Special thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own :)

3.5 stars ✨

I want to start this review by saying that House of Hollow was one of my top reads of 2022. I devoured that book and loved it dearly. It was dark, it was gross, it was my first real taste of horror and really just a complete and utter masterpiece. That said, I perhaps did myself a disservice by expecting The Invocations to compare beat for beat.

Don’t get me wrong: this is, objectively, a strong book. The characters are flawed yet lovable, the plot is interesting, and the magic system is unique. But the pacing of this novel made it feel like a five hundred page book and even then, there are books of that length that I’ve read quicker than I read this one.

I also found the big twist to be rather predictable, if not a bit heavy-handed. I understand (and LOVE) the core messages of this story. The empowerment of women, the strength in the word ‘witch,’ and the massive screw you said to the rich and powerful men who think they own us are all incredible themes, but at the end of the day one of the true villains of this story felt contrived for a quick “guess who!” moment. Which might not make sense but I’m also writing this while on day four of the flu.

All in all, this was still a pretty enjoyable read. I also really applaud Sutherland for making an incredible rich, somewhat unlikeable character as loveable as she did.

Wow. This book was amazing.

I knew I would like this book since I’ve read others from Sutherland and liked them, as well. But this one really blew me away.

It was mysterious, with a serial killer targeting witches. It was scary, because of said killer and other aspects of the story. It was also empowering. I highlighted so much throughout the text, was able to connect to all three of the women that this story focuses on.

The ending truly shocked me. I saw it unfold before the characters did and I literally gasped. It was so well done. There were no alluding to answer of the mystery and yet the answer still made perfect sense.


This book is for all the women that been taught to be afraid and are pissed off about it. So if female rage and feminism and freedom and magic and friendship are your jam, you’re gonna love this one!

*thank you to netgalley for this ARC, given in exchange for an unbiased review

Thank you so much to PenguinTeen for sending me the Netgalley widget for The Invocations! This review is entirely my own thoughts and opinion based on the advanced unfinished digital copy from Netgalley.

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The Invocations is a gripping tale of three girls with ties to the occult, one trying to raise her sister from the dead, one trying to un-curse herself, and the other a descendant from a long line of witches. Individual searches draws the three of them together and thrust into a serial killer investigation that they need to solve, and quickly, before one or all of them winds up dead next. It's a fantastic tale of female rage and female empowerment wrapped up in a heartstopping paranormal thriller.

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OVERALL: 5🌟
STORY: 5🌟
WRITING: 5🌟
CHARACTERS: 5🌟
ENJOYMENT: 100/10
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STORY:
🤯🤯🤯
That is all.
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Okay i'm kidding but that's where my head is still at 24 hours after finishing this book. Because W O W.

This story is Queer, this story is Witchy, this story is Dark. It hits hard with discussions of toxic masculinity and female rage. There were so many points throughout the story that I paused to highlight quotes or sat back to digest commentary on how women are viewed through toxic masculine eyes. There's even a fabulous point where a character brings up transwomen, and the response is "demons only care about souls, not bodies". Just yes yes yes yes yes. An argument could also be made that this book has undertones of commentary on how a certain religion has propped men up over women and demonized women. If you're going to demonize and disempower women, then might as well make them the only ones who can use magic because demons will only bond with them and that's the only way to get magical abilities. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

All the fantastic social commentary aside, the plot of this story is stunning. The pacing is fantastic, never lulling too long so my poor ADHD brain has time to get distracted. This story is so dang dark that honestly, I plumb forgot this is supposed to be a YA novel. Sutherland went unapologetically hard with this story and its seriously paid off in my book.

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WRITING:

I adored Sutherland's writing style. Its rich and detailed. She's got a fabulous writer's voice full of wit and clever thinking. She's able to set up a fabulous atmosphere that had me seriously vibing all through the story. To the point that all the plot twists hit me hard and had me sitting slack jawed for awhile.

The set up of the way her world works is fantastic. She eases us into the reality that magic exists, but only through bonding with demons, and its expanded on naturally through the unfurling of the story. Its woven so naturally that suspension of disbelief is easy to obtain.

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CHARACTERS:
I loved these three ladies. Sure they made some stupid choices, but considering their ages, I felt they were rather on point for choices most late teens/early adults would make.

Jude is bold, confident, chaotic, and sarcastic. She's 100% my type. Every time Jude opened her mouth, I was living for whatever outrageous thing was going to come out her mouth next. She's definitely the driving force of this story. She might have some pretty questionable ideas/solutions, but you can't really argue with her results.

Emer is sweet, caring, and knowledgeable, wielding magic like it's second nature. Unlike Jude, her past is tragic which has turned her into an incredibly empathic person who will not stand to see women hurt and hunted any more.

Zara (or Jones as Jude calls her) is smart, calculating, and asks all the questions Jude can't be bothered to ask. She has a huge heart for those she cares about, even going as far as attempting to right wrongs through necromancy.

Together these women are empowering and drive a solid story.

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ENJOYMENT:
Oh I love this story. This is a I-gotta-read-this-again tale. This story sticks to your bones and stays with you. I absolutely recommend this story to all my female-identifying book besties out there. Read this. Cherish it. And the next time someone tries to demean you or disempower you, just channel your inner Jude, Zara, and Emer and hold on to your power. Because you are woman. And the world is going to hear us roar.

Krystal Sutherland's latest work doesn't disappoint after the brilliance of "House of Hollow." With a unique take on demonic magic and the concept of a chosen one among demons, the story is engaging. Although it starts slow, the pace picks up, and Jude's witty banter adds charm. The feminist perspective is a highlight, and while it took time to connect with the characters, the thrilling ending makes it worth the read. If you enjoyed "House of Hollow" and appreciate descriptive horror, this book is a good choice.

Krystal has done it again with story telling. I love everything she writes. She has just a way of making you feel all emotions. I loved this book, can’t wait to put it on my shelf. Highly recommend this book.
10/10

After House of Hollow, I have been looking forward to seeing what creepy, spooky work of art Sutherland would come out with next. Thankfully I was not disappointed! I loved the demonic magic system along the concept of a chosen one of the demons. How new witches are created is unique. I'm looking forward to going on a folklore deep dive to see what inspired the portrayal of witches, demons, and magic in this book. Jude's witty sarcasm was deeply appreciated, and I loved her banter with the detective assigned to the murder cases. I was pleasantly with how Jones' story wrapped up as well. Overall, a delightfully creepy book to read for spooky season.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars!

Sutherland is just such a descriptive writer! She writes horror so well. There were so many parts where I was so disturbed. There was a lot of disgusting stuff that was written like gore and sickness, but there is no doubt that you can picture what is happening.

This book had a very feminist outlook which I enjoyed immensely. Any time the author talked about how hard it was to be a woman who had to watch out for men I kept thinking to myself I couldn’t agree more.

One thing people need to know going into this book, which is why I think this is more of a 3.5 stars, is that it has a very slow start. It took me forever to get into the story or to care about anything that was happening. Once it got about halfway I couldn’t put it down. I wanted to see what would happen next. I finished most of it in one sitting at that point. Once it stopped building up each character and their motivations, it got a lot better.

For me it was just hard to connect with the characters. I didn’t really dislike any of them, but none of them stood out as people I should care about. Which made it hard to get into the book as well since there was no substance to any of the girls.

Jude was so unbearable at first. She wasn’t very likeable. She had funny quips, but any time she complained about not having money or thought money could buy her everything was so annoying. Trust me I get it, if I had a luxurious life and lost it I would be upset too, but it still drove me nuts. I felt for her that she was in pain, but she did it to herself.

Zara was fine but kind of boring. Zara seemed to be left out a lot as the story progressed. She seemed more of a background character or someone to help out when Jude and Emer needed backup, unless we were in her POV which makes sense, but I still felt like we weren’t given enough of her to fully care about her. She was the one who stood out the least to me.

I like Emer the most I would say, but even then she isn’t a new favorite character of all time. I thought it was cool what she could do and what she did at the end.

This was another case of I could have done without a relationship plotline. I liked the characters together and wasn’t mad they started to like each other, I just didn’t feel like it was necessary. It built with no warning. One minute they knew each other and the next they felt connected and wanted to be together. It just seemed kind of forced. It didn’t ruin the book for me, but not everything needs to have an endgame relationship. One part I did like was Jude flirting with Reece the whole time. That was funny and brought a “romance” into the book without it going anywhere. I think if the characters wanted to flirt with each other that’s fine, but I thought the story would have been better off if they all just stayed friends.

Speaking of Reece, I loved Chopra as a character! Some of the things were not very plausible like her helping the group of girls the way she did sometimes. But I didn’t really care because she was so likeable. She was a great addition to the cast of characters.

Side note: I loved the “Breaking Bad” references throughout the book.

I did predict what would happen in the end. I didn’t guess everything but one of the main parts I did. Which I wasn’t too mad about because I feel like Sutherland left enough foreshadowing for someone to figure it out but not everyone might. It didn’t take away from the story that I figured it out; I was more happy I got it right.

I would say that I would recommend this book! I would just warn anyone that it does have a very slow start. If you give it a chance you will probably like it too, especially if you like “House of Hollow”. The descriptive horror aspects of Sutherland’s books is really what makes me like her as an author. But I can see where someone may not like it as much because it is hard to get into and the characters don’t really stick out as much to me personally. Thankfully it really picked up at the end!

I was really looking forward to this book, since I loved the house of hollow I wanted to read whatever was next from this author and it did not disappoint! loved this story and above all loved this characters, I can't wait for their next book

Books & Bodies
Death & Demons
Curses & Crushes

This book was more. I am not sure how to explain it. The writing is stunning, the story engaging, and all of it not what you expect at the start. It has a found family aspect on two fronts that I loved.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the arc copy in exchange for an honest review.*

The arc copy I got and sent to Kindle was a little hard to read. There were missing letters, words, and whole phrases throughout the entire book so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something. However, I was able to figure out a pattern to the missing letters and could figure out a lot of the mistakes.

Despite the errors with the file or ebook or whatever, I did really enjoy this book. I like to go into my books blind, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It sure wasn't a witch, necromancer (wannabe), and a 3x cursed girl. This book was different than anything I have ever read. It was fun, it was quirky, but it was also heartbreaking and full of feminine rage. Down with the patriarchy!

Jude is from a family who has outcasted her and she's not sure why. She still yearns to be in their good graces so she still tries to earn back her family. However, there are some family secrets that she was not let in on that might just change everything. I related so much to Jude, always wondering why her family doesn't seem love her and wondering what she did wrong; yearning for her father's love and approval.

Zara and her sister Savannah were abandoned by their mother as children, and left with an aunt to raise them. When the aunt died, Zara only had her sister until she was brutally and unexpectedly murdered. Left in the care of her abusive uncle, she only has one goal: bring Savannah back to life.

Emer is a witch, or cursewriter, whose goal is to give power back to all the powerless women who seek her out after she watched all the women in her family get murdered when she was a child. She creates a curse and binds the women to a demon in exchange for a power of their choosing.

All three young women have awful and heartbeaking stories, which is why they all fit together so well. They all know pain better than many people (men specifically) ever will. They are all so strong and after everything this book put them through, none of them ever gave up.

There is a budding, and queer relationship in this book that I am living for. After all the pain these women have felt, I am so glad that they found some light and solace in each other. This was a very slow burn, so hold on tight.

So much happens in this book in such a short amount of time. You never really get a break because someone always seems to be risking their life or carrying out a dumb plan.

This book was definitely something different than what I usually read. You may want to read the trigger warnings before diving it, but this was a good read. I will be keeping my eye out for the author's next book.

This book was 400 pages and there was no need for it. The opening where the story worked on getting the girls all in the same room and the ending was fine. But the middle was torture and nearly nothing happened it felt like.

So with Jude there was this flirting with both Zara and Emer. Except it lasted all of a second and she was over it. Yet at the end… Jude and Emer end up together in the epilogue.

I just couldn’t get into this book despise the fun concept.

This was wild. I don't read horror often but this had witches so i was all in. This is so gruesome and doesn't not skimp on gorey details and the horrors that go on. I was very gripped by the story even though I had to suspend disbelief a couple times. This is one of those that would make an amazing horror film as well. Just a complete unhinged wild time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I found it a unique take on witchcraft and a fun thriller. Definitely light horror that is well written and kept me engaged. Highly recommend!

Ladies, gentlemen, and others! Krystal has done it again!!! This book was so good and I highly recommend it. I really enjoyed house of hollows so when I saw this one on NetGalley I immediately wanted it, and let me tell you it did not disappoint. This author is able to create unique worlds, characters, and stories like nothing you’ve read before

DNF at 20%

Firstly a huge thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group for giving me a digital arc of this book!

Inherently there was nothing bad with this book. It gave exactly what it promised: dark academia, witchy vibes and entertaining characters.

Unfortunately I just do not think this book was for me. I found myself getting bored and forcing myself through each page instead of enjoying the book the way the author intended. I cannot say anything bad this book because there was nothing, the writing and story were just not for me.

I am sure if you love dark academia, witchy vibes and a mystery you will LOVE this book. Because that is exactly what it is! I might pick this book back up after it gets published, but for now, it is just not for me.

For those of you wanting another House of Hollow, this is not that. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but this just left me confused a lot of the time. I also could have done with just one narrator instead of three.

4.5 - I really enjoyed House of Hollow and was excited to pick this one up! I am a little leery of witch stories, but this one didn’t fall into the campy cheesy normal that I’ve come to expect from witch books.

We follow 3 different girls all mixed up in the occult in some way. They are all wonderfully different but complement each other well. I thought the plot was great, it kept me hooked from the beginning!!

This was witchy, funny, and a great time with a heart-warming ending.

Wowowowow this was everything I want in my ya horror!

Brutal, gruesome, emotional and so riveting. Even correctly predicting the twist didn’t stop me from enjoying every minute of this.

She has become a must read author for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC

Witchy vibes, feminist rage, hunting a murderer and bringing back the dead? What more could you ask for?

This had a lot of groundwork to cover which led to a slow start. However, it was interesting enough to keep me reading. I enjoyed the characters-Jude was probably my favorite. Full of sass and hilarious one liners. I loved how the 3 girls were connected.

The ending was jaw dropping and unexpected (unless you were looking for it), but why does the villain always lay out their plan step by step? It’s insane and does not happen in real life.

All in all, this was a fun read and I enjoyed it a lot!

From the very first line on the very first page, I had the feeling that this was going to be one of those books that would sweep me up completely with every chapter -- and it turns out that I was absolutely right! This is my first experience with Sutherland's work, and I really liked the cadence of her narrative. Her word choices and turns of phrase really tickled my fancy; I'd immediately be transported right into the story every time I picked up the book to read a little bit more. The plot reeled me in as well, keeping me on my toes as it unfolded, crescendoing into an exciting climax that slides right into a satisfying end.

I also enjoyed getting to know these three narrators: clever, grieving Zara who wants to bring her sister back from the dead; rich, larger than life Jude who wants to be free of the demons tethered to her that cause her much pain; and talented curse writer Emer who has ghosts haunting her past. It took me a couple of chapters to really warm up to them, but before I knew it, I was deeply invested in this trio and what they would manage to accomplish together in the face of a serial killer and their own individual goals.

The Invocations was a very good book, though it isn't typically the type of tale I reach for. I would suggest looking up content warnings, since it does include body horror, violence and more.