Arcana: The Lost Heirs by Sam Prentice-Jones
Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group (June 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Sam Prentice-Jones is an author-illustrator working in Brighton UK who graduated from Arts University Bournemouth in 2019 with a BA Hons in Illustration, specializing in digital, graphic, character-based work. Sam likes to create work that celebrates diversity and queer culture and began his career by curating a queer illustration magazine titled POOF Magazine which ran 2019-2021. Since then, Sam has gone on to create work for the worlds of book publishing, web design, advertising and product design as well as being featured in art fairs across the UK. His newest book is the graphic novel Arcana: The Lost Heirs.
James, Daphne, Koko, and Sonny have all grown up surrounded by magic in the Arcana, an organization of witches that protects the magical world, run by the mysterious and secretive Majors. Eli Jones, however, hadn’t even known other witches existed . . . until he stumbled into James. As James introduces him to the world of the Arcana, Eli finds the family he never had and a blossoming romance with James. The five new friends soon realize that sinister things are afoot, and everything may not be what it seems at the Arcana. When the group delves deeper into the mystery surrounding the deaths of their parents and the Majors’ rise to power, they discover that they’re at the center of a curse — one they’ve just unwittingly set into motion. As the friends search for answers, they’ll have to confront the cursed legacy that links them in hopes of freeing their futures.
This is a complicated novel, one with many characters, family histories, jumps between past and present, etc. Prentice-Jones handles this deftly. Each of the five main characters is not just visually unique, but a fully developed character. When readers are introduced to the team of five, the conflicts and tensions are already present and realized, and readers feel like Eli — thrown into a brand-new world of established relationships, hierarchies, etc. with no guidance. The clever writing and the simple illustrations allow readers to focus on the mystery of the plot and engage with the story, but also not get too confused in the familial relationships, time jumps, etc.
This is a longer graphic novel, so older teens and early college students are probably the target audience; however, there’s nothing here than a middle-schooler couldn’t understand or follow. The plot, based around magic and tarot, is appropriately thrilling and suspenseful for that level of readership, and the graphic violence is artistically handled. That being said, any graphic novel readers interested in a complex, multi-character mystery based around murder, revenge, and magic will thoroughly enjoy this book.
