Christopher Pike's Witch tells the tale of Julia Florence, a teenager from Idaho whose mother died recently, and her friends Scott, Amy, and Jim. As the title suggests, Julia's not normal—she can heal people with her touch and see what's happening elsewhere when she looks into sunlight-brightened water.
Julia's mother Elizabeth, perhaps better known as "Mother Florence", was one of the kindest people she ever knew. But now she's dead, and Julia's life is breaking apart at the seams. She does what she's expressly been forbidden never to do—she looks into water with moonlight shining on it. What meets her eyes is horrible: Someone is dying in a hold-up. And that someone, as it turns out, is Amy's new boyfriend.
Life is going to be one wild ride for Julia Florence, Scott Hague, Amy Belle, and Jim Kovic... one they may not survive.
The story was later adapted into two episodes of the Netflix series The Midnight Club by Mike Flanagan.
This book provides examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: Frank gets what's coming to him and Scott survives, but Julia and Jim are dead.
- Bring My Red Jacket: Julia has a vision of Jim dying in a gas station, and his red jacket is very prominent in the vision. Unable to deter him from going into the gas station, Julia makes him change into a white jacket. How that will help is questionable, but hey, it's a Pike book. Anyway, Jim is shot, and his bleeding turns the white jacket red, fulfilling both points of the vision. Doesn't fate suck?
- Chivalrous Pervert: Randy.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Julia's aunt is presented as a very cold and stern woman, very unlike Julia's mother. By the end of the novel, she's softened considerably.
- Healing Hands: Julia and Mother Florence.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Julia.
- Jerk Jock: Randy Classick is described as being the "prototype jerk jock", though he's actually not so bad.
- Job Title: Well, it's a role of some sort.
- Masquerade: People are aware of Mother Florence's talent with caring for people, but they don't know she and Julia are witches.
- Missing Mom: She died + Disappeared Dad (Julia finds out later on that he ran off because of an affair) = Parental Abandonment
- Mysterious Parent: To a degree: Mother Florence died trying to save Julia's half-sister.
- One-Word Title: Protagonist Title + Job Title.
- Our Witches Are Different: They're human females able to see the future and the present as well as heal people.
- Protagonist Title: It's the protagonist's Job Title.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Julia's heart and mind are clouded by thoughts of revenge after Scott is gravely injured.
- Secret-Keeper: Amy
- The Power of Love: Subverted: Julia thinks that Scott will be able to hear her through his coma because she loves him. On the other hand, it may just been because of her powers.
- Two First Names: The Florences, Amy Belle.
- You Can't Fight Fate: To a certain degree: Julia tries to stop Jim getting killed; Scott survives being shot in the head and Jim ends up dying anyway).
