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A review by melcanread
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
5.0
I don't even know where to begin with this book, except for the fact that I have found a new favourite book and author.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches follows a young witch named Mika Moon, who teaches three adorable children how to practice and perform magic, and experiences love and loss. And this book, unexpectedly, broke me.
On my BookTok account, I posted a video reviewing this book immediately after closing it without adding much extra thought besides my teary plea for my five followers to buy and read this book. (I can confirm at least one has read it, and loved it like I did!) The thing that I didn't expect was that Mika Moon and I are seemingly the same person bar the obvious racial differences. She has the exact same fears and insecurities that I do; a strong fear of abandonment which cripples her social life, attachment issues, low self-esteem, never feeling good enough so on and so forth. There were sentences within this book that I'm pretty sure I have said to myself at some point, recently in fact. So upon reading this masterpiece, it felt like Sangu Mandanna had reached into my brain, published everything about me that I hated, and then wrote about healing it and it did so much more for my mental wellbeing than anything else I've ever read, watched or played. I felt seen, I felt heard, but for the first time in God knows how long, I didn't feel alone anymore. Someone described it as being a "warm, witchy hug", and I couldn't agree more.
But, beside the obvious bias I have, Mandanna also did a fantastic job at writing, too! She has a writing style that I haven't seen in years. Deep and detailed descriptions of everything she includes in the story, making it easy for me to picture what I'm seeing and not have to make it up as I go along. Perfect explanations for why the characters did the things they did, or act the way they did. Every single person within this story felt like real people, with real lives and stories that I would love to delve further into at some point. Ken and Ian were the perfect example of an "old married couple." Jamie was unforgivably attractive with his fierceness to protect everything he'd built, as well as his grumpy yet soft personality. Even Circe!!!! Any book with a golden retriever in it makes me so, unbelievably happy. I fell in love with every single character, and spent a good hour and a half after finishing the story sobbing uncontrollably.
I adored this book. I beg you, please go read it!
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches follows a young witch named Mika Moon, who teaches three adorable children how to practice and perform magic, and experiences love and loss. And this book, unexpectedly, broke me.
On my BookTok account, I posted a video reviewing this book immediately after closing it without adding much extra thought besides my teary plea for my five followers to buy and read this book. (I can confirm at least one has read it, and loved it like I did!) The thing that I didn't expect was that Mika Moon and I are seemingly the same person bar the obvious racial differences. She has the exact same fears and insecurities that I do; a strong fear of abandonment which cripples her social life, attachment issues, low self-esteem, never feeling good enough so on and so forth. There were sentences within this book that I'm pretty sure I have said to myself at some point, recently in fact. So upon reading this masterpiece, it felt like Sangu Mandanna had reached into my brain, published everything about me that I hated, and then wrote about healing it and it did so much more for my mental wellbeing than anything else I've ever read, watched or played. I felt seen, I felt heard, but for the first time in God knows how long, I didn't feel alone anymore. Someone described it as being a "warm, witchy hug", and I couldn't agree more.
But, beside the obvious bias I have, Mandanna also did a fantastic job at writing, too! She has a writing style that I haven't seen in years. Deep and detailed descriptions of everything she includes in the story, making it easy for me to picture what I'm seeing and not have to make it up as I go along. Perfect explanations for why the characters did the things they did, or act the way they did. Every single person within this story felt like real people, with real lives and stories that I would love to delve further into at some point. Ken and Ian were the perfect example of an "old married couple." Jamie was unforgivably attractive with his fierceness to protect everything he'd built, as well as his grumpy yet soft personality. Even Circe!!!! Any book with a golden retriever in it makes me so, unbelievably happy. I fell in love with every single character, and spent a good hour and a half after finishing the story sobbing uncontrollably.
I adored this book. I beg you, please go read it!