Like a dark magic-casting, crime-solving slumber party
This was such a fun, feminist, sapphic, horror-y YA take on witches and magic, with a bit of a crime-solving twist! There was more gore and body horror than I was expecting, but I say that as a full compliment. If you're someone who's unsure about horror but want to try something a little spooky, I think this would be a great intro to the genre.
We follow three main characters. Jude, a disgraced heiress suffering the effects of a curse gone wrong and flirting with every woman and vaguely woman-shaped entity she encounters. There's Zara, a former good girl who's breaking all her own rules in an effort to solve her sister's murder. And finally we have Emer, a homeless, orphaned witch masquerading as an Oxford student while offering her magical services to women in danger from the men in their lives.
When all of the women who have come to Emer for magical assistance start turning up brutally murdered, the three's goals align and they team up to solve the murders.
The magic system and lore was really interesting here, I liked the ties to the actual history of witches and persecution of women as well as some of the more magical interpretations of events. And although I predicted the villain early on, I still had a lot of fun reading how everything played out. I enjoyed the characters' separate backstories as much as the actual action of the story, and wish there had been a bit more of them, particularly at the end. The story was definitely resolved and stands alone, but the ending made me wonder if there might be future stories with these same characters. If so, I'll definitely read them!
We follow three main characters. Jude, a disgraced heiress suffering the effects of a curse gone wrong and flirting with every woman and vaguely woman-shaped entity she encounters. There's Zara, a former good girl who's breaking all her own rules in an effort to solve her sister's murder. And finally we have Emer, a homeless, orphaned witch masquerading as an Oxford student while offering her magical services to women in danger from the men in their lives.
When all of the women who have come to Emer for magical assistance start turning up brutally murdered, the three's goals align and they team up to solve the murders.
The magic system and lore was really interesting here, I liked the ties to the actual history of witches and persecution of women as well as some of the more magical interpretations of events. And although I predicted the villain early on, I still had a lot of fun reading how everything played out. I enjoyed the characters' separate backstories as much as the actual action of the story, and wish there had been a bit more of them, particularly at the end. The story was definitely resolved and stands alone, but the ending made me wonder if there might be future stories with these same characters. If so, I'll definitely read them!