DNF at 43%
I do not recommend this to teens at all. The amount of references to cutting in this book is excessive, very blatant imagery and it's never addressed as a problem with reading nearly half of it. Plus the plot is almost non-existent, with not even moving towards anything plot relevant and the main character is so distant that I barely cared about her. The premise is interesting and some descriptions of this island were nice, but this author is not for me at all. If you don't like books mentioning stuff like cutting, wanting to cut and a very awful parent, don't read this. This isn't appropriate for teens in my opinion.
Full review on my blog to come on Wednesday March 7 2018

Posted to Goodreads: Nor is the last of the Blackburn women who have all been born with mysterious powers. Nor has always hidden from the world hoping that she and her powers disappear. However, when a book appears in her small island community entitled "The Price Guide to the Occult" Nor must confront her past and her future.

I had such a mixed reaction to this book. It is beautifully written, at times almost poetic however the story didn't really flow. The entire book kind of felt like a synopsis of another more in-dpeth novel and the ending left me asking "What was the point?".

CW // self-harm

"For the record, he said before leaving, I don't think being afraid is necessarily a bad thing. It means you're smart. Besides, being afraid doesn't seem to stop you. You're still here. You're still fighting. And I'm pretty sure that makes you the bravest person I know." (p. 214)

A few years ago, I read and fell in love with The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, so when I heard that Leslye Walton was releasing a new book, I had to get my hands on it as fast as possible. Sadly, The Price Guide to the Occult didn't compare, even though it was still an enjoyable read.

The Price Guide to the Occult mainly felt like a standard YA paranormal novel about witches. I thought that the plot was quite slow to start, and even when it did, it didn't have this feeling of urgency and dangerousness that should come with a threat such as Fern. Because of that, I was quite underwhelmed during the action scenes and nothing that happened really stuck with me. I still flew through it while I was in public transportation though, so I can say that it kept me entertained.

I found the world-building to be stunning. I will never turn away a book about witches for that exact reason: they always fascinate me so much. In The Price Guide to the Occult, I loved that it followed a family of witches, who had different powers because of an old curse. It was also set on an island, which made the atmosphere even more mysterious than it already was, because the characters were mostly cut off from the world. Because it is about a family, it also meant having their history, through flashbacks and those were some of my favourite parts. Besides, the Blackburn family almost was folklore to the people of the island and I really liked what they developed around them and what they thought of them.

"How can I expect to defend myself against other people, she wondered, when I'm so busy trying to protect myself – from myself?" (p. 185)

To be completely honest, Nor isn't really a compelling main character, which is why I felt quite detached from the story at times. The first half of the novel mainly focuses on her, as the plot is slow to start, but she's a girl who wants to feel invisible and sometimes, it doesn't work for main characters. I'm not sure it did there, but I have to say that I quite enjoyed her development throughout the novel. It mostly had female characters, as it was about a family of witches and I quite enjoyed those, while the rare male characters provided romance drama. Reading about Fern, the antagonist of this novel, was however so much fun, because after hearing about her for many chapters without seeing her in person, I was quite anticipating her arrival. She's a villain whose motives you understand and is ready to do everything to stay powerful. She was quite a good antagonist and I adored hating her.

Just like in The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, this one was filled with beautiful writing. From the first sentence: "They have been called many things", I knew Leslye Walton wouldn't disappoint me on that aspect. Indeed, once again, I left the book craving for more of her writings – but sadly, I've read both her novels and her novella in A Tyranny of Petticoats.

Overall, The Price Guide to the Occult was an enjoyable read, full of beautiful writing and compelling world-building, but I expected more of the plot, especially for such a short novel. This novel still entertained me though. I'm not sure whether it'll have a sequel or not, but as it's marked as a standalone, it quite puzzled me.

First of all, thanks to Net Galley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was amazing!!!!! I absolutely loved every moment of reading it and I really hope there will be a sequel to it. If you love books on witches, magic, or have read Harry Potter and fell in love then this is the book for you. I love finding new books to read that are about magic since the first books I ever read and loved were the Harry Potter series when I was 8 years old. I loved how this book incorporated that most witches have different specialities or different powers and can't do everything or not all the witches in the book can cast spells. It focuses on Jules and the struggles of growing up with her mother abandoning her after physically abusing her as a blood sacrifice. It draws a clear line between what is even and black magic and her mother is the primary antagonist throughout the book. This book was original and well written and I loved every minute of reading it. I haven't read Leslye Walton's first book but I am now excited to start it soon. This is a great book to anyone needing something new and magical in their life.

This novel was hard to settle into and I wasn't excited to continue reading it. DNF.

There were issues with the pacing and due to the length it felt vastly underdeveloped. I feel like the most devolved thing was the major theme of the story being about self-harm, particularly cutting, a fact I was not expecting going in. Overall, completely underwhelmed.

People often repeat the truncated quote “blood is thicker than water,” forgetting that the full quote is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” Impressively, both of these mutually contradictory statements are true of The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton. Family, its pull, and its limits are the central to the story of Nor, eighth daughter of a cursed lineage of witches. All Nor wants is to make it through life with as little trouble with possible, but her inheritance cannot be denied.

Father to son, mother to daughter, blood carries both blessings and curses—or Burdens and curses, in fact. Each daughter of the Blackburn family has only one gift, called a Burden because of its double-edged nature, and no further access to the magic of their witchy line. This wasn’t always the case, though. Their ancestress, Rona Blackburn, accidentally doomed her own line in a fit of vengeance for a romantic betrayal. Fern would have no problem with this limited magic—or no magic at all—but her mother, Fern, is insatiable for power, magical or otherwise. Fern left the island in pursuit of power, abandoning Nor, but Nor can’t get entirely comfortable with her absence. After all, she’s beginning to cast a very long shadow. Not only do Fern’s former lovers and colleagues keep her memory alive, but now Fern has a book out, a price guide that offers to do magic for anyone willing to pay. Any kind of magic. But Nor knows that there’s no magic without a price. And the price is paid in blood and pain.

But it’s the limits of blood—familial relationships or magic—that also concern Walton. Nor may share the genetic inheritance of the island’s original male inhabitants, but no father has ever claimed a Blackburn daughter or been an actual dad. The Blackburn matriarchs have a better track record, but Fern bucks the trend by being even worse than absent. Her presence is at best neglectful and at worst actively harmful to her poor daughter Nor.

Nor grows up with a profoundly unstable family made all the more volatile by magic. She is the victim of violence, and to erase her victimhood she inflicts more violence on herself on purpose. Self-harm is her form of control and release, but she has to overcome her instinct to cut if she wants to also move past the trauma of her power.

Walton has a deft and understanding touch when dealing with the topic of self-harm. She has done well by her research and created a respectful take on the disorder with Nor, who is in recovery thanks to therapy (and thankfully not magical intervention) but still struggling. Her family is understanding and supportive, as is her friend, the charmingly pixieish Savvy. It is Savvy who pulls her out of her shell when her grandmother cannot, and Savvy who saves her spirit as much as Judd saves her body.

It takes a lot of effort and a long time, though. Nor's refusal to tell anyone that she has more powers than the single Burden, and especially her refusal to warn anyone about Fern's approach, goes from seeming overcautious to seeming a bit ludicrous. Even if she has learned nothing from her family’s support, surely her friends’ devotion should have made some greater impression? She stays away from the excessively perfect Reed in a misguided attempt to protect him, but if she cares so much about protecting people, why doesn't she speak up? Things go very bad very quickly—and then stay that way. She could help, but instead she dithers and hides. I'm not going to say it's irrational, since her mother is an abusive monster, but I'm also not going to excuse it. This hesitance serves the plot far more than the characters.

And on the subject of her mother, Fern is a bit too one-dimensional of a monster for me. She's clearly a psychopath, incapable of empathy and profoundly self-interested. Well, all right, sometimes evil is banal. But none of the other characters express curiosity about the origins and development of a girl who grew up just like the rest of them, on an obscure little island. I especially wish we'd heard more from Judd, who remains a benevolent enigma in the family home, healing those who come to her at the cost of her own pain. Does she heal to compensate? Does she fear her own daughter? Does she understand more about Fern than she lets on, or is she just as confused as to how such a terrible monster came from her?

However, as mother and daughter draw closer and the stakes get higher, the urgency draws out the complexities of the characters. They begin to shine in crises, and as the crises keep coming they become dazzling.

Walton understands the implicit rules of magic extremely well. Everything she does makes intuitive sense, like pointing out that Nor is an eighth generation witch, and therefore potentially prone to change (seven generations being the norm). This is a very different phenomenon from, say, Brandon Sanderson, who meticulously delineates every rule of his magic system (and has helpful charts!). I compare not to make value judgments (I love them both) but to highlight the way that the theme is embedded even in The Price Guide’s magic: it is not logic that governs Nor, Fern, and the rest of the clan, but the undeniable rhythms of the heart and the tidal surges of the blood.

The climax is fast-paced and satisfying, with both emotional and narrative pieces falling dramatically into place. Nor comes into her own in a way that feels inevitable but also hard-earned. A slightly uneven beginning turns into a real tour-de-force of magic and mayhem, and I couldn’t be happier I stuck it out. Nor’s triumph, tinged with sorrow and newfound maturity, really struck a cord.

The book concludes on a peaceful, self-reflective note—at least in the main story. But then there's an epilogue tacked on, and not since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have I been so annoyed. It was out of left field, it has little to do with the meat of the story, and if it's setting up a sequel then I'm tempted not to buy that book on principle. And if it's not setting up a sequel, that's somehow worse because it introduces such uncertainty that the entire book's quest for normalcy is all but undone. We spent hundreds of pages on an isolated island, and suddenly the world stage intervenes? Who thought that was a good idea? I recommend you rip out the epilogue before you even begin reading, so that a few pages of nonsense don't bother you as they did me. What a sour way to end such a sweet book.

This read was honestly so much fun! It's not easy to deduce from the blurb, but The Price Guide to the Occult is a fast-paced story set in contemporary times, and yet I, a die-hard old-fashioned fantasy lover, gobbled it up like a delicious goth cupcake with extra witchcraft frosting.

I must say, this concept of a curse is brilliant, as is the idea of a cut-off society on an island bound to the earth it inhabits, and the consequently limited gene pool. The story starts with a strong prologue and continues with unusal realtionships and a protagonist struggling with self-harm. (There's an afterword by the author that lists hotline numbers and other resources for readers with similar experiences, which I think she should be duly credited for.) Walton's writing style was amazingly creative in some parts!

Nevertheless, the genre is called magic realism for a reason, and aside from the amazing dialogue, the environment wasn't all that realistic. There is, for example, not a single person with a regular, common name on that island, and while of course every small town has its oddball, the community on Anathema island (as you can see, even the setting has an eyebrow-raising name) is almost exclusively populated by eccentrics. Nor's abilities are a bit too convenient too, and there's and abundance of plot holes now that I think about it... which I'm not going to elaborate on, because I don't expect a lot of depth from a < 300-page book. Maybe there is just too much content squeezed into this single novel, and the quality was neglected in favour of quantity.

Summing up, The Price Guide to the Occult was a satisfying, quick, but also rather meaningless read. I wish I had more time to warm to the characters, and it looked like there's build-up for a potential sequel, which I'm sure I'll equally enjoy, with a dash of slower pacing and perhaps a smarter plot.

Nor is the latest is a long line of Blackburn women who are cursed. Doomed to have a whirlwind affair with one of the descendants of the original settlers of Anathema Island, only for it to end in heartache and loss. Nor wants none of this. She's happy to hang out with her friends, remain inconspicuous and hopefully bypass the curse altogether. But fate may have other ideas.

This is well written, with some beautiful prose but the pace is slow, and not much happens for a long time. Given that this is a relatively short book, that means that most of the action takes place right at the end, making it feel rushed and a little flat. I also found the overall plot to be predictable and dull. Instead of being gripped, this was a struggle to read and I feel a little disappointed.

Nor, our main character, is reasonably well developed. She's sweet, likeable and wants nothing more than to not draw attention to herself which I found refreshing in a main character in YA. Is she interesting enough to carry a story? Debatable. I also felt that everyone else was lacking in any emotional depth. I would have loved to have seen more of Nor's grandmother and the rest of people she lives with, who had the potential to be so interesting and different. The antagonist was also one dimensional and obvious and the love triangle aspect was awkward and felt forced. This may have been because the characters were underdeveloped in my opinion, but I found it cliched and a little overdone in YA these days.

If I sound a little harsh, it's because I know the sort of potential this author has. I expect more from an author that I know has wrote such wonderful imaginative things in the past. Like a lot of people who've already read this, I enjoyed Leslye Walters previous novel The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. That novel pitched the perfect balance between odd and lovely. This just felt odd and disjointed.

On the secluded, Northwestern Island of Anathema, the Blackburn women have been living in hiding for nine generations. Their matriarch, Rona's curse allows them one blessing or "burden" of witch craft but comes at a terrible cost - a three day love affair always resulting in pregnancy. That doesn't sound like too bad of a curse to some, but for introverted and tortured Nor, the threat looms over her like a dark shadow. Unfortunately for her, something even worse is coming. 

I initially picked this book up because of cover. The large print text covers definitely seem to be in season this year. I've noticed most of the books I've picked up for the next few weeks have a similar motif. The title was also intriguing and implied something sinister in an almost Shakespearean way. Does something wicked this way come? In many ways, yes. Very wicked. 

The setting of the novel was definitely my favorite thing. With the rise of urban fantasy, it's become pretty common to see these YA Fantasy novels set in New York or Chicago or some other large city. Instead, The Price Guide To The Occult is set on a sweet, tourist trap of an island off the coast of Washington state. The author does a beautiful job describing the wild life, the nature and the environment around us. The downtown area seems to be very "Stars Hollow-esque" with cute, local shops and sprawling, lush landscapes everywhere else. Nature plays an important role in the novel, so it was great to see the author utilize this well. 

Nor is an intriguing main character, but , interestingly enough for this genre, she is not also the narrator. We see everything in third person but stay close to Nor the entire time. Nor is a deeply flawed character but relatable. She struggles with an abusive relationship with her distant mother and as such, has some problems with self harm. Walton is delicate with her description of Nor's mental illness but readers should know that this element is prominent in the book. The other characters are only in the novel briefly enough for us to see them and get to know them on a surface level, but more on that in a minute. 

If I had just one complaint about this novel, it would be that the plot is fairly one dimensional. The book is incredibly short. I believe it took me only 4 or 5 hours to read, easy enough for one sitting on a weekend. As such, there isn't a lot of complexity or depth to the narrative. Everything that happens is fairly predictable and I can't think of a single twist I encountered as a went a long. Also, since the book was short, I had a hard time believing and feeling attached to the relationships Nor formed. There is a love triangle sub-plot but it doesn't come into play in the main plot, so it's somewhat forgettable. I did think that the plot, while predictable, was enjoyable and unique. 

The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton is a fun, quick and easy read. There is self harm in novel, which could be trigger for many, but it is tastefully done. The world Walton constructs is beautiful and vibrant, while the plot is a bit more simple. The ending leave the story open to a possible sequel, which I'm hoping for as I was left with many questions at the end.

I found this book to be delightfully atmospheric and definitely evoked a sense of place, which was pretty important to the novel as the setting of the Pacific Northwest was in integral part of the plot and the main character’s personality. I thought there characters were well drawn and Nor had a convincing back story that made for an interesting story arc. I also like the use of magic, though I wish that there were more established rules explained, mainly in terms of who gets what power (for instance, does Nor have unlimited power?) I loved that this was a woman centric story, and especially love Nor’s grandmother Judd. My issues stem from the other relationships in the story and the antagonist. Nor’s relationship to both Reed and Gage seemed superficial, and I especially wondered where Gage’s feelings for Nor came from. I also though that Nor defeated her mother a little too easily. I understand that this was due to Nor beginning to understand herself a little more but it seemed forced. I also got frustrated with Nor’s unwillingness to tell her grandmother who she seemed to trust in all other ways about her powers, even to the very end. Otherwise, this was a solid effort and I enjoyed the experience.

A unique YA novel about a line of women and the island they are bound to. Nor was an interesting female character and the story was different than many magic books. I enjoyed the quick read. If you are bothered of talk about self-harm, this isn't for you.

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.

The Price’s Guide to the Occult is a paranormal YA novel.

If you’re a romantic person and love slow-paced paranormal stories, you need to read this book. I’m not, but I have to say that this book surprised me in many ways, despite being flawed and not exactly my thing.
Also, it’s about witches, and that aspect was great.

I haven’t read a book as atmospheric since Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle. The Price Guide to the Occult is set in the Pacific Northwest, on a rainy island with its own history and secrets. I loved the descriptions of the landscape, and the writing was whimsical and detailed without being too heavy. The transition between scenes, however, often felt too sudden and awkward.

I loved Nor. She went through a lot because of her abusive mother, and self-harmed because of that until she started therapy. She’s already in recovery at the beginning of the story, but she still has to fight the urge to hurt herself from time to time. She’s a character with depression and an abuse survivor in a fantasy book, and it’s mentioned that she went to therapy and got better because of it. Mental health is rarely explored in speculative fiction, and often therapy isn’t even mentioned, or is portrayed negatively without nuance. Nor is also a high school dropout and isn’t shamed because of that.

The side characters were really interesting as well. Nor lives with her grandmothers, the healer witch Judd, who is bisexual, and her wife Apothia, who is Chinese. There’s also a minor m/m couple, and it’s mentioned that the alpaca farm on the island is owned by a woman and her girlfriend (…always there for lesbian farmers).
Nor has a crush on Reed, a boy she’s afraid to approach because of the curse, who was very sweet if not a bit too one-dimensional, and a best friend, Savy, who is black and has the best outfits. I loved that Nor and Savvy’s friendship was as developed as the romance.

What I didn’t like was how Savvy implied that no one wants to die without having been in love first. I’m aromantic, I’m fine with it, and it would be nice if people just stopped with this kind of assumptions.

I could have done without the love triangle. I hated the second love interest, Gabe, who was rude for no reason, and love triangles between a girl and two boys are just not that interesting anymore, they haven’t been for years. But my main problem with The Price’s Guide to the Occult was the plot, which was really predictable. So predictable I think I can tell the directions the sequel(s?) is going to take. And I hope there will be a sequel, because that ending is really unsatisfying otherwise – I love Leslye Walton’s writing style, but I don’t think she’s good at writing endings, or action scenes.

Another thing that didn’t convince me was the villain. Fern Blackburn was really one-dimensional and there was no motivation for her actions. She… wants to conquer the world with magic? Why? I may not need a tragic backstory, but I wanted her to have more character traits aside from evilness.