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bkendig 's review for:
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
by Sangu Mandanna
It was at the beginning of chapter 12 that I realized that The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches was perhaps just a little bit too perfect, when the characters entered a bookshop that had books and cushions strewn in piles and crayons scattered across the floor. "Mika suspected that the shop was supposed to be messy. This way, a child coming in wouldn’t be intimidated by perfectly ordered shelves and untouchably pristine books."
The world in which the tale takes place is an inclusionist's dream. Mika is of Indian descent. The young girls she cares for are Black, Vietnamese, and Palestinian. The couple she works for are married gay men. None of this is a problem; it just seems remarkable to have all of these characters in one narrative together, especially when the two anatagonists are stereotypically British (one is very prim and the other even has 'prim' in her name).
Everyone is open and honest with their feelings; even when they don't know what they're feeling, they wrestle with the problem openly. The girls (ages 7, 8, and 10) seem to have a good working understanding of what sex is all about. No one behaves irrationally for longer than a rare moment, and then they apologize and explain how their difficult upbringing made them behave as they did. Difficult conversations come across like choreographed sparring matches, with each participant carefully analyzing the other's words and hesitations.
I've known people like this in real life. They tend to be exhausting.
That aside, it's a good story. There's a believable challenge at the heart of it, revealed gradually and given a satisfying conclusion with a few twists along the way. There's also a romance ... which itself is inevitable and exhausting, too, in how it follows a predictable script and in how the characters seem to have read that script beforehand. Nothing seems to surprise them.
But although I felt like I was on rails for much of this story, the ending left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Much as I felt after reading The House in the Cerulean Sea, to which this book is astonishingly similar; if you liked that one you'll enjoy this one, and vice-versa.
The world in which the tale takes place is an inclusionist's dream. Mika is of Indian descent. The young girls she cares for are Black, Vietnamese, and Palestinian. The couple she works for are married gay men. None of this is a problem; it just seems remarkable to have all of these characters in one narrative together, especially when the two anatagonists are stereotypically British (one is very prim and the other even has 'prim' in her name).
Everyone is open and honest with their feelings; even when they don't know what they're feeling, they wrestle with the problem openly. The girls (ages 7, 8, and 10) seem to have a good working understanding of what sex is all about. No one behaves irrationally for longer than a rare moment, and then they apologize and explain how their difficult upbringing made them behave as they did. Difficult conversations come across like choreographed sparring matches, with each participant carefully analyzing the other's words and hesitations.
I've known people like this in real life. They tend to be exhausting.
That aside, it's a good story. There's a believable challenge at the heart of it, revealed gradually and given a satisfying conclusion with a few twists along the way. There's also a romance ... which itself is inevitable and exhausting, too, in how it follows a predictable script and in how the characters seem to have read that script beforehand. Nothing seems to surprise them.
But although I felt like I was on rails for much of this story, the ending left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Much as I felt after reading The House in the Cerulean Sea, to which this book is astonishingly similar; if you liked that one you'll enjoy this one, and vice-versa.