A review by teabrewer
A sociedade supersecreta de bruxas rebeldes by Sangu Mandanna

funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I chose this book because I needed a cozy lighthearted romance for a stressful week that was to come. This book was, mostly, cozy, lighthearted and romantic. The kids were funny, the love interest is a grumpy, but good, person who is raising these kids. It talked about some interesting topics like the difference between being nice and being good, the different ways people deal with trauma, particularly parental negligence, and feeling alone in the world. There was no gender essentialism and consent is very respected throughout the book, and not only in romantic situations, so it escaped my most common pet peeves in this genre. I liked the magic system. Magic is palpable and a bit personified and witches have actual conversations with it to use magic. It also interacts back with the witches. I know it has become a more common thing in this kind of book but seeing the casual representation of a lesbic couple made me happy and they felt like very natural characters. I also liked seeing an older gay couple, it is good to be reminded queer people can be alive and happy for that long. That being said, there were a few things I didn't like in this book. Ian trying to force Mika and Jamie's relationship felt, well, forced. The references to witchcore and TikTok at the beginning of the book felt out-of-touch. The main characters were all only a step away from stereotypes, and although that's not always necessarily a bad thing, in some cases it took me away from the book. Ian was the biggest offender but they all had dialogue that made me grimace at least once. The
forest
make out scene was cute and full of want but the sex scene
in the house
was clunky and weird. It felt more like a list of actions than someone's perspective. It also felt a bit out of place in the context of this book.
The sudden "we buried a dead body in the garden" felt extremely out of place, like the author had planned that at first but forgot about it while writing the book and had to cram it in there somehow afterwards. And the "secret identical twin" twist just after that felt like a lazy, cliché band-aid, especially since before it appeared the plot was going in a way more interesting and relevant direction. I don't understand why that was included, there was no hole to be covered. A plot-hole was actually created because of it and had to be addressed with an even lazier excuse, that is the pictures with Lilian in them always being blurry.
Lastly, what was, for me, the biggest elephant in the room: Maybe I'm expecting too much of a cozy lighthearted romance, and maybe having read Babel by R.F. Kuang recently affected my expectations and tolerance for this specifically.
But it was a choice to include how the children, and the main character, were taken from their birth countries. How they were stripped of their original names raised by white people while completely isolated from anyone from their original cultures. How there were other witch societies in those countries and Primrose and Lillian had contact with them but still did all that. I don't understand why make that choice if you never planned to address the subject properly.
With these last 4 topics, The Super Secret Society of Irregular Witches' problem is that it bites more than it could ever swallow being what it is. It didn't have to have a spicy scene, a "mystery" or to mention xenophobia and colonialism, but it did and couldn't do them all and the actual plot of the book at once.
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