A review by not_another_ana
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

A girl walks home alone, but not alone.

In a world where only women can wield magic three girls will cross paths thanks to a serial killer targetting witches. Jude is a rich heiress who accidentally cursed herself and is now suffering from a rotting soul. A pariah to her family and constantly in pain she will do anything and pay whatever steep price to fix the damage and go back to her normal life, and if she has to track down a killer then so be it. Zara is looking for a way to bring back her sister, Savannah, from the dead and if magic is the answer then she'll stop at nothing, including finding her sister's murderer. When they find themselves down the same path they start working together and come across Emer, an actual witch and the girl who gave Zara's sister her magic. She could cure Jude and maybe even reanimate Savannah, but there's a more pressing situation: her clients are slowly being killed one by one. Bound together by what they know the three of them will try to catch this serial killer before he comes for them.

I thought this would be such an easy 5 stars. A book about witches! With a serial killer! By the same author of House of Hollow! Saying I was hype is an understatement, I was genuinely counting down the days and yet... this did not hit 😔 and trust me, it hurts. Some of my frustration might be due to how much I loved House of Hollow, which I read twice last year, and to that I say my bad, sure, but even separating this from previous books I still think it's weak and not up to standard. There were still elements that I enjoyed so let's start with the good.

The prose was excellent in general. Easy to read, very descriptive without boring the reader, non repetitive. Nobody does gruesome in such an enjoyable way as Krystal Sutherland, tasteful amount of gore I would say. The central idea was solid, I was particulary captivated by the magic system in this world. Magic has a price, magic hurts, it's disgusting, it cannot do it all, it demands a sacrifice. Giving away part of your soul in exchange for power ties up nicely to the medieval beliefs of witches consorting with the devil. Emer's family history
and the existence of witch hunters
made sense in this universe and was fascinating to think about. The central mystery had some terrific elements,
like the witches' power being stolen and the killer grafting their invocations on his body, delightful! The necromancy was a gruesome plus, I love how much work it was and how committed you had to be. The demons too were an intriguing addition that I would have like to learned more about.


Now to the bad parts. I knew this wasn't a 5 stars when I realized there were three points of view. It made the beginning too slow because we had to meet all of them, learn about their situation, and then connect them to the main plot and eventually each other. The pacing was a big issue, slow start that then picks up only to slump again to then pack all the action in the last 30%. At some points the girls were too similar and difficult to separate, at others some of them felt like they were just there and didn't contribute much to the story cough Zara cough. Picking one character to be the only POV would have been better, in fact that's what I believed from the cover and I do think only Jude narrating would have made a ton on sense.
She was skilled enough in magic to know the basics but still need help from Emer and her connection to the witch hunters and the serial killer was closer and more meaningful.
I never felt a strong connection to any of them because it was too hard to get to know them properly. Slightly related to that, I also never felt anything for the villains of this story. They were too obvious and also too cartoony. Superficial means and motive, just mustache twirling villain behaviour. Listen, I am never beating the misandrist allegations but this book actually has me beat. In an either "my first foray into feminism" or "radical extreme feminism" way all men here were evil and irredeemable, just a flat interpretation of the world that hurt the narrative by not letting any grey area exist. It rubbed me the wrong way. The plot also had these contrived coincidences that existed only to help the girls out or to conveniently make things easier
like zombie Savannah breaking out and killing everyone, or the demons consuming all the bodies so they didn't have to give any explanations.


Then there's the... romance.
There was no space in there to develop a romance AT ALL. I can maybe believe that such a dire situation could get the trauma bonding passion juices (ew) going but Emer and Jude had nothing in common. I don't see them lasting long nor do I believe there's love between them. Related to that can we talk about the epilogue. Um wtf was that. The new friends, who were allegedly brought so close together by all the events, spend a whole year separated only to reunite and not really talk that much about what happened or the future?? Not only that but, if I recall correctly, Zara has no speaking lines during the whole thing. Zara third wheel #confirmed, not only is her sister still dead, not only is she still poor, her sisters in arms are too busy with each other to bother with her. Oh and the last thing that bothered me a lot: why was Bael and the demons keeping Emer alive to created more invocations framed as a grl pwr win??? The way I see it Emer is now a pawn for the demons, kept alive solely for her ability to feed them souls, her life is no longer her own. She is a prisoner to entities she doesn't fully understand. I don't consider giving women's souls to demons to be a win for feminism.


I said a lot of shit for a book that I still ranked 3.25 but I stand by it all. I did enjoy it! Which makes everything I didn't enjoy so important for me to talk about. Even with all this if Krystal Sutherland handed me a new book in a similar vein I would sit my ass down and thank her for the meal. TL;DR: yeah you can still read this and enjoy it.
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