What the Hex

Willem, a warlock, is temporarily banned from having a familiar, which leaves him vulnerable to attacks from his nemesis. When he is given the opportunity to have a secret familiar, he accepts, despite finding his new familiar’s perky personality exasperating. Penny lives by rules and order, but when she has the chance to (finally) become a familiar, she’s in. To cover up their true relationship, the duo pretends to be madly in love, and it’s not long before they find their growing attraction is magically irresistible. Andrew Eiden and Islay Jacobs perform the story written from the couple’s points of view. Jacobs’s performance is full of emotion, heightened by using text cues to bring out the story’s nuances. She expertly captures Penny’s bubbly personality and gives other characters unique voices. Series narrator Eiden employs frequent enunciations (often when portraying Willem), which are delivered as sharp slaps to listeners’ ears. While appropriate for the warlock’s arrogance, this technique is ill-fitting for some scenarios. Though Jacobs is less experienced than Eiden, her narration shows promise for her future productions.