DNF@ 56%
I liked the premise of this book,.but that's about it. Nothing was happening and it was boring. I didn't like the writing either.

Thank you again to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for an ARC of VenCo.

Lucky hasn’t felt she lives up to her name- after losing her mother years ago and on the verge of losing her apartment, she’s feeling lost and worried for what will come next for her and her grandmother. Then her whole world is turned upside down and she’s on a drive across the country for some answers.

Truth be told, I didn’t dislike this book. There was casual representation of marginalised groups that didn’t feel forced and was natural. But I don’t know if this eventual series will be for me. I sense some leanings toward sexual content and while I know that’s some people’s cup of tea, it’s unfortunately not really mine. I ended up just skimming through parts with some characters because of it.

Call me a prude, it’s fine, but my partner will disagree with you.

Lucky St. James is just trying to keep herself and her grandmother (who has dementia) fed, sheltered, and safe in Toronto when she is pulled into a centuries-old conflict between witches and the men who hunt them down in Cherie Dimaline’s tense novel, VenCo. We never really learn a lot about this world’s explanation for witch-hunting, which is a little frustrating, nor do we get much more than a series of backstories about the members of the coven Lucky is fated to join. The best parts of this book are the sections focused on Lucky herself, who stands out in an otherwise thin story.

Lucky has lived on the thin boundary between poverty and absolute penury for most of her life. Her mother, who had a knack for making magic out of nothing, taught Lucky everything she knew about survival before dying of cancer when Lucky was very young. When we meet her, Lucky makes ends meet with temp work and struggles to make sure that her grandmother is safe. Unfortunately for the duo, Lucky has just received word that she and her grandmother are going to be evicted. The sudden offer of a job in Salem, Massachusetts, delivered by a woman who is clearly not telling Lucky everything, is the kind of offer Lucky can’t turn down.

Once Lucky is introduced to the world of the Salem coven and its guiding organization, VenCo, things get a lot more interesting. Lucky and her new cohorts have to find the last member of their coven, to fulfill the hope that they will somehow (?) make the world a better place. The only thing standing their way is an immortal witch hunter, whose chapters absolutely made my skin crawl as this creature describes using everyone around him for his own advantage or pleasure.

The climax of VenCo is outstanding and may be worth the price of admission for fans of original witchy fiction. My biggest problem with VenCo is that, in spite of some really good characterization and magical combat, it races along so fast that we never get to settle into the other characters or how magic works or what VenCo and the Maiden, Mother, and Crone and its helm are really for. I feel like the plot and cast list should’ve been scaled back or expanded greatly so that all of the characters have more development and so that we can see further behind the scenes.

A witchy book that is intersectional, intergenerational and meant for marginalized people? Sign me up. It tackles feminism and social issues and trauma all while drawing you into the world of them with the raw and suspenseful writing of the author. So in love.

“Mothers are the witches we know best but never acknowledge.” ❤️
VenCo is about the power women have when we join forces. Lucky St. James is living with her elderly grandmother but they’re about to be evicted when she finds an old, mysterious spoon. The spoon is one of 7 and it connects Lucky with a group of witches that have been waiting for the 7 spoons to finally come together and restore witches to their rightful power. There’s a race against time to locate the final spoon and it’s witch, a dangerous road trip and an immortal witch hunter determined to stop them. Suspenseful and funny, I laughed out loud at parts and fell completely in love with these fierce witches. Highly recommend!

A hidden power unlike any other rests at the soul of this novel. The storytelling is engaging, the characters easy to like. The plot wavers as if it is one of the characters, a little lost and trying to finds its way. Overall a good read but I don't know that it makes me want to read more if this indeed a series as the ending makes it seem. 3.5

This wasn't what I expected at all from the blurb, which spoke of adventure and mystery and thrills - none of which I found as far as I read... What I found was a Millennial who was down on her luck (yes, a pun - I couldn't help it) and once again the whole world seems to be against the poor beleaguered youngster- which is a theme I seem to be encountering more and more lately, and which I must confess to find wearying.

The setup was all right, but paired with the blurb it led me to imagine a much more complex amount of world building than I found. Admittedly I did not finish this one (I found myself turning pages just to increase the percentage read, at which point I knew this just wasn't a good fit for me and decided to give up) but it felt more like a journey of self discovery novel than a thrilling adventure, and the latter is what I was expecting - and looking for.

There wasn't anything wrong with it. I did find the characters a little bit flat, and in a book with such a clever construct I would have expected a lot more world building (or at least stage-setting) up front, but I think my biggest issue was that I went in expecting one thing and received another. I really think the blurb did this one a disservice as far as I'm concerned, and it just wasn't a good fit for me.

I really, really liked this one, A fun read. Magic, a good villain, female relationships, Canadian content (I lived in Toronto so I loved seeing the city through Lucky’s eyes!) Would 100% read a spin off about the mysterious maiden, mother and crone of VenCo…

I will, unfortunately, be withholding my review until a fair contract agreement is reached with the HarperCollins Union.

This is a strange book. It is vignette like, jumps around and is slow to get going. I started to skim some until about half way when it picked up. I enjoy the strong female relationships but find the males to be characters.. It is uneven but is interesting enough that I didn't DNF it. There is a audience for this but It's not me.

Cherie Dimaline’s upcoming novel VenCo promises plenty of hidden urban magic, and I’m excited to have accessed an advance copy for this review. (Many thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the gift!) VenCo follows Lucky St. Jones, a down-on-her-luck Métis woman living in Toronto, who discovers she’s a witch, part of a promised coven. Not only that, but she’s on a deadline to find the last member of the coven. All the while, there’s a dangerous immortal witch-hunter on her tracks.

There’s a lot to take in here, and I found my expectations subverted constantly. Not just in terms of the plot, or the character tropes, but also the worldbuilding and the genre itself.

A very soft fantasy…

Based on the blurb for VenCo, I was expecting a Very Specific kind of worldbuilding. Specifically, I was hoping to see a world like that The Rook or Her Majesty’s Royal Coven or Rivers of London. I love thinking about how a magical world could work, the infrastructure and the organization of it. VenCo seemed to fit neatly into this, with its secret witchy corporation and continental recruiting. Even the first chapter seemed to play this out, with a frankly badass intro to what seemed to be three executive witches.

But Dimaline took a different (equally fun) approach to her world building, opting for softer fantasy rules in service of the theme. In the world of VenCo, there’s no one “right” way to do magic. Instead, witches draw on local traditions, leading to an intriguing diversity of powers and approaches. The witches are similarly un-organized, resembling a loosely connected network rather than a tight-knit organization. Everything is run on intuition, vibes, and connections.

This softer magic system and world building isn’t bad, just unexpected. One element of the “soft rules” is a little trickier to judge, though. The protagonists are working against a magical deadline to find their last coven-mate. This is treated as a very real deadline, and the cast takes it seriously - but it’s never really explained why. There’s no sense of the stakes - of what could happen if the final witch remains lost - which can deflate some of the urgency.

Fortunately, Dimaline is an engaging writer, and these inconsistencies didn't stick out that much as I read. Instead, I found myself swept up with the plot and the magic and the characters. Dimaline’s more flexible approach seems optimized to deliver her themes in the most enjoyable way possible - even if it means handwaving the rules.

…with a female-centric message

VenCo is definitely a story with a perspective. Anti-corporate and anti-capitalist, the plot highlights female power and stories. Each of the members of the VenCo coven represents a different failing of our status quo, and Dimaline vividly illustrates each backstory. Each of the characters is unique and fleshed out, and I enjoyed learning about each of them.

VenCo, like many other witchy stories, emphasizes the importance and power of family - especially female family. Mothers and grandmothers have particular importance in the novel, along with both maternal and platonic love. Dimaline does this by writing compelling connections between mothers and daughters - but also by making the major villain the only male character of note.

He’s a good villain too - extremely creepy. I found myself wincing at some of the passages that included him - like a more muted version of Kilgrave. But at some point it started to feel hyperbolic - are there no good men? No good markets? No good organizations? In light of recent events with crypto, it feels like “tear down ALL old institutions” might be a bridge too far.

Still, it’s a fun read, and it’s hard not to cheer for the protagonists at the end. On the last page, I found myself satisfied and excited to read another installment. I’d be really excited to meet new witches and explore more magical traditions, and to see what a coven could really do.

Reader's notes and rating (⭐⭐⭐✨)

VenCo was nothing like I expected, but I enjoyed it all the same. It was a great journey of self-discovery and a beautiful affirmation of female support. That said, I was expecting a bit more about underground organizations (can you tell I loved Hench?). Instead, this read a little more like a great scavenger hunt adventure.

I’d definitely recommend it to feminist friends who enjoy adventure novels. It’s nice to see a road-trip novel that is so focused on feminine greatness, and it’s a fun read if you can keep your analysis at a more surface level. For me, this is 3.5 stars.

Read this if...

You’re excited by the concept of a “witchy road trip”

You’re looking for a fun feminist adventure

You enjoy stories about travel and local tradition

Skip this if...

You’re most excited about the “secret society” elements of the blurb

You want more mystery, less adventure - there’s no “solving” this one

You’re looking for hard fantasy or deep world building

AN enthusiastic pick for this book! I loved Dimaline's first book, Empire of Wild, and I loved VenCo even more. Lucky is scrabbling to get by. working temp jobs to stay afloat and take care of her grandmother with increasing dementia when they get notice they are being evicted. She finds an old "witch spoon" that leads her to a group of indigenous women, all witches (backed by a corporate entity VenCo) trying to find the sixth and seventh members to form a North American coven to fight the patriarchy and right the wrongs ttaking over the world before time runs out/and or a witch hunter finds them.

Darkly humorous and empowering, I enjoyed the folklore and the strong female characters and their various stories.

I was hooked immediately by this story and really enjoyed it. I really liked how multiple cultures’ witchiness was embraced and I loved how unapologetically woman-centered it was.

The strength lies in the characters, but because of that I had a couple jarring moments where the character presented suddenly felt like they changed to a different person. Freya was the most pronounced. She approached Lucky like a self-assured, been-around-the-block, business woman and so I had a certain picture of her in my head. Then Lucky gets to the house in Salem and Freya is suddenly a kind but childish eighteen year old. I had to completely rewrite my image of her. Jay also falls victim to this. The costumed hillbilly moment just didn’t fit who I thought he was. He didn’t need trickery (beyond his power of suggestion) in any other case. He seemed to march in, take control, torture, kill. Why did he suddenly need to just hold Lucky until the time ran out? Why wouldn’t he just overpower her and Stella and kill them? Everything else about Jay was cool and confident. That scene didn’t match the rest of him and I didn’t understand his motivations.

I appreciated the ending because the Oracle finally felt like they did something. The book started with them and is named after them, but they didn’t actually have much to do with the story and easily could have been removed without affecting the plot. I’d rather they be utilized more because the corporation aspect is interesting.

My final gripe: there was a weirdly shifting sense of urgency. After Buzzards Bay the covens one job is to get home and scrye to find the witch. Instead they ate some snacks and slept and then eventually did their job. Similarly, Meena thinks Lucky taking Stella with her could jeopardize the entire mission (which we’ve been told equals apocalypse- big stakes!) yet she’s like, “you probably shouldn’t take her… oh well!”

All that said, I actually liked the book a lot. I just see the potential for a much stronger story.

VenCo was a book that I didn't expect to like as much as I did. The story starts out honestly very confusing for what direction it is going to take. But about half way through the story, I realized that we are being put in the same position as the main character learning new things as she rushes through to make things happen in what little time she does.

The other characters are all very lovely and jump right off the page at you as real beings that are not just there to move the main character along. By the time I finished the book I found myself wishing that this wasn't a standalone book and that I could get to learn more about the world at large.

I will be withholding my review of this one till the HCP union has a fair contract. Thank you again for the arc and can't wait to publish the review in the future,

The inaptly-named Lucky is a down-on-her-luck woman working a dead-end job and trying to take care of her grandmother Stella as she slides into dementia. One night when doing laundry she discovers an old silver spoon. She is invited to a "job interview" in Salem. Turns out she has found the sixth of seven spoons needed to form a coven. Each woman who finds a spoon is then tasked with finding the next woman. Lucky must complete the circle but only has nine days to do so. So she and Stella set out on a road trip to find find the seventh witch whilst she comes into her powers. We are treated to chapters from the viewpoints of the various witches, as well as a witch-hunted seeking to stop them. The novel was an enjoyable portrayal of found family with magical overtones and I hope there's a sequel.

This book is amazing. There’s queerness, feminism, AND witches. Twists and turns. A slow start, but so worth the patience. 100% recommend.

I enjoyed the journey this book took me on. It seemed open to have another one which I hope happens.

I enjoyed the strong female characters, especially the spirited Lucky and her endearing Grandma Stella. I also appreciated the loyalty and support from those females who all seem to have overcome some difficult pasts, and the inclusion of both witchcraft and indigenous culture in the storyline.
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But I did get bogged down in the drawn out search for the last spoon and the last witch needed to complete the coven, and felt a big disconnect between the coven and the characters of the Oracle, the Mother and the Crone.

VenCo was my first book from author Cherie Dimaline. Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and William Morrow in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to VenCo, but while the blurb seemed to tease some danger and thrill, it fell a bit flat for me in those regards, making the book a bit harder to get through than I anticipated.