A review by samwescott
A Long Day in Lychford by Paul Cornell

5.0

This book pulled no punches, my goodness. There's definitely a marked shift in tone from our last little Christmas adventure and I think it was remarkable.

This book takes our witchy friends in their cozy town and brings them up to speed with life in England post-Brexit. Not living anywhere near Europe and being white, I can't speak to the accuracy of the portrayal of being the only non-white girl in a small town post-Brexit, but it really seems like the author handled the characterization with thoughtfulness and extreme care. There is a sincerity and a deep anguish to Autumn's character in this book that I think really blew the first two books out of the water.

It's still a magic mystery, but this one really runs on themes of loneliness and being an outsider and takes itself more seriously. I thought it was incredible. It was still charming as all hell and I got the same warm fuzzies that I've gotten from the rest of the series, but this one was rooted in something more real and I was really impressed with how the author got that across.