Book Review #2: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, by Sangu Mandanna
If you don't already, this will make you believe in magic!
The worst thing about my TBR list would be the fact it breeds at a faster rate than I can read. This may be true of most readers, however in 2024 I had a strained relationship with reading that is well and truly on track to being repaired this year. If every book I read this year enchants me as much as The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, I’m on a roll to knock an enormous dent in the aforementioned list.
Some time has passed since I last read anything witchy and having just discovered (albeit 25 years too late) that Practical Magic will now be on permanent rotation in my comfort movie collection, this book was recommended to me at the perfect time.
Sangu Mandanna has created a special world at Nowhere House in Norfolk, England, where Mika Moon finds herself responding to an unusual DM. As she engraciates herself into the home of Ian, Jamie, Ken, Lucie and three young witches Terracotta, Rosetta and Altamira, she still faces the same feeling of being an outsider that she experienced away from the wards of this hidden home that are designed to protect witches just like her.
In her own delightful, warm and enigmatic way, Mika breaks down the walls her new housemates have built around themselves. Each of them reciprocating for her in their own way. Ian’s flamboyance balances Ken’s demure wisdom, where as Lucie’s nurturing kindness softens the cantankerous yet sharp and sexy house librarian, Jamie.
Each character is written with such depth that as a reader you find your deepest fears and flaws brought to the surface, nurtured and healed within the wards of Nowhere House. The lyrical writing is in its own a magical English spell - a character all of its own - and each time you reluctantly have to put the book down, you feel the magical gold dust follow you back to real life.
The most special time to read this book is on an overcast Autumn day, where the morning is crisp and cool, calling for a brew of delicate tea, while the rustic colours only seen at this time of the year are vivid against an early moody sky, that just like Jamie, can’t stay cranky for long, before revealing to you the beauty of a sunny afternoon.
There are far too many adjectives to describe this cosy fantasy story, that would all fall dramatically short. If you find yourself needing a connection to something bigger than your own world, make yourself at home at Nowhere House, where family is found.
Happy reading!
Claire x
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