Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches by Kate Scelsa

27 reviews

cyan_altaria's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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


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irisestacansado's review against another edition

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challenging emotional medium-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

3.5

I really, really wanted to like this book, and for the most part I did. However, the use of the predatory lesbian trope made me uncomfortable and I found myself having to skip through some parts. I feel like the conflict between Eleanor and Chloe could have been created without Eleanor becoming the predatory lesbian -
Harrison was already spreading that she was an obsessed lesbian, perhaps on her walks she didn't stop at Chloe's house, but he spread the rumor that she did, if the trope was completely necessary


I also didn't enjoy the depiction of Chloe as a kind of discount bisexual and as some other negative interpretations. This story relied on using tired tropes to further characters, including having a manic pixie dream girl (albeit sapphic), which made it feel a little dull. However, the MC has an interesting family life, and I appreciate a relatively healthy non-nuclear family being depicted.

I was drawn into this book, finishing the audiobook in a day, and I enjoyed the shorter chapters about the major arcana framing the themes of the chapter after it. The ideas shown about paganism and witchcraft were also really nice to read about.

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kingrosereads's review against another edition

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

3.5

A sapphic YA witchy coming-of-age drama that takes place in Salem during Halloween. 

This book contains homophobia/lesbophobia, marijuana use, anxiety/panic disorder, chronic illness, bullying, sexual assault, grief, and toxic relationship/friendship. 

I liked this book. I wasn’t aware it wasn’t about magical witches and not at all a fantasy until I started reading it. It is about real witches that practice Wicca/pagan-based witchcraft. 

Our story follows 17-year-old high school dropout but recent GED recipient and self-proclaimed most skeptical and cynical person in Salem, Eleanor Anderson. Eleanor skips out on her senior year after being marked as a crazed lesbian stalker of her ex-best friend and popular girl, Chloe, and an accident that occurred on Halloween night. Now Eleanor works full time at her mother’s friend, Susan’s, witchy shop to help pay for their bills. Her mom has Lyme’s disease that she contracted two years prior and what had them move to Salem to be closer to Susan so she can help take care of them. Eleanor’s family believes that her mom is faking her illness. 

Things change for Eleanor when she receives a hand written guide on tarot in the mail and meets Pix and Ofira on the same day. Pix and Ofira are cousins and Ofira is new to Salem. They also happen to be witches. They invite Eleanor to join their coven and she’s drawn in by curiosity and her interest in Pix. Eleanor slowly works through her tarot guide and process the trauma of the year prior. She and Pix grow closer together and start dating. 

We learn that she and Chloe secretly dated because Chloe, though out as bisexual to her parents, was ashamed of dating Eleanor. She ends up choosing to date resident popular douchebag, Harrison, to increase her own popularity, but the girls try to remain friends. Harrison manipulates Chloe and the student body into thinking that Eleanor is a predatory lesbian obsessed with Chloe and tries to erase Chloe’s bisexuality. This builds until it explodes resulting in an accident and Eleanor dropping out. 

Eleanor slowly starts to come to terms with the events of her junior year and learns to heal from it and to trust again. 

The setting in Salem and time period being Halloween is all pretty much background things to give a reason why Eleanor is hanging out with Pix and the coven and learning to heal. But it is a nice vibe to the story. There isn’t too much development in most of the coven and even Ofira and Gillian are pretty underdeveloped side characters. 

I wasn’t a huge fan of Eleanor becoming the “predatory lesbian” stereotype. Or even just the stereotype of being a crazy obsessed girl in the scenario that Chloe was a boy, this would’ve been problematic. But I also know that people that manipulate our feelings and hurt us and gaslight us do eventually make us feel and act somewhat “crazy”, and when you’re a teenager it’s a million times worse because you have no voice telling you to think it through. Regardless, the book could’ve done without this stereotype. I get the idea of Eleanor being bullied and experiencing lesbophobia, but we didn’t need this to accomplish that.  

The excessive use of marijuana is an unhealthy coping mechanism, especially since she’s underage, but at the same time it’s better than abusing Xanax or the like, and she eventually stops using marijuana to manage her anxiety and find other non-substance ways to cope. 

But I was happy to read about a different kind of grief (the loss of friendship/relationship), and a grief that occurs regardless of whether or not it was toxic (it was). And I do think the use of marijuana to cope and how Eleanor started using it less as she found herself surrounded by friends and support was done well. 

Pix and Eleanor don’t really have chemistry, but I thought they’re very cute together. I’m not sure about the accuracy of the portrayal of Wicca or paganism, but the bit I do know makes me appreciate the book as an introduction to this religion. Even thought it all very surface level, it’s done in a way I think will encourage readers to look information up themselves. 

Overall cute, albeit, a little boring story. 

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suspicioussherbet4's review against another edition

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

3.75


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alabiblioheck's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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qraveline's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective medium-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

4.25


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bookstarbri's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious 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

2.0

Update:
Sooo a friend asked me about this book and it made me remember a lot of feelings I had about it. Idk. this book had so much going for it (like the tarot cards and witchcraft was really fun), but the more I sit with it (and it's been months lol), I just don't love the way the character development and some of the history of these characters went. Idk. I think the author was trying to make a commentary on the predatory queer trope but I don't this was done well and the more I think about it, the more it bothers me. I initially gave this a 3.75, but I'm taking it down 1.25 for some of these problems. Also, it is a surprisingly dark book and definitely needs to have CWs listed !

This book hooked me in very early! I was sort of surprised. The premise alone was super interesting to me, but I still wasn't expecting to be drawn in so quickly. I think a lot of that had to do with Eleanor. She was a really well thought-out character. Though I felt very different from her, I was easily able to empathize with much of what she went through, especially in her relationship with Pix. I think the two of them were my favorite part of this story along with the magic. It was a very sweet relationship that stemmed from a genuine respect of one another.

Much of this story was flashbacks into the traumatic part of Eleanor's story. Some of it is pretty uncomfortable as Eleanor made horrible, obsessive decisions in the past that ended up changing her life (or, at least, the perspective of her life). Reading these parts were really difficult because Eleanor does have a problem with forming strong attachments/addictions to people/things to help her cope with her own mental health challenges. So when the central conflict came to its climax, it would've been nice to see Eleanor work through that more to really address that, and it didn't feel like that resolution fully happened. This was my biggest issue with the book. The witch vibes were really cool and I LOVED the tarot card aspect of this book so much. The characterization was also great, in particular for Eleanor, Pix, and Chloe (
who is never actually present in the story and is only a character in the flashbacks, but she still feels very relevant to Eleanor's present self
).

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Balzer + Bray for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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