Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - VenCo

I love a good witchy book with worldbuilding, feminism and found family. When I saw the synopsis for VenCo, I knew I had to read it. It starts out slow, as most magical books do, an office, mysterious women of a variety of ages and backgrounds, a mission and Lucky's repetitive life. She can't keep a job, her mom is gone and she's stuck taking care of her grandmother, whose dementia makes difficult. Enter the coven and Benandanti witch hunters.

I loved that this book included various cultures and backgrounds, including the Métis people. The different magic practices coming together was really beautiful and I loved how each character had their own personality and style. The trans representation was very well-done as well.

I enjoyed watching Lucky visit various witches, especially the Appalachian and her navigating her journey with Stella, her grandmother. While I figured out the ending about 2/3rds in, I still enjoyed it. I do wish that the villain had been a bit scarier. I felt like he was just a caricature of a man, doing things that sh*tty men do. His main power being attractive felt...flat.

His defeat at the end (or presumed defeat, I suppose) also felt a bit cartoony with the Mother, Maiden and Crone. I would've loved to have seen more involvement from the rest of the coven, but understand that this book was about Lucky's journey to finding herself and no one else's, which I can respect.

I give this 3.5 stars! Definitely worth reading.

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susanatherly's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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rorikae's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

'Venco' by Cherie Dimaline is a contemporary fantasy steeped in family and collective magic.
Lucky St. James is struggling to take care of her grandmother, Stella, who has been dealing with memory problems. One day, she finds a spoon stuck in a wall in their laundry room and suddenly, she is pulled into a world of magic where a group of witches have been searching for the people to complete their coven. Lucky is number 6 and the witches only have a few days to find the final spoon and the final witch. Heading off on a road trip, Lucky will have to take care of her grandmother while also battling an ancient evil for the final spoon.
Dimaline continues to create incredible characters that are the backbone of her stories. Lucky and Stella (plus all of the witches) read like real people with all of their strengths and faults. In much the same way, the big bad of this story, who is truly terrifying, also feels eerily real. This story is quite specific, rooted as is in a timed hunt for a specific object and person. This specificity allows for the characters to blossom. This story celebrates family and the connections present in community. I would have loved to learn more about the larger organization of VenCo. This story is much more focused on a small group within the larger organization.
This story does feel like there is a much larger world that could be explored and I would love to see Dimaline return to this world and these characters. At times, it did feel like it was leading toward the start of a series but the story does wrap up neatly (with possibilities for more if the author chooses).

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lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I really enjoyed this one and it is a fun quick read. There are several women from lots of different backgrounds who all come together on a quest to find an item, as well as the last witch to complete their coven. The villain is very bad and (CW) sexually assaults people by messing with their ability to consent, and I feel like the book doesn't deal with that, or even acknowledge it. Tbf, the main characters don't really know it, but it feels like that aspect is underwritten. There were a few questions I had about the plot or world building, but I was able to put them aside and just appreciate the book.

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spicycronereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is not your usual witchy tale. It has familiar elements, such as characters discovering that they have previously unknown powers / heritage, but magic is almost secondary in this novel that is more about family, both biological and found.

There is a mystery plot and there are magical elements but really the plot centers on a kick*ss group of womxn working together to support Lucky, the multiracial indigenous main character who is tasked with finding a 7th witch to complete their coven. I found elements of Lucky’s backstory with her deceased mother Arnya difficult to read, but also found them extremely relatable, given my own parents’ substance abuse issues. All of that made her relationship with her grandmother Stella all the more special (again, relatable, as my maternal grandmother took us in more than once). And the family she finds among the developing coven rounds out her biological family in a really sweet way.

It wasn’t quite clear to me what VenCo actually does but it doesn’t really seem to matter. The epilogue lays the groundwork for a sequel - perhaps it will become more clear in a follow up. And perhaps we will see more of the magic. There are some really great moments pitting indigenous spells / knowledge against oppressive colonial magic.

Lucky is asked if her mother and maternal grandmother were witches and she answers “Better, they were indigenous women.”

Definitely a fist pump moment.

No spice in this book but I wasn’t expecting any since that is not really the genre. There is one briefly described seggs scene and a few other allusions / 4play but it is of dubious consent and undertaken by the antagonist (who is actually a villain, rather than a morally grey anti-hero type). So zero 🌶️.

Lots of diverse representation in this book - age, gender, and racial. Characters range from high school age well into se our citizen terrain. Lucky’s newfound coven is quite racially diverse and also includes a trans woman.

Overall I enjoyed this witchy tale that had multiple departures from the typical witch discovering her power plot.

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ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“…she carried the spoon back to her side of the bed and studied it in the light of the remaining lamp. The top of the handle was embossed with a witch—sharp hat, sharp nose, broom, the whole ugly getup—and it looked like she was pointing directly at Lettie. ‘I see you. Feels like you see me too.’ The wind, now safely outside the closed window, whistled a response.”

TITLE—VenCo

AUTHOR—Cherie Dimaline

PUBLISHED—2023

PUBLISHER—William & Morrow

GENRE—urban fantasy

SETTING—Turtle Island (Toronto, Salem, the SW)

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—witches, #HexThePatriarchy, souvenir spoons as magic objects, dreams, nightmares, & visions, fate & intention, Indigenous realities, matrilineal (not necessarily blood-bound) heritage & legacy, “the right bloodlines & teachings—the right time & place”, one of the few proper uses of “the chosen one” trope, intersectional feminism (diverse rep. incl. a trans woman character), road trip, lovable grandmother character, magic that is actually real magic

“On either side of the cobblestone path to the porch were small ponds with white marble statues of robe-draped women pouring water from slim vessels. And on each statue's right shoulder sat a small yellow bird, watching her pass. She nodded to them, then stopped to introduce herself. ‘I am the daughter of Arnya St. James, defender of women, drinker of gin, fighter of assholes, a fierce half-breed from a long line of fierce half-breeds who took no shit and gave no fucks. I am a witch and I am here.’ She supposed this was her version of making the sign of the cross before going into battle reminding herself what she believed in.”

My thoughts:

WRITING STYLE—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 (I would have personally preferred it to lean a little more to the literary but arguably it was perfectly suited to its genre & the overall project of the book.)

CHARACTERS—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖 (Really excellent except for that the villain was very one-dimensional, which I usually don’t like, *but* arguably it worked here, & in fact, *this* particular kind of villain *is* always going to be one-dimensional due to the nature of his particular villainy…)

STORY/PLOT—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖 (Excellent. I was absorbed the entire time. I did sort of guess the ending but it was one of those “I *really* hope that this is where this is going” things and so I was very satisfied to see that that was indeed where Dimaline was taking her story. Honestly though I’m a little sad that this isn’t the start of a series. 😆)

BONUS ELEMENT/S—Stella. 🥹💖 Also really loved all the settings from Toronto to Salem, and Pennsylvania Dutch Country & the Ozarks to New Orleans.

PHILOSOPHY—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 (Easily one of the best I’ve seen in a work of witchy genre fiction and the absolute *best* description of how [real] magic works: “…The magic’s not in the person. The magic is in the place. It just takes the right kind of person to pull it up. …See, belief is something that makes change. It’s why prayer benefits people, as long as the people doing all that praying believe... And when something is constant on the land, like rain or song or even footsteps, the land soaks that in and changes... But then you need the people who understand the ways to pull that soak right back up out of the land. That's where study comes in, where the witchiness needs to be. And not all people can get to some kinds of magic.” Flawless. 😚👌🏻)

PREMISE—🌕🌕🌕🌚🌚 (While this does seem on the surface like just another witch book…👇🏻)

EXECUTION—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 (…👉🏻 the originality, insightfulness, depth, and integrity with which this particular story was told & the way these particular characters were crafted, sets this work apart from others like it.)

I would recommend this book to readers who like witchy reads but are tired of seeing the same-old same-old within the subgenre. This book is best read as an alternative to Alice Hoffman’s books. 😁

Final note: This would make an *epic* movie/tv series. 🤞🏻☺️

“Witches were not all killed by fire. We *are* the fire.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Season: Fall

CW // HP references, cancer, death of parent, grandparent with memory loss, transphobia, dead-naming, sexual assault (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

WHITE MAGIC by Elissa Washuta
NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.—TBR
THE BOOK OF WITCHES edited by Jonathan Strahan—TBR
A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness
LEGENDBORN by Tracy Deonn
SLEWFOOT by Brom—TBR
THE WITCHING HOUR by Anne Rice
TOIL AND TROUBLE edited by Jessica Spotswood & Tess Sharpe

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sariereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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jessereadsthings's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.0

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