; Thea watches in despair as he stares silently at Blaise, seemingly enthralled by her. Thea quickly tosses a potion to break the spell over the both of them, causing Blaise to stomp off and Eric to snap out of it. However...Eric then explains to a stunned Thea that he was just standing there quietly because he found the situation awkward and was desperately trying to think of a polite way to tell Blaise he wasn't interested in her; the necklace didn't work on him at all.
- Banishing Ritual: Thea and only Thea must perform a banishing ritual - which is the reverse of the summoning ritual - to send the ghost of Suzanne Blanchet back beyond the veil before she harms anymore humans. Eric insists on helping her by distracting Suzanne long enough for Thea to complete the ritual.
- Bittersweet Ending: Thea manages to send back Suzanne's ghost and the Inner Circle is accepting of her relationship with Eric, but still have no choice but to essentially banish Thea for breaking Night World law (their other option is to kill them both, which they're highly reluctant to do). Blaise is able to arrange things so that Thea doesn't have to lose her memories (with it being implied that the Inner Circle is in on it), although she still has to be separated from her family and witch society. Eric's family takes Thea in, she can pursue her dream of studying zoology, and she and Eric also discuss finding the Night People Aradia mentioned who have been trying to restart Circle Daybreak.
- Burn the Witch!:
- This happened to a 17th century French witch named Suzanne Blanchet and her siblings: after they were tortured into confessing to witchcraftnote , Suzanne was Forced to Watch as her young siblings were burnt at the stake before being burnt alive herself. It's unsurprising her ghost has a murderous grudge against humans.
- Played with in the novel's climax. After Thea accidentally released Suzanne's vengeful spirit, she and Eric re-enact the burning with dummies in the attempt to draw the spirit away from the school dance and trap her.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Blaise brings up the Cup of Lethe, a powerful memory potion which is forbidden for ordinary witches to use. Blaise jokes about swapping it out for something else to fool around with. Thea suggests to the Inner Circle that they use it to make her and Eric forget about the Night World, and they later realize Blaise swapped it with iced tea so they can keep their memories.
- Early in the story, it's mentioned there used to be three 'circles' witches could belong: Circle Twilight, Circle Midnight and Circle Daybreak, but that Circle Daybreak was long since disbanded following the Burning Times (Circle Daybreak allowed humans to join and tried to encourage harmony between the species, with the Van Helsing Hate Crimes and Fantastic Racism putting a serious damper on that). In the end, Aradia says she's heard rumors some witches are trying to restart Circle Daybreak, and suggests Thea and Eric seek them out. The reformed Circle Daybreak goes on to play a major role in the series.
- Chekhov's Gunman: A recurring character is Grandma Harman's apprentice Tobias, who is often hanging around Thea's house and the adjoining store. Because of his close proximity to them, Tobias overhears quite a bit of what Thea and Blaise have been up to and talks to other people about it, resulting in the Inner Circle finding out eventually.
- Circle of Standing Stones: Thea and Eric find a natural stone circle in the Nevada desert and choose it as the location to perform Suzanne's banishing ritual, as circles are ideal places to perform spells.
- Continuity Nod: Quinn, a made vampire who works closely with the Redfern family and has a dark reputation, was introduced in the previous novel, Daughters of Darkness. In this novel, Blaise considers hiring him to get rid of Eric for her and Thea, saying he'd probably do it with no issues.
- Did They or Didn't They?: There's a scene late in the book where Eric and Thea end up falling into each other arms in a secluded spot near the desert after declaring their love for each other. It's mentioned that "some time" passes before the action picks up again and they're lying in each other's arms by this point; although it's never made explicitly clear that anything sexual happened, it's quite easy to interpret it this way.
- Everybody Already Knew: After Thea tries casting a love spell on Eric to make him fall for a different girl, he confronts her about it. Thea initially denies it and then tries to explain it's too dangerous for them to be together for reasons he doesn't understand, but Eric says he isn't stupid and has already figured out she's a witch; he proceeds to list off every piece of evidence pointing to that conclusion (she and her family are into the occult, Thea appears capable of reading minds and communicating with animals, Thea compared her cousin and her love games to Aphrodite, Thea got extremely upset by the school's insensitive witch decorations for Halloween, and she mentioned being a descendant of Hecate). Thea realizes she can't lie her way out of it this time and decides to just tell Eric everything.
- From Bad to Worse: Thea is terrified that Blaise will hurt or even kill Eric, prompting her to look into forbidden spells to protect him. She tries to summon the ghost of a witch to be a guardian for Eric but when Blaise intervenes, Thea accidentally summons a different spirit than intended. And that spirit turns out to be an extremely vicious ghost who seeks revenge on humans for persecuting her.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first half of the book revolves around Thea struggling with her realization she's falling in love with Eric and trying to stop Blaise from making him her latest plaything. Then around the midway point Thea accidentally calls forth the spirit of a Vengeful Ghost trying to protect Eric, and the plot becomes more focused on Thea trying to stop the ghost. Blaise is still a bit of threat, but is quickly overshadowed by the far more dangerous Suzanne and Blaise actually helps Thea in the end.
- Halloween Costume Characterization: Invoked by the witches; it's stated that on Halloween, witches dress in costumes that reflect who they truly are or who they aspire to be, rather than disguising themselves like humans do. Many witches in Thea's peer group dress as deities they admire or patronize (e.g. Dani dresses as the Egyptian goddess Isis). Thea dresses in her traditional white circle robes and vaguely states she's going as her ancestor Hellewise; she wants to feel as comfortable as possible for when she faces Suzanne.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The latter half of the novel takes place in the lead up to Halloween, or Samhain as the witches call it, with the climatic showdown with Suzanne's ghost taking place on Halloween night. It's justified in that the "veil" between the living world and the 'beyond' is thinnest at this time of year, which is likely how Thea was able to summon Suzanne and is also required to banish her. It also poses a significant risk to the students of Lake Mead High because of the Halloween Dance they're throwing, which includes decorations of witches being tortured that are bound to enrage Suzanne, given her history.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Thea and Blaise, respectively; Thea is said to be the 'day' to Blaise's 'night'. Thea is compassionate, nurturing, sensible and modest. Blaise is seductive, carefree, vain and troublemaking. This is reflected in the goddesses they tend to be associated with; Thea feels close to Eileithyia, a benevolent goddess of motherhood and healing, while Blaise is often compared with Aphrodite, the unpredictable goddess of love and beauty. Both can be protective of those they love, but in different ways; Thea aspires to be a healer and is willing to risk her own well-being to shield others; Blaise is more focused on vengeance and manipulation. Even their appearances reflect this; Blaise is dark-haired and favors darker or bolder colors, Thea is blonde and prefers lighter or more subdued colors.
- Market-Based Title: In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand it was published under the title Enchantress.
- Muggle and Magical Love Triangle: Eric is loved by both Thea, a witch, and Pilar, his human classmate and co-worker. He picks Thea because she's his soulmate and he only likes Pilar as a friend; he actually calls out Thea for trying to put a love spell on him and Pilar so they'll be together, saying it's unfair to Pilar and that Thea is the one he wants.
- Noodle Incident: Thea says she and Blaise have been expelled from at least five schools since they were sophomores, because of Blaise's antics. She doesn't go into detail about what happened at each of these schools, save to mention that at their last school Blaise somehow persuaded her boyfriend to burn down the gym for her.
- Prom Wrecker: Well, Homecoming Dance Wrecker. Blaise's mentally unstable ex-boyfriend Randy gatecrashes the Homecoming Dance and tries to attack her, with Thea and Eric intervening before anyone gets seriously hurt.
- Red Herring: Blaise gets stalked by her obsessive former boyfriend Randy, who is seriously unstable and violent towards people, especially Blaise's latest admirers. When one of these admirers turns up strangled to death, everyone initially blames Randy, but Thea soon realizes the vengeful ghost she freed is actually responsible.
- Shoot the Dog: When Thea confides in Blaise she believes she and Eric are soulmates, she and Blaise are both afraid of what will happen to Thea if it's discovered she has broken one of the Night World's cardinal laws. Blaise decides she'll just have to get rid of Eric, either by killing him or by making him fall in love with her instead; despite a horrified Thea pleading with and threatening Blaise in an attempt to spare Eric, Blaise insists it's the only way to protect Thea and that she won't let some human endanger her 'sister'.
- Summoning Ritual: The Inner Circle use a special ritual to summon the spirits of witch ancestors on Samhain, with Thea and Blaise stating that as kids they snuck out to secretly watch the summoning. Thea attempts the summoning ritual herself to call forth the spirit of Phoebe Garner, a benevolent witch she hopes will shield Eric from Blaise, but she accidentally ends up with Suzanne Blanchet instead, who is not remotely inclined to protect humans.
- Twist Ending: It looks as though Thea will have to drink a potion to erase her memories of being a witch - meaning she won't remember her loved ones or her powers - and become a lost witch to safely be with Eric. However, Blaise covertly manages to switch the potion with iced tea, so although she's separated from her family and the other witches, Thea gets to keep her memories and be with Eric, making it a happier ending than we'd been led to believe.
