Lola Seaton

The narrator​ of A.K. Blakemore’s first novel, The Manningtree Witches (2021), is a 19-year-old woman called Rebecca West. She lives with her tough, rowdy mother, the Beldam West, and their cat, Vinegar Tom, in a cramped cottage on the outskirts of Manningtree, a small port town in north Essex where the Stour widens into an estuary. Rebecca and the Beldam usually get by doing laundry...

The​ moped glides along a road lined with palm trees. If you touch the screen, the moped jumps, looping through the air. Points are scored by vaulting over upcoming palm trees and clipping their fronds as you land. If you avoid the trees completely, you survive but score no points; if you take off too early, you land on top of the tree, and a grimacing emoji signals game over.

You can only...