The plot is relatively fast-paced, and once the ball gets rolling, it’s hard to stop! I was on the edge of my seat from about 50% in, wanting to stay up all night to see what happened. “It’s true that she’s your family but that doesn’t mean you’re obligated to love her.” There is genuine character growth in this book, and it never feels forced.

The friendship between them did feel strange to me, at first, but more of it gets worked through than I expected. You watch both these characters grow in really interesting ways, and I loved Will as a supportive character. Their actions are not supposed to be inherently the most likable. Katrell and Will can both be incredibly frustrating characters. “You survived for so long by yourself, but it’s okay to lean on other people. I really appreciated the way this was woven into a paranormal story. This is an ongoing theme and almost the less that Katrell must learn.

You take care of your own, even if they hurt you. There’s an interesting concept of not asking for help when growing up in poverty as Katrell does. Katrell’s life is absolutely by all definitions, going to shit. These are important themes to the story, and so they will be brought up in the book repeatedly. I do want to give a massive warning to pet death/murder and domestic abuse. I don’t often provide content warnings in my reviews ( this is due to not knowing everyone’s needs). This story was jarring, in the best of ways. If you’re not, you’ll burn down not only yourself, but everyone and everything around you.” Katrell faces a choice: resign herself to poverty, or confront the darkness before it’s too late. The further she goes, the more she risks the lives of not only herself, but those she loves. But magic doesn’t come for free, and soon dark forces are closing in on Katrell. And, warning or not, she has no intention of letting this lucrative new business go. However, when her next summoning accidentally raises someone from the dead, Katrell realizes that a live body is worth a lot more than a dead apparition. What do ghosts know about eating peanut butter for dinner? Things get worse, when a ghost warns her to stop the summonings or she’ll “burn everything down.” Katrell is willing to call them on their bluff, though. Clients pay her to talk to their deceased loved ones, but it isn’t enough to support her unemployed mother and Mom’s deadbeat boyfriend-of-the-week. Katrell doesn’t mind talking to the dead she just wishes it made more money. All quotes are from an advanced reader copy, and may or may not reflect the published edition.įor fans of Us and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comes a witchy story full of black girl magic as one girl’s dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.

Bad witch burning jessica lewis