This was a lot more emotionally fraught than I expected it to be. And that ending 😩
I was hopeful going in to this that Juno Dawson’s first adult book, and first fantasy book would be good, because that premise sounded like so much fun. And while I was rewarded with a quality book that I really enjoyed reading, it really wasn’t all shits and giggles. Come for the 90s nostalgia, female friendships, a cool take on contemporary witches, and then leave heartbroken by the found family vibes and seething with anger over CERTAIN THINGS.
We get several POV characters in this book, all members of the same coven as children, but our main character is really Niamh (pronounced “Neeve”), a Scottish witch whose twin sister is in a coma and whose fiancé is dead after a war in the magical world that ended eight years before. Niamh is wary of coming out of her grief cocoon, but is pushed to do so by a thirteen year old child that needs someone to care for them after having accidentally destroyed a school with their burgeoning powers, and being traumatized not only by their childhood, but by being treated like a criminal instead a child in need of nurturing and protection by the HMRC (the magical governmental body started by Anne Boleyn and shepherded by Queen Victoria).
A conflict that sadly reflects what’s actually going on in Britain in terms of the queer community ensues.
I’m really interested to see where the author goes with this, and I really need a happy ending for the trilogy. We’ll see if she can come back from what she did in the ending of this book, an action for which I’m quite mad at her at the moment.