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redheadorganist's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Cursing, Misogyny, Death, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, and Police brutality
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Cancer
katattack345's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? N/A
4.5
I really enjoyed this book. It was everything I hoped it to be and more! I would have given it a 5/5 but there were parts that I found to be predictable. But it was still an amazing read! Would recommend to any fellow witchy person
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Confinement, Dementia, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief
Moderate: Outing, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Cursing, Gun violence, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, and Violence
uraveragelesbianreader's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book was a really fun read! I read it back around halloween and quite literally devoured it all in one day in maybe about 5 hours. Usually I am not a big fan of magical realism, but this book I really enjoyed. I'll Strat my review with the good parts. The characters in this book are immaculate. All the relationships feel fleshed out and well earned and although I had complex and unique feelings about every character, there wasn't one I particularly hated (beyond the very clear villains but I will get to that shortly in the negatives.) The writing was clear and spoke to the characterization well, I never had trouble visualizing the scenes or the characters throughout the novel. All this is done while still not being aggressively complex or literary prose which I think actually helped this book more than hindered it. Never before have I been so compelled by so many of the relationships in one book, the friendships and the platonic relationships all flowed well and felt natural. They were flawed and occasionally harmful but never felt fully toxic or underdeveloped or that the flaws are unexplainable or unrealistic. The plot to me is mostly secondary to the relationships that are developed by it so if you're a person who prefers plot to characters, you may not like this book as much as I did. On the note of the plot at points it reads more like a buzzed article than a book but I actually did not find this to the detriment of the book because I feel it was intentional. This book does not have morally grey antagonists they are VERY morally bad, the main characters do have moral greyness but that is about it. It reads like an old 90s witch movie with a modern progressive twist and the plot is not logical but it is fun, and the message sent is important. This book has a lot of sex positivity as well as queer rep shown in very explicit way there is no messing around about the plot in that way. I found that a really enjoyable and unique part of this book, I haven't really seen a lot of fiction be this explicit in its exploration of things like the queer experience and sex so blatantly and it was refreshing. Very few books also focus this much on the relationships between women especially women in their older age. Its a very underrepresented group in literature and when they are represented it is oftentimes done in a way such as to make them the but of the joke but this book didn't feel like that. They talk about aging, specifically aging as it occurs in women very openly and very blatantly and it is never made to be gross or funny it just is. The relationships also feel organic and although they did not show us the development directly the hints we do get of the past allow the relationships to feel more organic especially because it is intermixed wonderfully with the main plot. Although I do think the main issue is resolved a little quickly for my liking and once again the final 50 pages I feel could've been stretched a bit more. However, I like the resolution and it felt rewarding and well built up to. Overall this book represents a wonderful demographic that we often don't see in media and although it can be a touch heavy-handed in its themes, that only serves to help the plot in the end. I would recommend this book for those looking for a uniquely touching witchy story about the relationships between women over time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Deadnaming, Dementia, Police brutality, Transphobia, Dysphoria, and Murder
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