As someone who loves anything witch-like, this book was a captivating thrill ride I could not put down. We follow along the main character, Nor’s, journey through self discovery, self healing, and overall triumph over the villain that is attempting to destroy her. Her “Burdens,” or her manifestations of power, are interesting and Nor’s discovery of them throughout the book matches the pace of the story-line well. Nor’s story begins with the tale of her many times over grandmother, Rona and her trials with love and neighborly fear/shunning and this aspect of the story adds another layer of depth as there are similarities to how the Islanders treat Nor. The secondary characters (Gage, Reed, Savvy, Judd, etc) were interesting and I wish we got to see more of them. There was a tiny hint of romance, but it wasn’t explored in depth and I feel that it could have been delved into a little deeper. Overall, I still loved the story. I do wish there had been trigger warnings for the self-harm aspect of it, but I absolutely would recommend to anyone who loves fantasy and fast paced stories about young, coming of age witches. My only complaint is that sometimes the story was a little jumpy. I had to reread pages a few time to see how we had gotten to where the story was. I am eagerly looking forward to reading this book again (already!).

(Disclaimer: I received this free book from Netgalley. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

TW: Self Harm

The witches in this book are not only all women, but also cursed to fall in love with one of the male descendants of the original Eight. So we've added on to witches, temptress - which was always something witches were accused of before too! And what I really loved is this one quota from Rona that looks at how quickly fear and guilt turn to hatred. And how do we break this cycle? I adored that this book begins with Rona's story. I know Rona is the beginning of the entire story - but wow, I loved Rona. She is strong and enigmatic.

Another thing I loved about this book was the mother/daughter/family relationship. There aren't really male children in their family, so this entire thing is about mothers and daughters. And there is diversity within the family as one of them is in a f/f relationship. So it doesn't mean they are all heterosexual. But there's such tension and power even in the mother/daughter relationship. While Fern, the mother of Nora, doesn't have to have any actual spell over Nor, she does because she's her mother.

This review is on Goodreads, and I'll write an expanded version for my blog when I no longer have the flu!

I found it frustratingly difficult to get into this book, which was sad, as I liked the plot. I did read it in rather a disjointed way -- I read about half of it, then stopped for three days because I had the flu, then finished it -- which definitely affected my appreciation of it, but even so... I don't know. I had a few issues with it.

Firstly, I just couldn't really connect with the writing style. The sentences themselves were very choppy, and so were the scenes and chapters -- it moved very rapidly from one thing to another. Now, occasionally this might've been because dodgy ARC formatting meant there weren't line breaks where there should have been, but it was also a pacing issue; some things just happened too suddenly, without any build up. I felt the reveal of Nor's various powers could definitely have been done more smoothly.

Secondly, I found it difficult to keep track of the characters, mostly because they all had strange names that weren't obviously gendered, so it made it harder for me to keep track of who was who. Having finished the book, there are still several characters I wouldn't be able to match to their names, at all. I mean, this is definitely partly me, because I am TERRIBLE at names. And it may also be cultural, where my familiarity with them is concerned. But even so, it made it hard to connect to the book.

Thirdly, as I mentioned, there were some pacing issues, which meant the book alternated between moving too slowly and moving way too fast. All the important events happened extremely quickly, especially near the end, which detracted from their impact somewhat. It didn't help that there were various things where I couldn't tell whether they were supposed to be plot twists or not. I'd guessed them long before Nor figured it out, but was I supposed to? It was hard to tell.

Finally, I found the book quite triggering for stuff relating to self harm. It's not that it was badly handled, and there were actually some resources at the back for people struggling with it, but there wasn't any sort of warning and I didn't realise going into the book that it was going to be a major theme, so it kind of caught me off guard. That made it harder to enjoy.

Things I did like: well, the magic system was interesting enough. Nor's family, with the exception for her mother, were interesting and engaging characters. Her friend Savvy was also enjoyable, and it might have been nice to see more of her development, although she seemed weirdly obsessed with finding Nor a boyfriend, which I found a bit odd. And if the pacing had been smoother, I'd have really enjoyed the plot, too.

Maybe it's circumstances; maybe it's because I've had the flu and I'm picky and I read it in such a disjointed way, but this one didn't work for me, and I'm sad about that.

This is a slow burning romance novel with witches.... it is pretty straight forward.

*This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

When I first heard that she was coming out with a second novel, my mind didn’t know what to do with itself because I was so excited. Ava Lavender's story has been one of my favorite books for years and I try to make it a point to reread it every year, but I also knew that I should try to put that story as far from my mind when I began reading this one. I didn’t want to expect certain things from this book and knew that the less I compared, the better. The Price Guide to the Occult has everything that I love about this kind of genre; witches, a curse, and an island where this is seemed as normal.

As I started reading this, it was a little slow and took me a bit before it caught my interest completely. The beginning and learning about Rona’s history was interesting and seeing how she dealt with the other islanders as she claimed her own part of the land. Though once we got to Nor, I hadn’t expected it to go the way it did. While I love Walton’s writing and her way of including all this magic into her worlds, I don’t think I would classify this a magical realism. I know I shouldn’t have compared it to her other book, but a part of me thought it would discuss more about the Blackburn family history in the beginning, or in a way have the feel of telling a family saga. It’s not that at all. It makes sure to tell you that this is happening in the current time period or as close to it as you can get. Nor’s mother is selling her magic and anyone can find out about spells and prices by purchasing her books. One Youtuber did a review on it and the rest is history.

I was hoping I was going to love this book. I usually love anything that has to do with witches and magic, but this just didn’t grab at me. As I was reaching the halfway mark, I knew that I kept reading mostly because I generally liked the writing style, but the story itself wasn’t the greatest I’ve ever read. If Walton plans on writing more books, I’m still an eager fan to get my hands on anything she writes, because her writing is magnificent. Things did started to pick up in the second half of the book, but by this point, I wasn’t completely overtaken with it. While it became interesting, it wasn't enough to erase the struggle to read through the first half.

3/5

This was beautifully written and very entrancing. I really did enjoy the story it was magical and dark. The main character Nor is an incredibly strong female, she battles with her inner demons and those around her. This has an interesting take on witches which is always fun to read about.

While I did enjoy the story it felt kind of flat to me. Meaning it didn’t feel climactic to me, there wasn’t anything that really kept me on the edge of my seat or that made me go “omg what’s going to happen”. It was enjoyable but there was no real “wow” factor.
The story was pretty predictable so maybe that’s why?
However, if you like witches, dark settings and a strong female lead and want a quick read you’ll probably enjoy this

warning: self harm

A copy was provided for review via Netgalley

The Price Guide to the Occult has an unique and interesting concept. Sadly, it fails in the execution. The slow pace turns the focus to the main character’s day-to-day life, who remains the only well-developed character in the story, while the rest of the plot falls to the sideline. Some of the world-building is enthralling, but unfortunately it is not enough to carry the novel.

Leslye Walton has shown that she can be an amazing writer. It seems that, with this novel, her ability to create a magical atmosphere doesn’t shine through. The characters are flat, the story drags, and it seems like not much attention is paid to what is supposed to be the driving force behind the book: The Price Guide to the Occult.

I’m disappointed. I had very high expectations for this one, especially as the premise sounds absolutely wonderful and right up my alley. So I’m all kinds of bummed to say that this book did not work for me at all. It is super overwritten in parts, which contributes to the slow pace and difficulty to get into the story, and totally rushed in others.

Nor, as a main character and narrative voice, isn’t bad. She’s very different from the kind of protagonists that populate YA Fantasy, so that’s refreshing to read about. But her POV — as it takes such a long time to get to the interesting bits aka the actual Price Guide conflict with her mother — is so boring. Especially when the romance element becomes a prevalent part in the story.

The romance bit is just… a disaster. Since Nor is pretty much the only well-developed character in the entire novel, it becomes extremely difficult to buy into the romance and make it believable. The hints of instalove and the threat of a love triangle also don’t help.

The real bummer is when the Price Guide and Nor’s mother, Fern, do become relevant to the plot. The entire conflict is, for the most part, incredibly rushed. The writing falls flat when it is supposed to shock. It makes what is supposed to be the climax of the novel a bit underwhelming and anti-climatic.

In the end, The Price Guide to the Occult is a personal disappointment. The original premise is intriguing, but the writing fails to keep my attention. The undeveloped characters and slow pace make it difficult to connect to the story. Leslye Walton has shown she can be an incredible writer, but this novel doesn’t show that.

While I had fun with this read, it isn't anything to special. I love witchy stories and this book did a good job with that topic. The characters were all interesting and had me rooting for them. There were some loose ends that weren't really tied up in the end that I didn't really like. And in some places the writing was a little choppy. Overall I thought this was a enjoyable read and I'd be happy to recommend it to my fellow witch/supernatural lovers.

This YA book has everything a magical, witchy book should have--magic (duh), strong female characters, female friendships, generational lines and support, healers, herbs and plants and spells, some questionable characters and a perfect setting (PNW) for it all to take place. I'm always intrigued by a story line where generations of strong females hold each other up from generation to generation (think Practical Magic) and this book did not disappoint.

Overall, I enjoyed The Price Guide to the Occult and the plot moved along nicely. Although it is clearly a YA novel, there were times that I forgot and was just engrossed in the plot, characters and what is going to happen next. If you're into magic and witches-you're going to love this book! Thank you for the opportunity to review this book!

Despite not having read The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, I had heard so much praise for the author's masterful, whimsical, atmospheric prose that I was greatly looking forward to this read. I've been on the lookout for good witch stories, but it was the "occult" which really hooked me. Unfortunately, this book just didn't captivate me the way I had hoped it would. I found the writing clumsy, the dialogue awkward, the character development abrupt and nonsensical, and the book so overwritten it was hard to follow. I thought there were some great, really great, moments, and the concept was fantastic, but I just didn't feel for this novel what I wanted to.

My first problem, and my biggest problem, was the use of Nor's self-harm as a plot device. It came off as disrespectful and ignorant due to the obvious lack of research and development. done. When handling a topic so serious and one potentially triggering for your readers, it needs to be done with deftness and maturity - it needs to be well understood. Instead, it was handled in a melodramatic and unrealistic fashion. Furthermore, it was clearly intended to be a major part of Nor's character development - but that "development" was more an abrupt change than anything else, and therefore struck me as disingenuous. In part, this was due to the time jump - one I found completely unnecessary. It interrupted the flow of the writing for no apparent reason, and changed nothing about the unraveling of the plot. It was more of a detriment than anything else, and the awkward attempts at integration disrupted the flow of the writing immensely. 

I was also greatly disappointed and underwhelmed by the romance. It was not developed at all, and I would have much preferred to see an enemies-to-lovers situation going on with Gage than anything else. And even when she did make a move on Gage, it made no sense! Really, it was Gage (and Savvy, whom I adored) who I would've liked to see explored and developed further. They were by far the most interesting and intriguing characters, and deserved way more time than they got.

Overall, this book was wildly underdeveloped. Despite loving the ending and the fantastic use of imagery on display, the narrative seemed to lack clear direction. I never felt fully engaged until the last 50 pages or so, but it did hold my attention and my thoughts despite not being a really great read for me. When it was good, it was great. But ultimately, it's weaknesses outnumbered its strengths.

Off the coast of Washington there is an small island and witches live there. A small town's worth of other people also live there but the witches are really the important bit. Well, semi-witches is probably the more accurate descriptor for the last 8 generations of Blackburn women. For hundreds of years this family of witches were powerful but good peeps overall. Unfortunately humans beings aren't known for their high tolerance for magical entities real or imagined. This lead to a many generations of witches being forced to constantly move when their neighbors tolerance levels peaked. So eventually one of these witches, Rona Blackburn, decides she's going to set up a life on a little remote Island where there's not even a dozen other inhabitants. Remote locale hermit lifestyle , all should be good and safe for Rona the witch. Yeah, not so much. Some 18th century drama goes down, there's fires set, babies are born, it's not good. So Rona, sick of all the problems her magic has brought to her life decides she's going to try and bind her powers and keep all the future generations of her family safe from what she's suffered. What results is more like a cruse than a protection and it is passed along to each generations Blackburn woman and then on to her one daughter and so on. Eight generations later our story begins with, Nor, who's chillin, living her life, when one a book arrives at the town psychic shop where she works. A book of available spells, incantation pricing, and an order form. A book of Blackburns spells that have been and should still be unusable due to the Blackburn biding curse. Only it appears Blackburn #8, Nor's mother, has found a way to achieve what ought not be achieved. Also, she's like a supermodel channeling her inner Charles Manson. This is not the best combo and pretty much all hell starts breaking loose from this point on. Good times!


I honestly enjoyed this read. It was a quick fun read that I devoured in pretty much one sitting and that says a lot for a book. I'm ADD to the extreme and this a chronic book jumper. This novel kept my attention firmly in place. It brought to mind books like L.J. Smith's Secret Circle trilogy, and Lana Popovic's Wicked like a Wildfire. I think this book be a pretty good matchup for anyone who has read and enjoyed those stories. I believe this book should be available to the public on March 13, 2018.

When the original eight began to colonize Anathema Island, they were not prepared for Rona Blackburn, an eccentric healer and witch, to claim her stake in the land. An injury brings one of the men to Rona's door resulting in a brief but passionate affair. Rona becomes pregnant but the man's fear and guilt leads to the men burning her out of her home in hopes of her leaving the island. Rona places a curse on the settlers, inadvertently afflicting the lineage of all of the families on the island.
Present day- Nor Blackburn is the ninth witch in the Blackburn line but all she wants is to be a typical teenager living an uneventful and ordinary life. Nor tries to not use her powers, stay away from love, and remain as invisible as possible in hopes of avoiding the curse. Unfortunately, fate has other plans when a mysterious book titled "The Price Guide to the Occult" appears on the island. Nor will have to face her fears and learn to accept herself to prepare for the evil that is coming for her.

I'm giving all the stars to this novel...and would give it more if it were an option. As much as I enjoyed The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, this is definitely my new favorite. I loved everything about this story and the charming and eccentric characters that are introduced. I devoured this novel and did not want it to end. I really hope that the author plans to write more books about the Blackburn women and the residents of Anathema Island. I finished this novel and immediately pre-ordered a copy for my library...that's how much I loved it. I will say that there is some material including self-harm that readers may want to be aware of prior to reading. The author provides several links to websites and resources in the back for anyone who needs them. Overall this novel was beautifully written and is already on my list of favorite reads for 2018.

I loved The Price Guide to the Occult because it had everything I wanted in a book about witches; strong female friendships and support networks, characters that felt detailed and fully fledged, witches that were more than just their powers, and a beautifully written setting. I wanted to lose myself in the island and it's community. Anathema was the best part of the book.

I loved Nor and her best friend Savvy and how supportive she was, though she did fall prey to being 'the best friend' that didn't really have much of a storyline beyond supporting Nor. Nor's family and the details about all the Blackburn daughters and the residents on the island really made the book for me too and gave it a sense of reality and community.

The magical element of the book was really interesting and while a bit vague it was understandable given the plot. There was a hint of magic in the wider world but I would have liked more of a sense of whether there were other witches out there, and given the ending I would think that there's scope for more in this regard. I also would have liked to find out about how the island and the community recovered after the ending of the book.

One negative about the book however was how triggering it was and I think it's important to mention for the benefit of other readers that self harm is mentioned a lot in this book. I appreciated it's inclusion in the book as it felt like a natural reaction for Nor to have given what she went through, and I don't often come across it in novels so it was good to see it represented with a focus on recovery. I liked the addition of helplines and contact numbers at the back of the book but felt that was a bit late as if somebody was triggered they may not get to the end of the book.

Additionally, the plot had a lot of time skips and I sometimes found it difficult to follow because of this. I felt the romance was sidelined by the plot - which is what I prefer - but that because of this some elements of the romance felt unnecessary.

However I was really drawn in by the characters, the setting and the story. Overall, I give The Price Guide to the Occult 4.5 stars. I immediately wanted to reread it as soon as I finished because I wanted to immerse myself in the world again, and while I don't know if a sequel would work I want one nonetheless.

A few years ago, a read a very strange and very beautiful book aptly-named The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. It took me completely by surprise and stole my heart with its gorgeous writing, memorable characters, and rich atmosphere that made everything so damn emotional even when nothing much was happening. I have long awaited another book by the author but - and I feel so sad about this - The Price Guide to the Occult just didn't get to me in the same way. Or at all.

It is difficult to explain what was so great about Ava Lavendar, which is why my review is basically a rambling, incoherent stream of emotion. With gifs. But I do think it gets the amount of weirdness just right, and the prose is beautiful without being too purple.

The Price Guide to the Occult was just strange where Ava Lavendar was beautifully strange. This book is so overwritten in parts that I struggled to follow what was going on, which made for an incredibly boring read. Despite being harder to follow, it actually lacked the character complexity, and overall maturity of the author's first book. Not to mention the charm.

Ava Lavendar was unlike anything I'd ever read before, whereas this book feels more like a standard YA paranormal romance with witches. The protagonist, Nor, is obsessed with a boy called Reed, and the book's ending feels like a set up for possible sequels, as well as a possible love triangle.

The prologue is by far the book's strongest moment. In fact, it gave me a lot of hope that this could be a book I would love as much as the author's first. It feels more true to the author's style, or what I perceive to be the author's style based on her previous work: dramatic, whimsical, atmospheric and with a touch of non-graphic sex. And then - speculating here - it feels like an editing team swooped in and was like "nuh-uh, we need to be able to market this; more crushes and spells, please".

Then it becomes boring. After the dramatic backdrop has been put into place, we find ourselves inside the head of Nor Blackburn, the latest in a long line of cursed Blackburn women. She wants to keep to herself, hang with her friends, crush on Reed, and be as inconspicuous as possible, but her mother, Fern, is making that difficult. Fern publishes "The Price Guide to the Occult" - a literal price guide for spells - and starts selling said spells and causing havoc. Looks like Nor's going to have to get her hands dirty.

There's still many examples of beautiful writing here, but I was bored out of my mind in parts. It takes a hell of a long time to work its way up to the Fern drama, and Nor is not interesting or exciting enough a protagonist to hold the story up in the meantime. For at least half the book, it is hard to make sense of what we’re supposed to care about. The romance? Sorry, wasn't enough for me.

I'm sure I will still be tempted to try out future books by Walton, but I'll pass on the likely sequels to this one.

First off: TRIGGER WARNING for self-harm.

This young adult novel built a great world with magical realism in the Pacific Northwest. Mother/teen daughter turmoil wrapped up in a family curse? Sign me up. Unfortunately, this novel is quite slow to begin, but is well-paced after the initial hump. Add a little romantic drama and you have a solid read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley - Thank you!

I loved this book. I read it so quickly I really hope that it is the beginning of another story. As another reviewer stated - it would like to read more about the Blackburn women.

Although this does NOT read like an Alice Hoffman, as another reviewer pointed out - it is reminiscent of Hoffman's stories of American witchcraft and history. I think it also reminded me of a Hoffman book because the Blackburns were strong women with intricate family bonds.

The atmosphere and weather were almost characters in the book as well, giving me as the reader a strong sense of place and time.

I would love to see more of this series.

I loved this book! It had all the familiar elements of the genre but it was written in such a way that I didn’t get bored or impatient. I eagerly await book 2.

*I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
Walton's first novel is one of my favorite young adult novels, so I eagerly awaited this release.
I enjoyed the atmosphere of a foggy island in the Pacific Northwest. I felt like the setting had the perfect small town feel. I loved all of the witchy vibes in the book, from spells to healers to animal communication. Nor Blackburn was an excellent protagonist, with her own self-doubts and secrets. There are several mentions of self-harm as well as parental abuse, which I felt made her character more realistic. Her mother Fern was definitely a force to be reckoned with, and the way her power affected her personality was very interesting.
While I enjoyed the book, it seemed to have more of a series debut than a standalone novel. While Ava Lavender stood firmly on its own, this one has more unfinished plot lines. After reading the epilogue, I honestly thought a sequel was in the works.
While this isn't my favorite of her novels, Walton's whimsical prose tells an excellent tale of a girl trying to discover herself amidst the shadow of her family.