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.

This book had a lot of potential, but it didn’t work for me.

I really liked the beginning of the story. The way that Rona Blackburn’s story was set up was exciting. It reminded me of The Scarlet Letter, because Rosa was excluded from the rest of the island for being a witch.

I didn’t like the main character, Nor. She was very one dimensional. She only focused on what her mother was doing and she pushed everyone else away. She was strange and boring.

Another problem was the title. It is the title of a book that Nor’s mother publishes, where she uses to sell spells to people. But it doesn’t really make sense as a title for the whole story.

Many events could have been explained better. There were gaps in the story. For example immediately after the final “fight” happens, everyone ends up back at a house to celebrate. There was no transition, or explanation to how people survived. I think some people even showed up who were supposed to be dead, so I was really confused.

I wish this book had been a little more thought-out and detailed, because that would have made it much better.

It seems I'm one of the few who didn't read the previous book :) As far as this one is concern I can say it's really good.
It's dark, cruel, sometimes really violent on the psychological side. But it's also a real page turner and once you start reading it it's quite hard to stop.
I appreciated the very complex characters and the histories in the background that are quite important for the story.
I'd like to read a follow-up to understand what the future will be and how the scars left by the event healed.
Strongly recommended.
I'm not a teen but I think this book can be appreciated at any age.
Many thanks to Candlewick Press and Netgalley

Nor Blackburn is a witch. A cursed witch. She is the descendant of Rona Blackburn, a powerful witch that was one of the first settlers of Anathema island. Unfortunately for Rona, she was not welcome among the other settlers and as revenge she cast a curse that ended up backfiring and affecting her bloodline. The Blackburn women now have to live with the curse that affects both their magic, and their love life.

Nor Blackburn is your not-so-average 16 year old who wants nothing more than to be anonymous. She didn't as for her powers (or "burden" as she likes to refer to it) or to be part of the Blackburn curse. Her wishes of living a quiet life come crashing when her estranged mother releases a book titled The Price Guide to the Occult. As her mother's popularity grows, Nor can't shake the feeling that something terrible is about to happen.

My thoughts:

I really loved the writing of this book. I really enjoyed The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavander and this book was just as beautiful to me. This definitely felt like some modern fairytale. The way that the island was described and the characters really pulled me in and kept me captivated. I do have to say though that the main reason that I could not give this book a perfect review was because there were so many loose ends. At this point I am not sure if this book will be part of a series, but I sure hope it is. I was left with so many questions! I definitely want to know more about certain characters and the consequences of the many things that transpired throughout the book.

I think that Leslye Walton has an amazing gift of creating characters and worlds that are so otherworldly and fairytale-like but she is able to make them seem plausible in our world. I definitely enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of magical realism.

Please be aware that there are strong themes of self harm throughout the book.

Like so many others, I completely adored Walton's first novel The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender so when I saw she was coming out with a second, I was quick to jump on it. Unfortunately, The Price Guide to the Occult was underwhelming.

That's not to say I didn't like it. I did! And I don't regret reading it. But it wasn't as awe-inspiring as Ava Lavender and of the two, I have to recommend Ava Lavender over this every time.

The Price Guide to the Occult follows a family of witches who all have one burden, but final daughter Nor might be the exception to this. Except she really, REALLY doesn't want to be. Nor just wants to be a normal girl, living a normal life. Unfortunately, her mother doesn't want that to happen. Nor's mom is the estranged Price daughter who uses black magic to get what she wants, and now it seems that she's released a book promising spells that's taken over the whole world.

This book just didn't have that same UNF that Ava Lavender did. The writing wasn't as good, which was a same because in her first book, Walton's writing was to DIE for. There also just wasn't that connection to the characters like in her first book. In The Price's Guide, we again follow a family but not as closely as we do in Ava Lavender, and their struggles aren't as relate-able, at least in my opinion. Nor's struggle with her mother and her self-harm is presented and could perhaps some could relate, but they also weren't explored in depth. Instead we are introduced to a bunch of characters that we don't get to spend enough time with to love.

This novel read, in a lot of ways, like a made for TV movie. Especially the ending and the "great boss battle." It felt cheap and made more for a really young teen demographic than the other teens. I hate to keep comparing this book to Ava Lavender but that book was a masterpiece and I just wish this book was as well.

I would still recommend people to read The Price Guide to the Occult especially younger teens. I think they could find a lot to like about this book. Unfortunately for me, this book just didn't live up to the hype. Read The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender instead.

When Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island more than a century ago, her otherworldly skills might have benefited friendlier neighbors. Guilt and fear instead led the island’s original eight settlers to burn “the witch” out of her home. So Rona cursed them. Fast-forward one hundred–some years: All Nor Blackburn wants is to live an unremarkable teenage life. She has reason to hope: First, her supernatural powers, if they can be called that, are unexceptional. Second, her love life is nonexistent, which means she might escape the other perverse side effect of the matriarch’s backfiring curse, too. But then a mysterious book comes out, promising to cast any spell for the right price. Nor senses a storm coming and is pretty sure she’ll be smack in the eye of it. In her second novel, Leslye Walton spins a dark, mesmerizing tale of a girl stumbling along the path toward self-acceptance and first love, even as the Price Guide’s malevolent author — Nor’s own mother — looms and threatens to strangle any hope for happiness.

Another book about mystery, dark magic and witches. All the ingredients for the witches lovers. I really enjoyed this book, though there are certain triggers you might be aware. Self-inflicted injuries are present throughout the book, which are the outcomes of the worries and sadness the main character carries on. Though sometimes blood can disturb you, it gives you a true picture of the darkness of the story.
Published March 13th, 2018

This book was a darker story than I had imagined from the jacket description. That being said, I think this was a great YA coming of age story. The heroine, Nor, is from a long line of Blackburn witches. Her mother, Fern, deserted her when she was young in the care of her grandmother. Fern, however, did damage Nor before leaving her. This story is about Nor overcoming her childhood trauma to become stronger. When Fern starts gaining notoriety by publishing a Price Guide to the Occult (actually a catalog of spells and their fees), Nor starts to worry that Fern will return to her little island. Nor has steadfast friends and great support from her grandmother and others on the island. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in YA fiction involving the supernatural. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I recently read Walton's first novel and highly enjoyed it, so I was stoked to be able to get an ARC of her second novel.. ARC formatting issues aside, I enjoyed this story quite a bit and would highly recommend it to the YA set looking for a fun fall/halloween type read. Walton writes beautifully, and there is some incredible imagery here. I loved the whole bit with the fern tattoos, just incredible. And the island itself was described in such a way that I could really picture it. That aside, this story just didn't engage me quite the same way that Ava Lavender did. The plot was a little confusing and most of the characters could have been fleshed out a little bit better.

I was intrigued by the premise of the book, but just could not find a connection with any characters. Did not finish.