Review: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

From the back cover:

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules, with one exception: an online account where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and… Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere feels like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when peril comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for…

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches has certainly made it into my top three favorite books of all time. I was a little worried going in because I did not want to be disappointed but I definitely did not need to be! The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches delivers on everything it and the blurbs promise. It truly is “A warm and witchy hug of a book.” The stakes are high but Sangu Mandanna holds the reader gently and does not squeeze too tightly. There’s found family and angst here and there, and to top it all off, there’s a sunshine/grumpy ‘ship dynamic.

Sangu Mandanna weaves the story in such a way that the reader will be able to predict at least a couple twists, and be so thoroughly pleased with themselves and the plot that they will not want to put the book down until the last page is turned. However, you will truly be blown away when she fires Chekhov’s gun.

I deeply appreciated the amount of care and attention Sangu Mandanna took in the world building, especially when it came to how magic does and does not work. Mandanna has an answer for everything; by the end of the book I did not have any questions and everything felt like it was tied together neatly with a bow.

I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an engaging read about people just trying to find their place in the world while also trying to keep their magic from creating more mischief than they can handle. And, once you finish the book make sure to read the bonus epilogue on the author’s website!

P.S. Here are the content warnings from the author’s website: swearing, some on-page sex, discussions of trauma and past abuse, and references to the racism and homophobia experienced by the characters.

See you later for my next review, and keep an eye out for some upcoming baked goods inspired by my new favorite witch ✨

Review: The Witch’s Heart

Hello, and welcome to my very first blog post! So far this year I have finished one book: The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec.

From the back cover: 

Angrboda’s story begins where most witches’ tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees to the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin’s all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life— and possibly all of existence— is in danger.

With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate she’s foreseen for her beloved family… or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.

I feel as though I should start this review with the trigger warnings I kept a list of in my head while reading. The Witch’s Heart contains the following, and possibly more that I cannot remember so please let me know if I should add on: transphobia, fire, body horror, difficult pregnancy / birth, near-death of a child / fetus, and a heavy presence of death in general. If those might bother you, I’d recommend finding a different book! I’d also just recommend finding a different book in general.

I really, really wanted to like this book. I grew up with the stories of the Norse gods and have continued reading and listening to them into my adulthood, and The Witch’s Heart immediately excited me. Not only am I a big fan of Norse mythology, but I am really appreciating the trend of “feminist retellings” that is currently on the rise. A retelling about a well-known woman who is famously deprived of having her own voice and contributing to her own story is really exciting to me. And, on top of that, I had heard whispers on the internet that this book had at least one queer character. When I learned this I thought maybe someone had finally explored Loki’s gender fluidity and shape-shifting in-depth. But I was very disappointed in the execution of not only that but the entire book. 

To be completely honest, I had to skim the last 40 pages of the book. I almost did not finish it, but I felt compelled to see how it ended, even though I know the story of Ragnarok. I was invested in the way Gornichec handled it from Angrboda’s perspective. But I was left wanting. I don’t want to be too harsh or give too many spoilers in case you want to look into this book on your own, so I will list my biggest qualms briefly. 

1. The way Gornichec handled Loki’s shape-shifting and gender fluidity was not just a let down, it was flat-out transphobic at least twice by my counts. I should have stopped reading after the first instance.
2. There is a reason “Show, Don’t Tell,” is a rule. You have to learn the rules to break them. Gornichec does not seem to have learned this rule and only “retold” important (and even not-so-important-to-the-plot) myths through dialogue where the characters literally tell us everything we need to know. It got old very fast.
3. There was far too much going on, and none of the relationships were fleshed out or convincing. Arguably the two most important relationships came out of nowhere, in the last 30 or so pages and we are just supposed to believe in them. 

I am genuinely disappointed that everything in The Witch’s Heart fell flat for me, and my first post is not a more positive one, but I am excited to keep reading this year. Onto the next!