Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary by Pamela Dean. Recommended at Chasing Ray. (Read her review for a much better understanding of the book than I got.)

This book is the sort of story that you read straight through to the end, then shake your head, and think, “I must have missed something.” Then you try to decide whether to go back and re-read, and if you’re me, you don’t.

Gentian is a precocious, gifted, astronomy-loving, fourteen/fifteen year old middle sister. Her parents are involved, but hip and hands-off, allowing the three girls to explore and make their own decisions. Therefore Gentian, and to a lesser extent her sisters, come under the spell of Dominic, the new boy next door. I couldn’t figure out whether Dominic was a vampire, since he only seems to come out at night, or a warlock, since he casts a spell over Gentian that makes her forget her friends and family, or something else, something faery.

I wish someone else would read this one and explain it to me. I liked the characters enough to want to know what was going on, but I didn’t think I would gain any understanding by taking a second tour through the book. In fact, the characters, Gentian, her sisters, her family, and her friends, reminded me of Madeleine L’Engle’s characters, and that was enough to keep me reading. Maybe I just don’t know enough about the occult because it definitely felt occult-ish with all the star-gazing and pagan philosophy and magick, with a k.