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A review by gabburrit0
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
dark
3.75
this ended v sweetly. i think that the metaphor of having a villain who quite literally uses the successes of women to feel more powerful himself is a bit on the nose but i think it worked really well for this story.
i really liked all of the girls! i think that their specific dynamic (the face, the brain, and the brawn) can definitely fall into the trap of cliche but it also really worked for this specific story and the narrative that they were trying to convey of like "girl power but make it supernatural" i also really appreciated that sutherland included the gore of doing these rituals into the story. lots of ppl are into witchcraft and their own interpretations of it but it has a lot to do with imbuing crystals with intentions or lighting sage to cleanse but this was like "let's get back to our roots and show the blood and how you have to give up a lot of yourself in order to achieve your specific wants in witchcraft" which i thoroughly enjoyed
the only thing keeping this book from a 4 star (5 star was a bit too high for me since i take re-readability into account) is that i just enjoyed sutherland's other book (house of hollow) so much more. it's unfair for me to pit 2 books against each other but in my defense they're both written by the same author and have similar vibes of supernatural occurrences happening to young women. where this book fell flat when it came to atmosphere, house of hollow absolutely knocked it out of the park. i wish that there had been more moodiness and overall gothic tones throughout this story because we're quite literally talking about hunting witch-hunters because they're killing women rapidly and the tone of the book just felt very vampire academy (movie version) and i just know that sutherland knows how to write a fucking good atmospheric book. tldr, house of hollow actually made me feel anxious and a little scared to turn off my light at night and i listened to this book on audiobook to help me go to sleep (affectionately)
that all being said, this book has made me a fan of sutherland's work. i'm definitely going to be picking up whatever she releases next and i'll be there for the vibes of a spooky story
i really liked all of the girls! i think that their specific dynamic (the face, the brain, and the brawn) can definitely fall into the trap of cliche but it also really worked for this specific story and the narrative that they were trying to convey of like "girl power but make it supernatural" i also really appreciated that sutherland included the gore of doing these rituals into the story. lots of ppl are into witchcraft and their own interpretations of it but it has a lot to do with imbuing crystals with intentions or lighting sage to cleanse but this was like "let's get back to our roots and show the blood and how you have to give up a lot of yourself in order to achieve your specific wants in witchcraft" which i thoroughly enjoyed
the only thing keeping this book from a 4 star (5 star was a bit too high for me since i take re-readability into account) is that i just enjoyed sutherland's other book (house of hollow) so much more. it's unfair for me to pit 2 books against each other but in my defense they're both written by the same author and have similar vibes of supernatural occurrences happening to young women. where this book fell flat when it came to atmosphere, house of hollow absolutely knocked it out of the park. i wish that there had been more moodiness and overall gothic tones throughout this story because we're quite literally talking about hunting witch-hunters because they're killing women rapidly and the tone of the book just felt very vampire academy (movie version) and i just know that sutherland knows how to write a fucking good atmospheric book. tldr, house of hollow actually made me feel anxious and a little scared to turn off my light at night and i listened to this book on audiobook to help me go to sleep (affectionately)
that all being said, this book has made me a fan of sutherland's work. i'm definitely going to be picking up whatever she releases next and i'll be there for the vibes of a spooky story
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Blood, Grief, and Murder