Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Most of the book was decent and easy to read despite how twee it is, telling instead of showing, not doing anything interesting with witches or magic and how alarmingly one-dimensional the characters are. Not to mention the adults and children all acting very similarly and speaking in the same way, it made the book come across as very juvenile.

What ruined this book for me was the terrible plot twist. The children literally don't care and even

animate their adopted mother's corpse?? But I guess that's okay because she was never around anyway, was that scene meant to be funny?

, it makes the adults seem stupid at best and manipulative at worst and I was shocked at how Mika quickly got over it just because she has a single sex scene.

The solicitor is meant to be the bad guy but he's the only one with any sense and was genuinely in the right.

I don't know how other people found this cozy at all, but Mandanna's work clearly isn't for me.

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adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is THE cozy, witchy fall read of the year (it’s early in the season but I’m willing to call it). I loved the cast of characters, and the beautiful sense of chosen family throughout this book. The slight slow burn on the romance was perfectly paced. The characters were both diverse and sensitively written, with just the right level of eccentricity. In the first half the stakes perhaps felt low, but once some secrets came out, the stakes were clarified and I was hooked for the rest of the book.

The themes in this book- such as home, belonging, found family- were fairly explicitly stated and perhaps lacking in subtlety, however with how well written the characters were to back up these themes that didn’t bother me. Overall this was just the book I hoped it would be!

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