Book: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches 🐈‍⬛

It's ~witchy season~ for me! 🐈‍⬛

I've been very uninspired and bored with my book picks recently, until I remembered the witch genre could be fun. (I think I also keep mistaking Wednesday as a witch. I don't think she is explicitly named as one?!)

I'll attempt to share some thoughts about witchy books I've read recently, as an exercise to express my thoughts better.

Kicking things off with The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna.

I literally found this book by typing this into Google.

What's it about:

Mika Moon is 31 year old witch living in Britain. She meets up once in a while (blue moon?) with other witches, hence the title of the book. She is mostly a lonely adult orphan that struggles with the isolation that the witches have to abide by. She starts posting tongue-in-cheek social media content about witches, and is invited to live with a mysterious, interesting family.

Thoughts:

The book does deliver on "cute" and "witchy"- it certainly has the 'witchy' elements - sparkly potions, handy spells, tea and herbs, as well as magic abilities.

But I felt like the story and magic seem rather surface level, as the book wants to explore so many other themes like diversity, representation, community, childhood trauma, loneliness etc as well. I feel like there were way too many themes and the length of the book just doesn't allow each of these to be developed deeply enough. I want more magic!

Then there's the issue of romance:

I could definitely do without the romance. I would rather learn more about the magic and the witches' abilities. There are so many witches in the story after all! I did not enjoy the touch-and-go treatment for them. We get only tiny, tiny crumbs of each witch and her story. 

Romance has also never been my favourite genre. Even when I'm in a sappy mood, something about it just feels wrong. Maybe the pacing in most romance books is too fast for me? A slow burn like Pride and Prejudice is so much "juicier" to me.

Fantasy and sci-fi also takes their time to immerse you in a new world - while romance genres tend to throw you into typical problems and tropes the MC faces - oh her life and career are in complete shambles; she has one grumpy cat that is her friend etc. Then, almost always, SUDDENLY, someone swoops in and takes her breath away. And let's make that someone a person she initially thinks is a prick. Plus points if he's from a rival company or such. Romance Bingo Card anyone? 😂

This book seems to be aimed at older readers, but it feels a bit YA to me. Maybe that's the point? That Mika is slightly emotionally stunted due to her isolation? 

Conclusion
Recommended for a quick, witchy read. Kind of cute but quite a shallow exploration of magic and witches.

In the end, it felt quite twee to me. Some modern twists of 'conventional witchiness' like having the familiar be a lovable, floofy golden retriever instead of the stereotypical cold black cat, how witches travel on speed bending cars instead of broomsticks, posting on 'TikTok' felt... like a cheap attempt to subvert the traditional witch concept and 'make it cute and relatable'. I appreciate the ideas and do not doubt that the author had fun writing them, but I really wish there was more depth in exploring them.

The more I think about it, the more I feel like I would not have felt so let down because the title led me to think the story was more about a group of witches and their interactions, and such, not of one individual witch and her navigation of her life. (I might have glossed over the blurb.) I so WISH the author covered more about the other witches, and their magic! 

Overall Rating: 

3/5

Quick lighthearted read but did not satisfy my need of a very immersive, believable world. There were many cute ideas, but not enough pages to develop them into a richer story. 

Oh well. Moving on to the next witchy book!

Love,

Skye