Stating this from the start: John Bellairs doesn’t get nearly enough love. I grew up reading his extremely unsettling horror stories for young readers, illustrated by Edward Gorey, and it boggles my mind that I have not encountered more folks as obsessed with them as me. Someone build an occult teen detective game inspired by them right now, OK? (I know Bubblegumshoes give him a nod, but I want more!)

The Face in the Frost (1969) is, to my understanding, the only novel Bellairs wrote for adult audiences (though judging from the scares I got from the Dixon/Monday/Barnavelt novels, this is maybe debatable). It is fairly scary, but also whimsical and funny – Prospero, the protagonist (not that Prospero, though), watches a 1943 baseball game through his magic mirror, despite the setting otherwise being extremely, you know, fantasy. Oh, and Prospero’s best friend is Roger Bacon. (Not that Roger Bacon, though. Well, maybe. I am not real sure, TBH.)

Anyway, Prospero finds himself menaced by storms and spirits and sets off with Bacon to confront Melichus, the evil wizard behind it all. They’re old and frail despite their magical abilities and a good amount of the novel involves them psyching themselves up for the confrontation. Which is reasonable, because the opposition they come up against is damn frightening. The climax is a bit odd, with Melichus never really showing up, but there is an evil book that reads itself and, I dunno, it is all so strange I can’t help but love it.

You can see a lot of D&D magic coming out of this. Not specific spells, maybe, but the messiness of it all, the unintended consequences and the way magic breaks the rules of the world. Prospero also has to memorize his spells the night before.

The first image the 1981 Ace paperback with the Carl Ludgren cover, my favorite. Next is the first edition, illustrated by Marilyn Fitschen. Her illustrations don’t really do it for me. Last is the 1991 paperback with cover by Rowena Morrill, which also doesn’t really do it for me.