Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Mostly it was the wonderfully witchy ambiance that was captured so well in the story and setting. If Anathema Island was a real place, I'd definitely want to visit. Probably wouldn't like to live there, since crazy stuff happens to people who live on the island, but I'd probably want to check out the lake and shops and sweet nature trails, at least.
The moody setting paired with the actually witchy characters was hitting all of the buttons for me. This would be a great one to read on a crisp fall evening close to Halloween. The Blackburn women are so compelling and I really want to know more about the women between Rona, Judd, Fern, & Nor. I just really adore a cast of characters made up mostly of a long line of generational witches.
Another thing I liked about this book was that it had the perfect combo of intrigue, magic, & mystery mixed with this super intense underlying feeling of foreboding and dread. You will, when reading this book, definitely get a true bit of stomach-clenching stress while waiting for the ball to drop (and by the ball dropping, I mean Fern showing up on the island). We keep getting snippets and bits of information both about what she's up to in the present intermingled with Nor's memories of the past, so you slowly learn how terrifying and BAD it is that she's up to her old tricks in a big way.



I also really enjoyed that the focus in the story was on the relationships between Nor and literally everyone else on the island. Spoiler Alert! She's related to every original settling family, which provides for a very interesting dynamic, especially considering the reason for those relationships and shared blood is caused by the curse Rona Blackburn put on them back in the day. I loved her relationships with Judd and Madge and her grandfather, because they were so diverse and that made the story feel more realistic.



And lest I go through this whole review without mentioning the conflict and antagonist of the story, I'm gonna talk about it: Fern. Fern, the Blackburn daughter with a super creepy power who realizes that she can use it to gain a semblance of the full Blackburn powers she's always wanted. Let me tell you, Fern is an awesome character, solely because she's terrifying. I don't want to spoil a whole lot, but the way she gains her influence in the world is *so* creepy. Like....a "the body snatchers took away my mom and dad and nobody will believe me because the cops are also body snatchers" kind of creepy, which just adds to the panic and feeling of doom that resonates throughout this story.
So listen, if moody, witchy vibes and a great antagonist sound like your kind of read, do yourself a favor and pick this one up. Alternately, you could pick it up then put it down until October to further immerse yourself in a spooky and thematic setting for your reading!

I DNFed this book. I may pick it up again and finish it but it was just taking me so long to get through because I feel the plot was slow and is taking a really long time to build to the story's climax.
The characters are just okay. I am not in love with any because honestly there isn't much character building in this book. I am not fully immersed into any of the relationships/friendships just because there is not a lot of substance there.
I mentioned above the plot is slow. Its been building up got some kind of climax for a while now but it just hasn't happened yet and I am beginning to get impaitent.
I feel this book started out good. It has some goos points and maybe I would like it more if I revisit it later on but for right now I've just really lost interest and it failed in keeping me entertained.

[REVIEW AS IT APPEARS ON BLOG DOES INCLUDE LINKS TO OTHER POSTS, BOOKS, AND TERMS. Review live 4/14/18]
I cannot tell you how many times I've read and fallen in love with a book that I found to be nicely plotted and paced and plenty compelling, only to pop over to Goodreads and find that people are describing it as slow. . . So add this to the list of books I champion under the heading of "SLOW PACING IS NOT THE SAME AS EVEN PACING AND DEVELOPMENT, PEOPLE," along with faves like All These Things I've Done, Tin Star, Tess of the Road, The Accident Season...
aka, Slow Burn Books (apparently).

(And wouldn't you know, these are coincidentally also my cold fish books. Could it be that what some readers consider slow is being in the head of a female character they don't love unreservedly? There may be a future Book Chat in there, somewhere...)

The Price Guide to the Occult lured me in thoroughly and immediately. It's darker and more complex than I was expecting; more no-holds-barred than one generally meets with in YA (which is no slight to the vast array of YA that is out there, whether it 'goes there' or not, but Price Guide frequently and immediately insists it will pull no punches).

Yes, it could be cheesy, and yes, it could be over the top -- as a book I just finished reading proclaims, most good books are -- but against a magical realistic backdrop of intergenerational witches on a windswept island, a bit of over the top works. I felt connected to the story from nearly page one; there are some stories that make you feel not just as if you can visualize the place and characters, but as if you know them. Books that make you feel you have spent a considerably larger amount of time within their pages than you actually have. This owes a lot to an author's handle on their story and world, I think -- even when you don't have all of the information, you can tell when an author does. You can tell when their brain has been half-within their story world for quite some length of time. Everything feels realized. Characters act as only they would. There is consistency, through and through.

Price Guide gave me that, along with healthy doses of some of my favorite things -- family sagas about strong, magical women; internal and external conflict; quirky small towns; actual real-world conseqeunces; tall tale vibes -- wrapped up in a story that is both light and dark, simple and complex, fast and slow. It had its flaws, certainly (the end is too messy and fast-paced to suit the build up that came before, and the build-up in general definitely satisfied me more than the resolution), but there's no denying that I tore through it, (mostly) loved it, and didn't want to be finished when I was. I would very much love stories about the previous Blackburn women of Anathema island. And I very much think I need to finally get around to picking up Walton's other novel, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender.

Maybe you'll disagree with my fondness for this book and these characters, just as maybe you've disagreed with the handful of other books that I've thoroughly loved and ate up, only to see other's call it boring. But either way, I recommend The Price Guide to the Occult just as I've recommended those cold-fish others, and am very curious to hear your thoughts, if and when you read it.

Major trigger warning for themes of abuse, self-harm, and everything surrounding such weighty topics.

This is the first book I’ve read written by this author.

I loved the world we were in but I feel like a lot of things are left unanswered or unexplained. The prologue was great and it hooked me into the story right away! In this book, we follow Nor Blackburn, who we learn has a “burden” or a gift if you prefer that all Blackburn witches get. It’s different for each person and we learn that (view spoiler) I wish she would have been less secretive with her grandmother and more active than passive at the beginning and middle of the book but I understand she spent her whole life trying to be invisible so that’s probably why she tried not to (view spoiler)

About the love interests, I didn’t care that much but I am still curious about what’s going to happen next for these characters.

Also, I received an Arc copy of this book so perhaps this detail was edited afterward but the translation/sentence in French was incorrect and I just hate when that happens in books.

I feel like I’m talking about lots of negative points in this review, but I really enjoyed this book and I will probably read the sequel if there is one.

This is a tricky one. I am not certain who the audience is for this title. It's certainly a tough sell to teens. It will take a very specific teen to finish this title. It lacks the rollicking pace a normal witch book would have.

Beautifully language as in Walton's first title, but this story really didn't pull any punches. Walton clearly has a phenomenal grasp of language, it's almost as if she picks her words based on how they sound next to each other when read aloud. I often had to read paragraphs out loud because they were just so sumptuous.

Tasty phrases but lacking in story.

I loved the idea: a line of cursed daughters, descendants of a powerful but benevolent witch, each born with a single power... I just wish the execution was better. Leslye Walton does a great job of setting the scene here, writing in moody and atmospheric detail about the curious island where the Blackburns live, and she sketches out some interesting and quirky characters - but those characters are never fully fleshed out, so we don't feel the full impact of Nor's interactions with them. The same goes for the plot/pacing: there's a lot of set-up, but when things finally begin to unfold, it all seems to happen in a hasty, rushed manner, so by the time we're getting into a scene suddenly the book jumps to the next one.

This book had a lot of ups and downs for me. I'm still unsure about if I liked this book or not, but hopefully I can work through my feelings in this book! TW: There are many instances of self-harm that are mentioned in this book so please be aware!

The novel starts off narrating the story of Rona Blackburn in a textbook-sorta way. And I loved it. It was so quirky and set the tone for the serious nature of this story. It made me really excited for the way the story would unfold.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn't hold as much promise. 

The story is told entirely from Nor's perspective. But Nor is really not that interesting. She has no real personality and the way things are narrated from her perspective is a little ... boring. I wasn't necessarily hoping for a quirky character but I wanted Nor to be unique. Instead, she easily morphs into the stereotypical quiet girl who likes a guy but doesn't think she's good for him for various reasons. It was a bit disappointing.

I also found the story to be quite confusing at times. There are a lot of characters and names thrown in and it isn't always explained right away who they are and what their role is, which made it really difficult to keep things straight. When you eventually do find out how everyone is related, it makes a lot of sense but getting to that point is challenging.

There were also way too many areas where the plot wasn't developed enough for my liking. Half of the problems occurred because Nor didn't say anything to anyone. While this is a common trope to see in many novels, not just YA fiction, in the case of this story, I felt that Nor telling people what was happening to her would have actually upped the ante and led to more action-packed events. Instead, the book just moves slowly until the final climactic scene at the end. 

The ending was actually my favourite part. There was the action and the strength that I wanted to see. However, the slow burn to get to this point just wasn't worth it for me. I also didn't like how the author tried to do a love triangle thing; it is one of my pet peeves and it really wasn't necessary here. I did like the epilogue that was put in, as it gives the story future directions.

In the end, this wasn't my favourite read of the month. It had a really dragging plot and a character that lacked personality. However, the ending was quite strong and the epilogue piqued my interest. For those reasons, I'm giving this a 2.5/5 stars, rounded to 3!

Okay, first I have to admit something. I’m kind of prejudiced. This is a YA novel, and I expected what I’d read in almost every other YA so far: tropes, cliches, that feeling you’re reading a book well below your age group (if you’re 27 like me). It surprised me to find almost none of that in the better part of The Price Guide to the Occult, which then made me struggle between my expectations of this novel, and what this novel actually turned out to be. Mixed reviews didn’t help either, as before I started reading this, I got the impression that people either loved or hated this book. But then again, the ones who rated The Price Guide to the Occult poorly have compared it to Walton’s previous novel, which I haven’t read yet.

The Price Guide to the Occult starts by recounting the history of the Anathema Island, where eight settlers arrived in 1843, peacefully living and preparing the island for the expected arrival of their wives and children. This peace is threatened when a woman arrives and builds herself a house on the other side of the island, as it soon turns out that the woman, Rona Blackburn, is a witch. The settlers are determined to drive her away, but one of these men soon falls under Rona’s spell — he spends three consecutive nights with her and then runs away ashamed, like woken from a dream — leaving Rona not alone, but with a child. Events further spiral into what will be known forever as the Blackburn curse. Each of the Blackburn daughters will fall for one of the settlers’ descendants; each will spend three nights with him; each will end up with a child; and each one will be born with one magical gift – a burden.

Eight daughters later, Nor Blackburn is a 16 yo girl coping with her mother’s abandon by self-harm and by trying to be invisible to anyone but her best friend Savvy. She lives with the sixth Blackburn daughter – her grandma Judd, who possesses the burden of healing, and Judd’s lover Apothia. The island of Anathema is totally quirky, like something you’d build in a dream. There are places and shops named: the Witching hour, the Sweet and Savory Bakery, Society of the Protection of Discarded Things; a dog named Bijou and a cat called Kikimora; weird names like Madge, Sena, Wintersweet and Fern.

Fern. The seventh Blackburn daughter and Nor’s mother, born with a frightening burden of controlling people’s thoughts. Nor carries an awful memory of her mother which she tries to erase with knives and scissors, but one day it all comes back in the form of a book, authored by Fern Blackburn. The Price Guide to the Occult quickly becomes a bestseller, offering various helpful and terrifying spells for a small cost. But all of these spells fall outside of Fern’s original burden, and as Nor knows very well, the price for such magic — black magic — is not paid in money, but in blood.
Thoughts

As we all know, I love witches, so this one was hard to resist, not to mention the fact I was attracted by the gorgeous cover. As I mentioned earlier, the reviews for this novel were mixed, but my initial doubts started to dissipate right on page 1. Leslye Walton’s writing style is imaginative and beautiful, previously proven by The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, which I plan to read as soon as possible. The most interesting part, for me, was the first bit about the history of Anathema Island, and if you ask me – I wouldn’t mind if Walton stopped right there and instead turned this novel into one centered around the lives of all the Blackburn women through the centuries.

Instead, we are shifted to modern times where we follow a teen protagonist who is well written, but because of the numerous cast of side characters, none is as developed as her. I wanted to know more about the other daughters and their powers, but they are mentioned in passing only. Out of the three women we do get to know a bit — grandma Judd, daughter Fern, and the granddaughter Nor — Judd was the most interesting, while Fern was the least. In the last 30% of the novel, the quality started to drop down and some ugly tropes either emerged or tried to.

The most significant would be Fern, with her insatiable blood lust as her only drive. A classic b&w villain with absolutely no remorse or redeeming qualities; with unusual powers that remain unexplained; meeting an end that was just too easy. I like my villains written well, so I wasn’t satisfied with Fern. On the other side, Nor was thrown into a classic fight of good an evil; she becomes a typical damaged heroine; she almost gets involved into a love triangle. All this in the last 30%, like the author was in a rush to finish, or just ran out of ideas. The epilogue leaves an opening for a series, but with a totally different direction and theme, and I would love to read it if it ever comes to life, though I would also love if the author was a bit more consistent.

Overall, I really enjoyed the first 70%, even though the pace is slow, and I loved the original idea and the various powers, Nor’s being the most interesting as she can hear the thoughts of animals and plants, but I would’ve preferred if the author kept the original pace, and if she avoided the cliches completely. I was struggling between a 3.5 and 4 rating, but the latter won as I immensely enjoyed the better part of the novel.

I went into this book with high expectations, not because I had read The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, but because I have heard nothing but exceptional praise for that novel by Leslye Walton. When I found out this was being released I just had to give it a shot.
I love stories about witches so this seemed like a sure thing for me.

Things I liked:
- The writing. The story unfolded and was told in a lovely way.
-The main character, Nor. I loved how complex she was as a character and I especially adored her quirky BFF.
- The story flowed along at a brisk pace and while there were some parts that were slower I never felt like it lagged.
-I loved the back story of the curse and how that played out for each daughter and their abilities. I thought that was a nice twist in the story.
-The setting might have been my favorite part of the whole thing. The ambiance and mood that was created really put me in the story. It was sheer perfection.

Things I didn't like:
-The ending. I'm intrigued by it, but I don't know if the story is finished. Is this going to be a series? A standalone? What?
I also felt like the ending was rushed a bit and for all the build up leading to the final "battle" I was a bit let down.
- This needs a very strong warning for self harm. It is prevalent throughout the book and is a huge component of the main character and many of her actions and underlies most of her thoughts. And while self harm is not a trigger for me, it did take away some of my enjoyment of the story. That being said, I do understand its purpose and why it was needed for the story.

Overall I gave this book a 4/5 stars. I really did enjoy it.

**An e-arc was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Magic! If you are a fan of paranormal romance stories with a slower burn, I think this book is worth checking out.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender has been on my shelves for about 2 years now? I really want to read it, but I keep on putting it of because I am not to keen on magical realism. But when I saw this book I just dived straight in. I absolutely love anything witch related and The Price Guide to the Occult was right up my alley.

The book starts of with a beautiful prologue that sets the tune for the rest of the story. It's a very atmospheric book. Leslye Walton does a wonderful job in creating a setting and making you feel like you are walking on the island with Nor. I loved the brooding feeling of doom that hung over the entire story, till the very end.

The Price Guide to the Occult is a very character driven story. The different characters interactions and the century long family-line of witches are more important that the actual actions in the story. And I absolutely loved that! Leslye Walton did a really great job of creating multi-dimensional characters that felt very real. It would have been so easy to go with a lot of YA cliches, but she avoided them all in a wonderful way.

Even the romance, although not my cup of tea, was very slow-burned, never rushed and because of that very realistic. All the longing and the fear were in the right place. (Although I have to admit that I was rooting for another character.)

I absolutly loved all the little remarks that pointed to today's culture. Snowwhite and the huntsman, bloggers, Harry Potter... It made this magical story, more real and more settled in today's society. Especially the later chapters were spot on realistic!

I wished we could have seen more about the family history. There was of course that amazing prologue that kicks of the entire novel, but I would have loved to explore the other witches in the family more. See their burdens and learn more about the curse.

A Blackburn woman’s love story only ever lasts three days. When it is over, the man returns to his life, to his children and his wife if he has them, never once acknowledging – often times, not even to himself – the part he played in the creation of another Blackburn daughter.

I love stories about witchcraft, so I definitely had high hopes for this one.

The writing in this book really has its beautiful moments, and fills the tale with whimsy. It’s a sweet, quiet tale and I really enjoyed the pace and the attitude of life on Anathema Island.

It gave off quite a The Raven Boys vibe, and really captures that modern witchcraft feeling. It’s really atmospheric, and the way Walton writes has such a unique beat to it. I was also playing Assassin’s Creed: Rogue at the time, and the North Atlantic/colonial archipelago setting really worked for me.

The main character Nor is a seventeen year old girl. Her age was a complete surprise to me, as I didn’t get immediately that these were teenagers – I thought they were more adults – and it wasn’t mentioned until a few chapters in. Just putting it straight up, so anyone reading knows actually what mindset we’re looking at. She is the eighth Blackburn daughter, a descendant of Rona Blackburn – the powerful ancestor and original settler on the island. Rona, after being betrayed, inadvertently cursed her daughters when attempting to tie them to Anathema Island – weakening their power, and condemning them to heartbreak.

“Everyone longs to go unseen once in a while. The trick is not to find oneself trapped in invisibility.”

Nor doesn’t plan on that happening, and her method of making that happen is to be as quiet, and as unnoticeable as possible. She dropped out of high school, and works at the local witchcraft store, because who actually would think she’s a witch? As a character, she is recovering from deep childhood trauma, and her journey is actually a really lovely depiction of recovery from self-harm. She isn’t wholly okay, or better, but she tries to be. It’s a great portrayal of mental illness and – importantly – shows her continued efforts to improve. She went to therapy, and it didn’t work at first, but began to help – little by little. It doesn’t fall into the pitfalls that a lot of literature does in glorifying depression and not acknowledging recovery.

Nor had never had the heart to tell anyone that all she wanted was to make the slightest mark as humanly possible on the world.

She’s a nice enough character, and I really liked her internal intensity and her personal mantra. She has a small romance plot going on with the rather underdeveloped Reed, but it is very minor and doesn’t overwhelm the story. I was much more into the tension between her and Gage Coldwater, a secondary character who grows in importance through the story. Her relationship with her best friend Savvy, was also awesome and I really liked her as a character. I’m glad they were reunited later on in the book, as Savvy really brings out the best in her.

There is some really sweet diversity going on in this book too. It is done really well, where Walton has looked at all these secondary characters and considered who they are, and whether they need to be white and straight. Heads up – they’re not. It really grounds the book and makes it feel more real.

The ending of the book is really what let it down. It was at one specific moment that I kind of lost hope with Nor. I believe the exact quote is “Nor let herself be hauled away.” And honestly, this was it for me. She just lets things happen to her throughout the book, and then finally when she makes a stand it just didn’t feel like a genuine build up. She’s basically overpowered (which I’m actually fine with in this context) but when she finally kills her mother, she goes from 0 – 100 in a flash and I just didn’t buy it. Perhaps it was the characterisation of Fern, the villain, where at the end she seemed to be this kind of parody of herself. She wasn’t scary, and I wasn’t really worried. There was such potential, but it was never fully exploited – an idea which seems prevalent in this book.

“Don’t you think I should have everything I want?” Fern whispered. “That even the stars should burn a little brighter, Nor? Just for me. Just because I want them to?”

There weren’t very high stakes in this book. Which can work if done right, but this didn’t feel right. The entire ‘mystery’ was overwhelmingly obvious, and every ‘twist’ wasn’t a twist so much as a slight curve. It was predictable. And something that really made me grind my teeth was Nor’s basic ignorance of what was happening around her. It is one of my BIGGEST peeves in literature when a character has a dream (that we all know is actually happening) and then a) forgets it, b) doesn’t tell anyone about it, or c) ignores it and doesn’t believe it’s real. It kills me. \

This didn’t just happen once, it happened multiple times, and not once does Nor think – oh hey, maybe I should go talk to my badass grandma about it. She just accepts it. Also, another line on Nor’s moments of stupidity. At the end of the book when she is explicitly told she needs to hide her witchcraft, after an ENTIRE BOOK of her telling us that she’s spent her life suppressing and hiding her powers, she just casually transforms an umbrella next to a police station where she is obviously seen by one of the people who had just been interrogating her. I mean, come on!

I know I sound like I’m being particularly ranty, and that I hated the book. I actually didn’t. I was really enjoying it, I just feel the end let it down a lot. It feels like there is a set up for a sequel, which I will definitely be reading. I am invested in this world and these characters – and I particularly want to see how her not-so relationship with Gage develops (one of the best parts of the book, as minor as it is.) It’ll be interesting to see what Nor is like as an active character, embracing herself and her power, but in a changed climate where people will be on the hunt for such power.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to review! ?

Absolutely loved this unique book surrounding a magical life of a witch that was able to incorporate her predecessors while giving her story of a complicated upbringing with a narcissist mother. There is self harm in the book, but the protagonist learns to control her urges and grows in character and strength beautifully coming into her abilities. Would gladly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an exciting new book involving witches.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review,  so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
The cover and title is what originally drew me to this book. I really wanted to like it, but I couldn’t get into it. It was so slow and I just couldn't do it. I ended up DNFING it.
This was my first book by this author, I give this book a
2.5 star rating!

**Major trigger warning for self harm and suicide. If this is triggering to you, I would highly recommend to not read this book.**

I finished this book about a week ago, and I have already forgotten most of it. Unfortunately this book fell flat for me, in almost every aspect of the book. It did not live up to its potential, in my opinion.

The plot of this book sounds amazing. It's about this girl with powers and an evil mum, basically something I would usually enjoy very much. To me the pacing felt very off, it would switch from slow to quick and back very fast. The plot itself was very predictable, and there wasn't a "twist" that made it feel worth it at the end.

The part that bothered me most was the love interest. The main character would think of him only if he was right in front of her, but never when she was by herself. He would also conveniently show up basically whenever she left the house. It felt very forced and not natural at all.

In the end I was let down by this book, but I have heard amazing tings about her other book, so maybe I will check that one out.

I think that my expectations of this book were too high. I don't necciarily think that in this case it was the books fault but my own reading mood. I think that there will be people will love it and I think that there are those who won't like it all and I fall somewhere in the middle. If you're thinking about it, I think that you should definitely give it a try.

Lots of promise but it ended up being rather predictable. Still, this could be a great vacation read!

The opening leads readers to think this might be a Practical Magic-esque type book, an island that has many 'normal' people but also a family of witches, with power handed down generation to generation. It's one of those touristy islands, with quirky shops that attract off-islanders. Nor is one of the witches, working at an occult shop, when her long-gone mother publishes a book (the title of this one). And that's where "charming" ends. No spoilers, but clearly the author is a fan of Stephen King's earlier work.

ARC provided by publisher.

Leslye Walton enamoured me with her debut novel. And although this, as her second book, did not enrapture me as the former, I found myself admiring her talent as a writer and storyteller.

This story dealt with an important issue in mental health: self-harm. I won't lie that I was apprehensive going in, but by the end, the mental health advocate in me had no qualms with how the issue was handled in this story; in fact, it may even have attempted to give those who currently engage in self-harm a reason to be hopeful. There was definitely a note of wisdom delicately apportioned.
[(SPOILER)
Regardless, I did struggle with how a whole cast of characters were introduced to save Nor. An entire family burdened to protect the Blackburns? Not sure what was the point of that, since they only had knives versus the magic of a seemingly all-powerful witch? Except of course, they quite conveniently lived in a compound that could not be traced by evil, but again what good did that do eventually. Perhaps it was the fact that they were resourceful and provided some moral support?
I also didn't really get Nor as a character; she didn't seem fully fleshed out, pardon the pun. Something about her felt off, and given that she was quite closed off about her feelings, perhaps that's what Walton was aiming for metaphorically?
The plot in this book meandered a bit and it did get dull in some parts. The prose and plot in The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender was comparatively sharper.
My favourite character was definitely the red fox and Nor's grandfather, who were so discreetly introduced into the plot, it was sort of fantastic! (SPOILER END)]

Overall, I love Walton's brilliant imagination and how pretty she writes, so I'm not lying when I say, I'll read anything by her -whether written in the past, present or future.

3.5 stars

Although The Price Guide to the Occult is by no means a bad book, it felt a bit flat to me. The opening and initial build up is strange and eerie, but I felt that after that it became too much of a slow-burner. The premise is interesting, if nothing particularly new – a line of witches who are cursed, repeating the same mistakes and carrying on the line on an isolated island – but I generally love stories about witches so I wasn’t too bothered about the lack of originality. 

Nor is the latest Blackburn daughter and is happily unremarkable – her Burden (power) being an ability to understand animals and plants. We immediately know that Nor has magic, we soon learn that her mother Fern is psychotic and up to something, but nothing else really happens – it’s just a lot of waiting for Fern to turn up and watching things on Anathema Island become weirder and darker. It’s only 288 pages long, but those last 100 were a bit too much of a struggle to get through, and as much as I liked the characters I found myself not really caring what happened at the end because I’d pretty much figured it out less than fifty pages in. So, not bad, but not brilliant either – I found it to be a bit bland in terms of plot, but I did like the characters and their interactions.

The thing is, I haven’t read The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender yet. A book that I'm sure is very good. And so, I went into The Price Guide to the Occult with low no to expectations at all. But even then, it turned out to be a terrible disappointment.

The story revolves around Nor, the youngest daughter in a long lineage of cursed witches. The only thing Nor wants is to live a quiet normal life. And hopefully skip the curse altogether. Which would make her fall in love with a descendant of the original families and have crazy sex with him for three days, among other things. Of course, all her plans go out the window when Nor’s abusive mother, Fern comes back into her life.

The truth is that I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Boy was I hooked. The prologue was very good, and the first chapters were filled with everything I enjoy about witches. The setting was my favourite thing ever. Anathema island was very atmospheric, I almost wish it was a real place I could visit.

But then, disaster. The second half of the book systematically destroyed everything I had liked from the first half. The atmosphere crumbled. The explanations the author offered for some of the mysteries I was invested in didn’t make sense. The protagonist’s superpowers didn’t have any logic either. It was almost as if they appeared out of convenience. Whenever Nor faced a problem she magically gained a special ability to solve it.

I do know that the protagonist’s lack of initiative was explained as a side effect of the abuse she suffered as a kid, as was self-harm. But unlike self-harm, Nor allowing people to tell her what to do without retort seemed very convenient. Also, I think Fern was totally wasted. She had all the markings of a very good villain, but she lacked depth. She was wicked, yes, but no one knew why. She was bad for the sake of being bad.

But what really made me want to throw the book across the room was the stupid love triangle near the end. Nor’s original man was sweet, kind, backgroundless Reed. I quite liked him despite his lack of development. So, I still don’t understand why in the world would she cheat on him with this other guy that has treated her like dirt for years.

The ending of the book seemed to suggest that there is going to be a sequel. It’s either that or the ambiguity at the end will forever remain ambiguous. Anyway, if there is a sequel, I’m sure I won’t pick it up. I liked the writing style, but not nearly enough to read any following books.