This book was thoroughly enjoyable.

From the female leads, to the queer elements, the magic, to the action. I love a good magical realism, girl-gang story. Better yet, it's own voices as the author is also queer! I'm gay myself (in the umbrella term sense of the word), and oh my goodness, I found myself absolutely wishing I could have had a coven like that in my own life.

Sideways' appreciation of her friends' beauty was really lovely, there were little crushes thrown in, without any of the over-sexualised lesbian tropes that are often found in fiction. 

Some of the plot lines felt a little misplaced, I felt certain characters or ideas could have been introduced a little later on or not brought in, disappeared, and brought back, if that makes sense. I don't want to write any spoilers so I can't quite tell you what I mean.

The dialogue was fun and natural, snappy and clever which gives it that more youthful and true-to-age element for the characters. One thing that did bum me out a little was the constant self deprecation by Sideways. I know we all have that inner voice sometimes that tells us terrible things, but it would be cool to see her have a little more growth, to start accepting and trusting that the women around her like her for good reason. That may be held over until later in the story, though, so I won't be too critical.

In regards to Daisy, Jing, and Yates, I adored the fact that as close as they were, they still had little secrets they kept from each other. Those secrets definitely feel like they'll become side plots in the next installment which will give the characters plenty of room for personal growth, maybe a little bit of conflict, and for them to grow closer. The interpersonal relationships was actually one of my favourite elements.

All in all, I have to say, I was happy when I saw the #1 next to the title because it means we're getting a duology at the least, or hopefully a series!

I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Jennifer's Body & The Merciless, The Craft.

Sideways is a lesbian, a witch, and an outcast. When Jing, Yates, and Daisy, the most popular girls in school, invite her to do some magic at their Halloween party, it’s her chance to show off and be cool. But something goes wrong that brings the girls together.
The way the girls take Sideways into her group is one of the sweetest examples of friendship between girls I’ve ever seen in fiction. All four girls have interesting and distinct personalities that made me wish I had friends like that in school. I loved seeing them together.
In their quest to learn more about magic, the girls learn about other covens and sentient magic books. The world of magic is much bigger than they thought. It feels like we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg and we’ll have a lot to unveil in the sequels.
The characters and the worldbuilding are the best things about this novel, while the plot is a bit of mess with a slow pace. Witchfinders learn about the girls and are now after them. They show up early on and they’re super scary, but then they become this vague threat looming in the background. Getting Sideways a girlfriend and planning a party become more important than the guys trying to kill them. It’s like they forgot their lives are in danger, and doing spells at a party is a really stupid way of getting the witchfinders’ attention. The girls need to sort out their priorities.

The queer rep here is amazing: besides Sideways, Jing is bi, Yates is questioning, Sideways has two dads, and there’s a nonbinary background character that uses they/them pronouns.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me this book to review. I k ew I had to read this after reading the synopsis and seeing it on Twitter.

This was an entertaining and atmospheric read that I really enjoyed. I enjoyed that the chapters were titles as well as number because I love chapter titles. It is written in first person and out POV is the main character Sideways who I will talk about later. There are plenty of fun moments in this book but there's also a lot of swear words and other bad language. I'd say this was a strange paced book as it felt like a fast pace and then it would slow down to explain the magic or a movie the friends watched which was a little weird.

I did like the world-building that was done in the book. I enjoyed how it is set in a town that loved Halloween and has a number of parties surrounding Halloween. I enjoyed the little parts with Sideways dads auction house which I found really interesting and it was the same with Delacroix House which is also neutral ground for witches. The magic system was okay, in this book magic mainly uses sigils and there are rules to it which I liked. I enjoyed the information given about covens, book Devils and how you learn about magic alongside the characters. I felt there was more that could have built upon and other parts that could have been shortened.

"Feeling witch is a large part of successfully being witchy, and nothing makes you feel powerful like surrounding yourself with gigantic dripping candles."

The characters
Honestly I found the characters hard to connect with and at points they all seemed to blur together as one. However I loved how it showed female friendships in this book!

Sideways Pike - real name is Eloise. She is a lesbian witch who is a little bit of a disaster when she likes girls or girls like her. Lives with her dads which is her uncle and his partner as her mother died. Makes friends with the powerful triumvirate of girls.

The triumvirate - we have Jing who's bisexual but not out. Yates who is a sweet black girl who everyone cares about. Then Daisy who is brutal to those who hurt her friends. These three also find out they have specters (magic) and they befriend sideways and start a coven.

Another key character is Madeline who is interested in Sideways and wants her to do magic.
There's a lot more characters in the book but I won't go through them all. I loved the dads Julian and Boris and their relationship. I also enjoyed the relationship they had with Sideways. There is also the mysterious Mr Scratch who is a book devil Sideways releases and a family of witch hunters in the area that want to stop magic which added another element to the book. I didn't really think much about the Romance as there wasn't much to it. I did however enjoy the diversity of the characaters.

A little note on the ending, it does leave a lot of things open and it sets up what will be book 2. I would say it ends with a cliff hanger tyke situation which was annoying as I sort of want to know what happened next but now I'll have to wait and hopefully not forget.

Overall I enjoyed this book and it was a quick entertaining read for me. I would recommend this book if you like YA fantasy with queer characters and magic. There were parts that could have been better and the pacing was strange but it didn't stop my enjoyment of the book.

I wanted to love this one but it all ended up being pretty disappointing. It was very fast paced and the story was interesting but I failed to care about the characters. The romance just didn't work out at all and the characters all started to blend together as no one really had their own voices.

Such a great read!
This author managed to capture the readers attention page after page without straying from the plot line like similar books.

Loved reading this one!! And I can’t wait to read another novel from this author

Scapegracers tells the story of an outcast who finds her people when she begins to explore the world of magic and witchcraft.

The book opens right into the action and the plot moves along quickly. It is very interesting learning alongside the coven how the magical system works, and the details make for a dark and atmospheric book. There are some smart and funny moments, and in particular I loved the fresh take on female friendships between teenagers, far more realistic (at least in my experience) than the usual clichéd mean girls.

However, I found it difficult to care about any of the characters, and they became fairly interchangeable. Sideways (our protagonist) came across as quite passive, and the romantic relationship felt forced, especially when compared to the well written friendships.

This book wasn't a favourite, but was entertaining and an easy read.

This review has been posted to Goodreads, and will also be posted to Amazon after release.

Maybe I went into this expecting too much.

“Scapegracers” begins when the cool girls at school invite Sideways to perform real magic at their party which she thinks is a one night trick with no strings attached but when her power triggers something connecting them all she finds that maybe she no longer has to spend her teenage years standing on the sidelines and when witchfinders come lurking at her door they must band together to protect the coven.

This book plays to elements of The Craft and AHS Coven with that cool girl squad who brings in a new face only to find that their magic can call upon something darker but it never managed to actually tell a story. So much of this book left me waiting for it to move somewhere and each time I thought we were getting to a bigger point it would back off which was kind of a bummer.

The pacing was a bit off too with a lot happening all at once only for it to slow down into a painfully long drag that again kept me thinking that we were heading to some kind of big moment be it a betrayal a la the Craft or confronting a big bad in the witchfinders but instead we get another party and cliffhanger.

I like the idea of women getting together to punish the frat boy Chett’s of the world and I wish we got more than just talk because even the hex that sets the story off gets a brief few sentences of resolution to see if it worked or not.

Overall this book was rather disappointing so we’ll see if it’s worth continuing but as of now I think I’m good.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**