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A review by okiecozyreader
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
4.0
Ok, so the cover is gorgeous and I have been seeing so many great reviews for this one. I liked it, but for the longest time, I thought it was so slow. It seems like everyone looooves the atmosphere - which I get. It was almost palpable and at times I just wanted to get away from it, it seemed so real. I’m conflicted though - the secrets take so long to get resolved and I felt like, yeah, I know that’s a secret… but I wanted to find more out or get something to happen. Maybe more magic (like these other reviews are saying) would have helped.
I read the physical copy and it took me a minute to realize all the different POV. I can see where the full cast on audio would have been helpful. But I learned I really had to pay attention to that (and apparently, I am not good at paying attention to titles in all situations).
I recently read Other Birds and someone mentioned it was like Sarah Addison Allen but darker - and I can see that.
Emery Blackwood runs her mother’s magical tea shop next to Leoda, who runs a magical apothecary next door. She has a mostly on-again relationship with Dutch, after her love August left the island 14 years ago with his mother to never return. Chapter one, August returns to bury his mother’s ashes and sell her property. His return brings back all the feels for Emery as well as everyone else on the island, Saoirse. Because August left under suspicion of murdering Emery’s best friend Lily. It’s all complicated and so many small town feelings and people trying to control August and Emery.
This study guide is worth viewing - esp her author’s note on the difficulty of leaving poignant moments:
http://www.randomhousebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Book-Club-Kit.SPELLS-FOR-FORGETTING-1.pdf
— quotes
“ I could turn my back on the island like I had fourteen
years ago. But this time, I would never go back. I’d lived enough years now to know that there were some ghosts that haunted you forever.” Ch 1
“Handwritten labels identified teas crafted for everything from anxiety to menstrual pains to relief from a sore throat. But it was the more mystical brews you couldn’t find on the mainland that most people crossed the water for on those dim autumn days. Recipes for infusions to draw love, conjure luck, or beckon dreams were only a few of those that had filled the shop since its doors first opened in 1812.” Ch 2
“Witches. I’d heard children from the mainland whisper the word like a secret from the time I was little, playing in my mother’s shop as she worked. I’d always thought that strange, because on Saoirse, the word wasn’t a secret. It was deep magic that ran through the blood of every woman on the island. It seeped into the earth of the orchard, its leaves unfurling every spring, falling to rot every autumn before turning back into the ground.” Ch 3
“There are spells for breaking and spells for mending. But there are no spells for forgetting,” ch 37
“I’d been in love with August Salt since before I knew what the words meant. I don’t know when it happened—the narrow space between seconds, when a spark like the birth of a hundred stars found a home in my blood. Since then, every day had been colored with the glittering light of it dragging me in its wake, pulling me beneath its surface. And I didn’t care. If this was what it was like to drown, then for the rest of my life, I didn’t want to take another sip of air.” Ch 49
“There were two times a year that the veil was thin. Beltane on May 1, and Samhain, which was coming in only a few days. It was said that on those nights, spirits walked back and forth over the crossing to the Otherworld…” ch 53
“It had always been about the orchard. Everything on this island was.” Ch 59
I read the physical copy and it took me a minute to realize all the different POV. I can see where the full cast on audio would have been helpful. But I learned I really had to pay attention to that (and apparently, I am not good at paying attention to titles in all situations).
I recently read Other Birds and someone mentioned it was like Sarah Addison Allen but darker - and I can see that.
Emery Blackwood runs her mother’s magical tea shop next to Leoda, who runs a magical apothecary next door. She has a mostly on-again relationship with Dutch, after her love August left the island 14 years ago with his mother to never return. Chapter one, August returns to bury his mother’s ashes and sell her property. His return brings back all the feels for Emery as well as everyone else on the island, Saoirse. Because August left under suspicion of murdering Emery’s best friend Lily. It’s all complicated and so many small town feelings and people trying to control August and Emery.
This study guide is worth viewing - esp her author’s note on the difficulty of leaving poignant moments:
http://www.randomhousebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Book-Club-Kit.SPELLS-FOR-FORGETTING-1.pdf
— quotes
“ I could turn my back on the island like I had fourteen
years ago. But this time, I would never go back. I’d lived enough years now to know that there were some ghosts that haunted you forever.” Ch 1
“Handwritten labels identified teas crafted for everything from anxiety to menstrual pains to relief from a sore throat. But it was the more mystical brews you couldn’t find on the mainland that most people crossed the water for on those dim autumn days. Recipes for infusions to draw love, conjure luck, or beckon dreams were only a few of those that had filled the shop since its doors first opened in 1812.” Ch 2
“Witches. I’d heard children from the mainland whisper the word like a secret from the time I was little, playing in my mother’s shop as she worked. I’d always thought that strange, because on Saoirse, the word wasn’t a secret. It was deep magic that ran through the blood of every woman on the island. It seeped into the earth of the orchard, its leaves unfurling every spring, falling to rot every autumn before turning back into the ground.” Ch 3
“There are spells for breaking and spells for mending. But there are no spells for forgetting,” ch 37
“I’d been in love with August Salt since before I knew what the words meant. I don’t know when it happened—the narrow space between seconds, when a spark like the birth of a hundred stars found a home in my blood. Since then, every day had been colored with the glittering light of it dragging me in its wake, pulling me beneath its surface. And I didn’t care. If this was what it was like to drown, then for the rest of my life, I didn’t want to take another sip of air.” Ch 49
“There were two times a year that the veil was thin. Beltane on May 1, and Samhain, which was coming in only a few days. It was said that on those nights, spirits walked back and forth over the crossing to the Otherworld…” ch 53
“It had always been about the orchard. Everything on this island was.” Ch 59
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Grief, and Pregnancy