Published: August 2, 2022
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Series: N/A
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 320 (Hardcover)
My Rating: 4.25/5.00
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
When eighteen-year-old witch Iris Gray accidentally enacts a curse that could have dire consequences, she must team up with a boy who hates witches to make sure her magic isn’t unleashed on the world.
Iris Gray knows witches aren’t welcome in most towns. When she was forced to leave her last home, she left behind a father who was no longer willing to start over. And while the Witches’ Council was lenient in their punishment, Iris knows they’re keeping tabs on her. Now settled in Washington, Iris never lets anyone see who she really is; instead, she vents her frustrations by writing curses she never intends to cast. Otherwise, she spends her days at the wildlife refuge which would be the perfect job if not for Pike Alder, the witch-hating aspiring ornithologist who interns with them.
Iris concocts the perfect curse for Pike: one that will turn him into a witch. But just as she’s about to dispel it, a bird swoops down and steals the curse before flying away. If the bird dies, the curse will be unleashed―and the bird is a powerful amplifier, and unleashing the curse would turn not just Pike, but everyone in the region, into a witch.
New witches have no idea how to control their magic and the consequences would be dire. And the Witches’ Council does not look kindly on multiple offenses; if they found out, Iris could be stripped of her magic for good. Iris begs Pike to help her track the bird, and they set out on a trek through the Pacific Northwest looking for a single bird that could destroy everything.
I totally got pulled in by the cover for this – it’s just soooo moody and has good movement. To my pleasant surprise I really enjoyed it! I’ve become much pickier about which Young Adult books I request ARCs for and this was an impulse download. I think it helps that the book definitely skews more toward an older young adult audience just based on the age and life experiences of the characters.
Iris Gray is a witch, though her once open love for magic is now something she holds as a close secret. Her dearest friend was stripped of her magic and jailed for unsuccessfully trying to turn her boyfriend into a witch and Iris was put on trial as well, since she was there that tragic night. In order to escape this traumatic event and the cruel fallout from their community in Nebraska, Iris and her mother move to the pacific northwest where they now run an animal sanctuary. This is where Pike Alder comes in – he’s the handsome intern that just grates on Iris’s nerves and then one day he reveals what seems to be a vitriolic hatred of witches. Iris turns to a tradition of casting spells onto objects to sort of cleanse herself of bad feelings, but when she goes to curse a bundle of herbs an owl swoops in and gets cursed instead. Now she has to go with her nemesis deep into the woods to catch the owl so it doesn’t die, thereby releasing the curse that would turn Pike into a witch.
Now that I’ve summarized practically the entire plot, let’s chat about it. I totally thought Pike was an asshole at first, as I think the reader is meant to feel toward him but it soon becomes apparent that though he’s a bit of an arse, he’s actually a very passionate, interesting person. He and Iris slowly begin to respect one another during their owl chasing trek, though it remains somewhat fraught on Iris’s end because she knows she’s been lying to him the entire time. The latter third of the book was pretty intense thanks to Iris’s internal conflict and external danger. I found myself really flying through the last little bit just so I could see how things turned out.
Overall, I thought this was a really well done book and it handled magic in an interestingly mundane way. Because witches are a normal part of the world they don’t have to hide from anyone, they exist alongside everyone else so that takes away a point of conflict that one usually finds in fantasy books. Now Pike just straight up doesn’t like witches thanks to a truly horrible experience several years prior, so it did still have that same overcoming preconceived notions vibe. I liked that this was focused on older characters – Pike is in college and I think Iris has already graduated high school. I also liked how the whole thing was resolved very cleanly and satisfyingly! I love the increase in standalone fantasy books lately!
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