I really enjoyed this title. I actually read it in one sitting which is unusual for me. I was driven to find out how Katrell was going to solve her problem of the Revenants. This book was excellent in that it kept you invested, wondering how Katrell was going to solve her home life problems as well as her magical problems. Katrell is surrounded by toxic family and the only person she can rely on is Will. Lewis did an excellent job of capturing the painful experience of loving a parent who cannot give you what you deserve. My one critique is Katrell should have thought of trying to write the Revenants back into the grave before she did, but I am glad it was addressed. The twist at the end about the true origin of the Revenants was interesting. A great picture of self love and the harm a lack of it can produce.

This was a sad, melancholy, exhilarating, hopeful, frightening, and one-of-a-kind book! It was all of those things, and it was also amazing! It’s about a young woman who is abused and neglected by her mother and her mother’s lover at the time. The 16-year-old was constantly blaming herself or the men for her mother’s misfortunes.

She also has a talent that her mother takes advantage of. She charges a little fee to bring back a ghost of someone’s family, friend, or lover. She can’t hold the connection for long since it hurts her physically. The spirit speaks to her when she is performing one of these normal summonings!

This has never occurred before. The spirit warns her not to summon anyone else in the future. They’re going to come after her. Because the girl is the only one who can support her, her mother, and the lowlife boyfriend, she feels compelled to work.

Things reach a breaking point when the violent man beats her and things spiral out of control. She utilized her power again later, but this time it didn’t just bring back a spirit, but the entire body! She now believes that profiting from resurrections is a fantastic idea! Things were bad before, but they’re about to get a whole lot worse!

It’s a tale of desperate people who strive to get out of a bad position only to end themselves in an even worse one. Fortunately, she has a wonderful companion, a faithful dog, a wonderful school counselor, and a wonderful neighbor. She is, however, very loyal to her mother because she believes she is obligated to be, and she refuses to seek help.

I believe many of us can identify to feel left out, having nowhere to turn, and being overly devoted to persons who are worthless. If given the chance, we might find an unhealthy way to go away.

It had lots of suspense and I enjoyed the fantasy component of it. I was getting irritated with the girl since she was continually defending her useless mother! But she was just 16 years old! It’s difficult enough at that age, especially when she’s poor, beaten, and afraid of losing her own family.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I saved it for reading at night before going to bed and I don’t know if that was a good idea because I got scared with a lot of the scenes and in a good way. This is a well written, mid fast paced, emotional book with quite some sad scenes and I did cry. It was hard to put this one down before going to bed. I also love the voice in this book as well as the strength of the main character- Katrell, her magic and some of the topics dealt with. Make sure to check the authors trigger warnings.

I gave this book 5 stars when I was only 20 % done....it was THAT GOOD. I was deeply engrossed in the story from page 1 to finish. It was exciting, creepy, sad, scary and spooky! I highly recommend this book!

Kantrell makes extra money to support her unemployed mother and her mother's abusive, deadbeat boyfriend. She soon learns that she can summon the dead and use her powers to make way more extra money by reuniting the dead with their families.. She soon starts making tons of money, but her plan soon backfires when the dead start acting out of control. Bringing back the dead was definitely creepy and had me shivering at times with how they acted after she resurrected them. This was a great book, and I highly recommend it!

It's a 3.5 ⭐️for me!

The concept of this book is what initially drew me in, and I think it started out really great at first! I loved the premise and loved how Katrell is such a bad a** character, but I do think this book fell a little short of my expectations.

For me, I was expecting more from the fantasy side of it. It was the fact that Katrell is a medium who regularly communicates with ghosts, and then soon finds out she can actually bring people back from the dead that I figured this book would have a fun, magical, witchy vibe. Bringing people back from the dead IS HUGE as far as magic goes! Yet throughout this book, that detail seemed to be on the back-burner to all the other problems Katrell faces on a daily basis. And then when the magic was addressed, I feel like no one was actually asking the right questions to solve the issues??

The tone of this book also felt more like a YA contemporary than a magical realism/ urban fantasy, and I just wish it dealt more with Katrell's story as it related to her abilities... otherwise we just got a YA contemporary.

I found it fast- paced in the beginning, slowing down at around 30%. After that point, I kept asking myself where it this plot going? What is the point? All in all I can appreciate Katrell's overall story and her character arc (it is what it is), but it's not my favorite.

xx
-Christine

Bad witch burning started out great and I was excited to read it but unfortunately I dnf.... There is a very violent scene in which a dog dies and I just couldn't read after that as my fur baby is literally like a child to me. But that's not to say I wouldn't recommend the book to someone because as I said before it started out great and it definitely seemed like something I would have been into I just couldn't get past that scene. From looking at some of the other reviews it seems that maybe if I would have continued there was some redemption with the dog and who knows maybe after I've had time to cool off from that scene I will try again.but I thank the publisher and net galley for this Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a fantastic, gory and horror read. Initially, I didn’t agree with the Lovecraft comparisons and I don’t think I still do but this book is great! If you are a lightweight horror reader this is a story you can stomach. Trigger warnings for death, murder, child abuse and neglect.

Katrell has special powers and can talk to the dead through letters similar to Deathnote (except she isn’t killing people she writes down, she’s resurrecting them).

However, the ghosts she’s bringing back come at a higher cost than expected. As time past, the families that wanted their love ones back suddenly forget them and these now abandoned ghosts are bored and find themselves consumed with everything Katrell thinks and feels. Suddenly, anyone who steps to Katrell wrong faces the raft of the people she’s resurrected—and they aren’t nice.

Lots of trauma which give Katrell more motivation to do the wrong thing because all she wants to do is survive. I absolutely recommend them book to anyone who likes revenge, family drama, witches and strong female protagonists.

Seems like I’ve come across several witchy books lately, and they’re a favorite of mine when it comes to paranormal. Raising the dead can’t come without consequences, so I was anxious to see how Katrell dealt with these dark forces.

Trell is the teenager in her family, but essentially the only responsible adult. She works thirty hours per week, attends high school, buys groceries, pays the bills and rent, and gives money to her unemployed mother and her mom’s deadbeat boyfriend. He physically abuses Trell, works a part time job, and refuses to contribute to the household financially. Every interaction with her mother and boyfriend made me so angry I wanted to reach into the pages and choke them. Trell has been homeless more than once in her life, and if not for her job at a restaurant and the kindness of her best friend’s mother, she’d go hungry much of the time.

For reasons that are never explained, Trell is able to write letters summoning the ghosts of clients’ family members so they can speak to them. Suddenly her power changes, and she’s able to raise the dead and return them to her clients. For a price, of course. I would have liked an explanation for where her powers came from, how she discovered them, why they changed, etc., to better understand her magic. Maybe I missed an explanation, but I wondered why no one discovered the empty graves after the dead rose. Seems like it’s something that would have turned up on the news. Trell’s goal is to make enough money from raising the dead to support her and her mom for a year. After her hours are cut at the restaurant, the pressure is on to earn even more to keep them sheltered and fed. Soon the money is rolling in and Trell begins to lose sight of her goals. She ignores the advice of best friend Will and a concerned school guidance counselor, and her life rapidly spirals out of control.

Although she’s brave and loyal to a fault, Trell is also incredibly frustrating. She’s blind to her mother’s actions, and you’ll want to yell at her many times over her consistently bad decisions and wonder how she’ll ever fix the disasters she’s created.

Between the dead walking around, Trell’s personal struggles, and her determination to better her life, you’ll want her to somehow find a happily ever after, but it’s something that won’t come easily. This novel does a wonderful job of raising awareness of homelessness, poverty, and physical abuse, and the author discusses her own experiences before the story begins. It also stresses the importance of getting help and finding a support system. Some readers may want to heed trigger warnings. Overall, a strong debut novel.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I absolutely loved this book.

The MC, Katrell, is so relatable and lovable. She had so much going on and so many obstacles and through it all she wanted to take care of the people she loved. Although she always did her best she had a lot of growing up to do.

Of course my favorite character was Conrad, Katrell’s dog, but as a dog lover my opinion is biased.

This book is overflowing with black girl magic, love and friendship.

Full review to come on my blog: thelittleblackbooksociety.com.

I received an ARC courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This was a really interesting concept. I loved the way the author told the story of a girl accidently bringing her dog back from the dead out of sheer sadness and desperation, despite warnings from ghosts.

Oh…my god, this book was a journey but what a satisfying destination.

Katrell is a sixteen-year-old Black girl who’s been able to see ghosts as long as she can remember. At some point she realized she could write letters to them and others could speak to the spirits of their loved ones. One day, her best friend Will’s Nana warns her she needs to stop or she’s going to burn everything down. But when her beloved dog is killed in front of her, she writes a letter telling him to come home. When she resurrects Conrad, she sees a way to make even more money because with her mom not working, her mother’s boyfriend eating their food and hitting Katrell, she’s the one who has to pay the bills, all while trying to make it through high school without raising suspicions on how bad her home life is.

I really don’t know what to say about this book. It hurt my heart so much reading Bad Witch Burning, but I couldn’t put it down. I had to know what was going to happen with the revenants, with Will, with everything that seemed to be going so well then so terribly wrong for Katrell. This is such a powerful, emotional book and a spectacular debut. I will definitely be reading more from Jessica Lewis, and I hope folks read this book and get the feeling of hope and love that fills me with the conclusion. This is just so utterly fantastic, and I cannot wait for others to get to read it!

As soon as I read "witchy story full of black girl magic" in the description, I was sold. There are multiple possible TW/CWs for this book, but for me the most important to note is animal violence/death. This usually means a hard stop/DNF for me in a book, but I was able to skim over it and continue.

One of the things that I liked in this low fantasy novel is that there is a mix of both likeable and unlikeable characters, many of them well developed. I also loved the character development of the main character Katrell - she was dimensional, interesting, and so human in her pain and frustration. She opened up and became braver throughout the book, and I loved it when she said sassy things like "piss off!"

This reminded me a bit of Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson and the Babysitter's Coven series by Kate Williams.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children's for an arc of this book.

Content Warnings at end of review.

Katrell has always been able to see ghosts. But after a bad run-in with her mom's abusive boyfriend, Trell realizes her powers have changed. Now she has the ability to raise people from the dead, and make some cash while she's at it.

This book was so interesting. I really empathized with Katrell and all so was going through. Will is also such an amazing friend and my favorite character! I liked the journey that Trell went through and what she had to do to come to terms with things. I thought there was great character development! The pacing was a little slow in some places, and Trell definitely didn't make the best decisions, but I enjoyed this book overall!


Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

Trigger warning: a dog violently dies in this book. I wish I knew beforehand because it really made it hard for me to keep reading after that happened.

I am glad I continued, though. This book was so good! I loved the story, I love the mystery behind the Revenants, I loved Will and Trell’s friendship, I loved it all!

This book deals with a lot of tough subjects, abuse, neglect, foster care and the system. But they are done with a witchy vibe. I felt that even the fantasy elements didn’t detract from the actual message of the book.

Bad Witch Burning
by Jessica Lewis

This was a sad, depressing, exciting, hopeful, scary, and unique read! It was all those things and wonderful at the same time! It's about a gal that is abused and neglected by her mother and whoever her mother had as a boyfriend at the time. The 16 year old was always making excuses for her mom and blaming herself or the men.

She also has a gift that her mom exploits. She can bring back a ghost of someone's family, friend, or lover and she charges a small price. It physically hurts her so she can't hold the connection long. While doing one of these routine summoning, the ghost speaks to her! This has never happened. The spirit warns her never to call forth anyone again. They will come for her. Since the girl is the only one supporting the home of her, the mom, and the low life guy, she feels she has to work.

Things come to a head when the abusive guy beats her and things get out of hand. Later she is in so much grief, she used her power again but it didn't bring back just a spirit but the whole body! Now she thinks it's a good idea to make money from resurrections! Things were bad before but now it gets a lot worse!

It's a story about how desperate people try to get out of a bad situation only to find themselves in a worse one. Fortunately, this gal has a great friend, loyal dog, great counselor at school, and good neighbor. But she remains too loyal to her mom because she believes she has to be and won't seek help.

I think a lot of us can relate to feeling left out, no where to turn, too loyal to those unworthy. We might find an unhealthy way to escape if given an option.

I enjoyed the fantasy aspect of it and it had plenty of suspense. I did get frustrated with the gal for always backing her worthless mom! But she was just 16! It's hard enough at that age and she's poor, abused, and scared to lose her only family.

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this intriguing book!

The title of the book drew me to this story. The cover art was an added plus. Bad Witch Burning is a dark contemporary story filled with sisterhood and friendship but heavy on character development and light on world-building. The characters were so well-rounded I could see their walk, facial expressions, and hear their voices. Many times I felt as if I was in the same room as Katrell due to the detailed yet concise descriptions of the settings. Nevertheless, I was left wanting to know more about Katrell's powers, how and why she had them and the mysterious warning Will's grandmother gave her at the beginning of the book. I would definitely recommend this book to a teenager looking for Black girl magic, a bit of gore, and mystery.

Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Originals, and On My Block would love this book.

Warnings: child abuse, gun violence, animal abuse

Nope. Nope. Nope. Absolutely not. This is sadly going to be a dnf because of the whole Conrad thing. And I'm even sadder because I was instantly drawn into and captivated by the beginning of Bad Witch Burning and would have liked to continue it. I know others will and have enjoyed this book. I would have liked some trigger warnings so the *thing* that happened wasn't such a shock. If there were any in the arc edition, I couldn't find them. If you enjoyed this book, I highly recommend The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould.

I won Bad Witch Burning in a giveaway. All opinions are my own. Thank you for the review opportunity.

A layered debut about grief, friendship, and the accidental power of necromancy.

Katrell makes a living by communicating with the dead. Sometimes, it's the only thing keeping her and her mom off the streets. But when her mom's boyfriend puts Katrell in danger, she unknowingly taps into a part of her power that causes the dead to come back. Not only that, the dead are angry and very hungry to feast on living flesh -- yes, that means someone's sweet dead grandma who'll want to gnaw on your arm. Now caught in the crosshairs of her best friend worrying about her, a terrifying chance to make more money, the walking dead, Katrell's hearing whispers that she'll burn everything down, After all, isn't she angry enough?

Jessica Lewis writes a protagonist who hides her soft heart from the world. Katrell's personality grows through her first=person present narration, offering snarky commentary and a mess of emotions. Her love for her best dog ever (I am a Conrad stan for life) and her BFF Will is palpable, and in fact, it's the beating heart of Bad Witch Burning. The strength of Lewis's writing is in the unbreakable friendship and love these girls have for each other.

Full of great horror and fun, Jessica Lewis's zombie debut is powerful enough to make the dead rise once more.

An ARC has been provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book follows 16 year old witch Katrell who finds herself in a whole heap of trouble after she figures out she can resurrect the dead. Katrell’s mom is terrible and is the definition of horrible parenting both emotionally manipulative and standing by while her child gets physically abused. No wonder Katrell makes the decisions she makes. Because she loves her mom and wants to take care of her. But that’s not her job. It should be Katrell’s mom taking care of her. After all this is over I really hope Katrell gets a therapist to unpack all this. I really loved Katrell and Will’s friendship. At the end of the day there’s nothing like your found family. And yay for Katrell to having a few adults in her life finally stand up for her and protect her. I wished we got more world building and learned more about the origins of her powers, are their other witches she could have consulted for help? I think this book definitely could use a sequel to answer some of these questions. Overall, I really appreciated how fast paced this book was and I can’t wait to see what the author does next.

Anyone with a heart is going to feel sad or mad for the main character Katrell because of her situation. I felt mad the entire time reading this.

Katrell is a sophmore in high school with a deadbeat mother and a revolving door of men dating her mom. Although she’s technically the child in this mother daughter situation, she is forced to operate as the adult. She works 30 hours a week at a fast food place, and she has a witchy side business in order to make enough to pay for rent, utilities, and groceries. As if it’s not already enough to take care of her mother, she also provides for her mom’s violent and irresponsible boyfriend Gerald. He works part time at Wendy’s, yet doesn’t contribute to the household and he and her mother both have the nerve to ask Katrell for money on several occasions.

Katrell has went through so much more than a child should have to, and lives with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Despite her mom allowing her boyfriends to beat her, Katrell still so desperately loves and cares for her mother. She so badly wants to believe her mother loves her, but her mom’s betrayal eventually leads her to face the truth.

Before she faces the truth, she almost works herself to death using her magic to summon the dead. This business venture proves to be integral to her effort to create a better life for herself and her mom. Although the money is good, it’s dangerous and the consequences are high. Despite this, Katrell feels it’s worth it because she’s in a desperate situation and anything is better than the life she currently lives.

This is a fictional true story as I call it because so many children are living a very similar life to Katrell’s. I appreciate the larger picture this book paints, but I’m not a huge fan of the writing; particularly the pacing. It felt like the same thing kept happening and the story stayed stagnant for awhile which was frustrating. I found myself wanting to skip through and get to a place where the plot moved forward.

2.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte for the eARC