From the first chapter this book was spooky and totally gripping. There are three main characters, but all of them sound very similar. so that made it very difficult to differentiate each one from the other. However, this has all of the elements I adore which are witchy, paranormal, dark academia, and scary, This was a stunning story full of feminine rage and had ample representation, and of course the cover is also absolutely gorgeous. Even though I couldn't connect with this story, it was raw and hauntingly beautiful.

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group/Nancy Paulsen Books for providing me with a digital review copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Dark, dark, dark. What an excellent foray into this magical, messed up world. This had heavy The Craft vibes and I was completely here for it. There is a good amount of gore so if that's a trigger for you, here is your warning. If you can get around that, this is well worth the read.

5 Wickedly Grotesque Stars!
So this story revolves around three girls.

Zara-Wants to resurrect her murdered sister.
Jude-A bratty billionaire who accidentally cursed herself and her very soul is decaying.
Emer-A witch selling spells.

Zara and Jude team up to find Emer to help them, but things take a turn when they realize that Emer’s customers are turning up dead. Now the three must work together to find and stop the killer, before they end up his next victims.

The characters were perfectly imperfect and worked so well together as a group and individually.
The sapphic romance was romancing.
The overall dread and gothic atmosphere was excellent.
The themes of womanhood, misogyny, and feminism were really felt and handled beautifully.
The magical system set-up was unique and different from anything I have read thus far. Very well done.

This was disgusting, dark, hilarious, an absolute blast all around! I don’t know how the author managed to have me laughing and gagging at the same time, but here we are.

Check it out Now!
A big thanks to the Publisher & NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Great witchy mystery. I enjoyed the plot and the story unfolded at a nice pace which kept me interested. I didn't read House of Hollow (also by Krystal Sutherland) but I'll be circling back to it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the digital arc.

I love Krystal Sutherland's writing. It's masterful. Her characters (and the way they see the world around them) always feels so unique and personal, and The Invocations is just as dark and intriguing as I thought it would be. I loved the witchy, paranormal, and mysterious vibes of this one!

The Invocations is everything I didn't know I was looking for. If you like all things witchy, sapphic, and feminist, you will love The Invocations. If you grew up watching Totally Spies and W.I.T.C.H., you will DEVOUR this book like the demons that (no spoiler here) devour pieces of witches' souls in exchange for deadly magic.

Okay, now that I've hooked you in (hopefully), here's an actual summary:

The Invocations centers around three teens trying to catch a magical serial killer.

Emer Byrne is a woman on the run, a cursewriter whose skill is binding demons to women so that they may never live in fear of men. She comes from a long line of cursewriters, all of whom died at the hands of four witchhunters when Emer was a girl. When we meet Emer, she's hiding in the hallways of Oxford, kept company by her companion demon, Bael, and eeking out a living helping her clients.

Jude Wolf is a formerly badass lesbian and heiress to the Wolf family fortune, but when we meet her, she's living in a decrepit mansion and falling apart--literally. Jude attempted her own invocation years ago and has paid the price since, with a festering wound on her thigh and a burning desire to fix this curse. Desperate for any leads, she goes to lengths both nonsensical and illegal to figure out how to cure herself. She misses her life desperately, but, above all, she misses her half-brother Elijah, the other black sheep in their wealthy family.

Zara Jones is a straight-A, type-A, uptight girl, but inside, she's burdened by guilt and grieving. A year ago, her sister Savannah died at the hands of the London Ripper, Zara is CERTAIN...but the cases have never been linked. Either way, Zara will do anything to bring her sister back. When we meet her, she's experimenting with necromancy and contacting a PI who's always first on the scene to the murders.

When Zara and Jude cross paths at the most recent crime scene, they immediately realize they've both come for the same thing: the occult. In a hidden bookshop, they find Emer, and then, the race against time to catch the killer begins.

All three girls are beautifully rounded characters and their arcs unfold wonderfully. I love the hints of romance between Emer and Jude, and I love Sutherland's deliciously dark writing. I also love that magic has consequences -- shortened lifespans, mysterious illnesses, and the attention of powerful men. It felt very contemporary and timely, and surprisingly mature for YA! The twists are executed well, but my only complaint is that the actual killer feels like it comes out of left field. Mild spoiler -- this character has previously had no hints in this direction and I felt that maybe a line or two could have helped to develop his motivations better. Maybe it is in there, but I just devoured this book so quickly that I missed it, but I didn't love the ending like I should have. I wanted to live in the beginning and middle of this book, though.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nancy Paulsen Books, and Krystal Sutherland for granting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. I immensely enjoyed Sutherland's writing style and can't wait to see what she releases next!

Not me being forever obsessed with the cover of THE INVOCATIONS. 😍

THE INVOCATIONS follows three characters who come together to stop a supernatural killer before he kills them. Each one has their own reason to be involved: one is trying to figure out what happened to her sister, another has made a deal with the devil & the third is a witch who’s clients are dying one by one.

First off, the writing? Beautiful, exquisite, we love to see it. Second, the plot? The story? Kept me wondering what the heck was actually happening & who’s behind what’s going on. But my favorite part of the story is the character work. I loved the obvious differences between the main girls & I loved how they all three came together to form a friendship. Jude 100% had my heart, while I really REALLY wanted to hug Zara. & we can’t forget the powerful Emer, a badass.

Other perks? LGBTQ+ rep with a ship I’d go down with. & for my horror babes, the body horror was pretty dope.

I absolutely vibed with this one & can’t wait to read Krystal’s previous novel HOUSE OF HOLLOW.

Delightfully creepy!

17yo Emer is a curse writer that gives spells to women that are afraid and want protection. 17yo Jude has a demon following her and she’s suffering physically from the toll it’s taking on her. 17yo Zara wants to reanimate the sister she lost a year ago when she was murdered. The three young women end up working together to solve the murder mystery of a serial killer the police are calling the London Ripper. They get themselves in deeper than they bargained for and hopefully they won’t be the next victims.

Likes/dislikes: I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and the twists. I was spooked a few times by the creepy descriptions. I like the strength and perseverance of the three main characters, Emer, Jude and Zara. Jude adds humor to the story.
Mature Content: PG-13 for mention of drug use.
Language: R for 162 swears and 27 f-words.
Violence: R for repeated bloodshed and deaths.
Ethnicity: The ethnicity is mostly white with some Black, brown and olive skin tones included.

Thank you so much, NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, Nancy Paulsen Books for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Zara Jones is grieving her sister and she believes in magic, refusing to accept her sister is truly gone. She's willing to do anything to get her back, even dabbling with occult.
On the other side, Jude Wolf is the daughter of a billionarie and after a deal with a demon gone wrong, now she's cursed, her soul becoming necrotic and her existence filled with pain and things haunting her in the night. Now that she's cursed she only wants to find a way to undo it. Emer Byrne is a witch with a deadly power and the solution of both Zara's and Jude's problems. Indeed, she is the one who give desperate women her invocations, to those who are willing to exchange pieces of their souls, of course. Zara and Jude want to do that, but first they have to find the witch. When Emer's clients end up dead, they soon understand there's a killer targeting them, a supernatural one and so Emer makes a deal with Zara and Jude in order to find the killer. Even though Emer can't give them what the want most.

The invocations, by the incredible Krystal Sutherland, is a supernatural, witchy thriller, filled with magic and feminism, supernatural killer, loss and grief and stubborn girls. I absolutely loved being immersed in this book, because the writing style and worldbuilding are seductive and intriguing and you can't not love Emer, Zara and Jude. Each woman is complex, stubborn and brave and each of them are facing a struggle, grief, loss, power and desire and I truly was impressed by their characterization and relationships they build with each other in the book. Their journey is incredible and I loved how it was intertwined with the magic and they hunting the supernatural killer and how magic was mixed with their lives.
I loved everything!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Book for my free copy.

Anyone that likes a story full of witchcraft, horror, demons and gore will love this book!
A story of sisterhood — a powerful group of young women facing evil. Dark academia vibes. It held my attention from start to finish and I did not want to put this down. Very good plot and great character development! I will be reading more by this author, for sure!

This book deals a lot with the patriarchy and society as a whole and how it treats any woman who seems to stand apart from what the patriarchy expects of us. And while on one hand, I appreciate that Krystal was able to add this creepy, gross out spin to it, I'm just so tired of reading books about the villain being evil because of the patriarchy. I want there to be more, NEED there to be more. There were no surprises for me, nothing that twisted the story and made me stare at the page in shock. I also didn't get any of Krystal's usual ability to connect the characters to each other in ways that make me weep.

This wasn't a bad book by any means, it dealt with some great topics and even dealt with an all female magic system that included trans women in the best possible way. It had the spooky factor I wanted I loved the action and the magic. It's just that when an author has written your all-time favorite book, it's hard for their other works to hit quite the same way.

4.5 stars for The Invocations, Krystal Sutherland made another gruesome story for the masses. Each of the women she wrote about was wonderfully fleshed out and everyone should be able to relate to one of them. I related most to Zara, and the pain she felt about a recent loss of a family member. Jude was the one I did not relate to at all, but she will appeal to many others I know. Emar I related to in small ways but not in major personality. If one can deal with gorey writing, please pick this up.

"Her eyes find the figure immediately. Standing stationary on the path. He is a slip of shadow, nothing more. No face, no weapon--nothing to indicate that he might do her harm, just a man. But she is a girl. And she is alone. And it is night. And that is enough."

Praise be, a witchy book that is actually wonderful in all it's witchiness.

"I have not come this far, to only come this far."

The Invocations follows three young women. There is Emer, an orphan curse writer who has raised herself and although she is essentially homeless, she spends the majority of her time at Oxford, where she studies dead languages and steals from college students. Jude is the quintessential rich girl though she is shunned by her family and her body is essentially rotting due to the bad curse she has cast on herself and cannot remove. And lastly there is Zara, a high schooler whose sister has been murdered and who she desperately wants to bring back from the dead. Add to this Scooby gang a serial killer and you have got yourself one heck of a story.

I loved all the themes here of female friendship, found family, resiliency, magic and most importantly strong female characters. The Invocations really is a delight and the audiobook is wonderfully narrated by Kit Griffiths. Sutherland's House of Hollow was a homerun for me so I am overjoyed that her sophomore novel is just as good.

Gorgeously written, THE INVOCATIONS is a nail-biting thriller with all the right ingredients. A must-read.

I was excited to receive an ARC of The Invocations, I loved the premise of magic, dark academia and horror all in one book. I enjoy a fast paced novel, it was too slow for me and it was hard to keep track of the 3 main characters. It was difficult to invested in the characters or the plot. It did not live up to my expectations..


Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for an ARC of The Invocations.

This book caught my attention as soon as I read the synopsis, and I was so happy to receive an ARC! This had witchcraft, demons, murder, sisterhood, necromancy, and so much more. The plot pulled me in and didn't let go. Overall I really enjoyed reading 'The Invocations', and had trouble putting it down. I liked how the female characters were written, they were written well, and I liked how the author portrayed them as strong and powerful! This was my first novel by Krystal Sutherland, and I will be checking out her other books in the future. I really enjoyed her writing style, and now I want to read House of Hollow. Overall, this was a great book to get me out of my reading slump! 5 stars! Highly recommend it!

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP for the ARC!

Take me seriously when I say this is the new Manifest of Feminism, starting now.

You're not wrong, this is a book about witches and magic, but defining it as a metaphor wouldn’t do it justice.
“The Invocations” is the mere explanation of how misogynistic the world is and how men are a threat to women for hundreds of reasons, some of which they wouldn't understand even if you’d scream them in their faces.

I doubt this is even a fantasy book: what if a witch ratted the truth about magic to Krystal Sutherland and she wrote a book about it.
Further proof of it is the fact that this type of witchcraft is dark and gruesome and makes you afraid of the dark corners of your bedroom, and not a silly little romance type of magic.

I hate to generalize but: if you're a woman, you must read this; to all my non-binary friends, I believe you can also identify with the story; on the contrary, if you're one of those men who think “Barbie” was pointless, we’ll come for you.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

The House of Hollow has been one of my favorite books since I first read it. Now, I can add The Invocations to that list. Clearly, I need to read this author's previous work as well as any books she puts out in the future.

This book explores a sisterhood among random women that meet due to witchcraft,the consequences of bad curses, and demon tethering. Their relationships grow and strengthen and even produce the possibility of a beautiful romance.

Witches, invocations, demons, a deadly witch hunter, lost families (whether it be from death or dysfunction),necromancy and more fill these pages. As well as love, loss, pain, humor,suspense, history, mystery and murder. I really enjoyed this book!

I am giving The Invocations a well deserved 5⭐️.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Invocations tells the story of three young women who initially become involved with each other because of their interest/experience with curses and demons, and find that they share deeper connections based on a generations-long revenge plot. Emer, Jude, and Zara are such wonderfully real, flawed, angry characters who are just trying their best despite the patriarchy and the terrible men in their lives. There are demons, there are murders, and there's the ever growing bond between these women as they struggle to survive and make sense of it all. This was such a fun and viscerally angry book; I loved it and want to protect these girls with all my heart.

Would definitely recommend as a satisfying, feminist read that throws in a nice amount of horror without getting too gory. There is positive queer representation (at least two of the women are interested in women), though no racial diversity from what I could tell.

Loss and loneliness converge in three different lives. They cling like a curse, enveloping their minds until all they have to do is act on it.

𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗥, trapped in grief and revenge, in impenetrable loneliness, she shares a dark and ancient power for those women who want control over their lives, who want to live without fear or uncertainty. They just want to exist without the constant sound of quick footsteps behind them, of threatening corners, of paths of no return. They want to breathe without fear.

𝗝𝗨𝗗𝗘, she lives intertwined with demonic magic. They cling to her like a second skin, torture her, hurt her and let her body be a vessel of malice. Her bones rot, her home breaks, her life ends. But, despite making mistakes, despite carrying curses, Jude is persistent and ambitious to turn back time. Getting her life back, even if it wasn't perfect, is her only purpose.

𝗭𝗔𝗥𝗔, lost between life and death, she will do everything possible to reunite with her sister. Grief makes her act. She seeks words of resurrection, of forgiveness and pain, she seeks to confront that deadly veil that separates her from her only family. There are no obstacles that stop her, because her decision is made with a mantra that will keep her alive: 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘳.

The Invocations is a story of pure loneliness. In the lives of these three characters, that feeling clings like a disease. They live with it without fear, but they know that there is something more. They feel that moment of warmth that only people can give. Friendship. And by destiny, by death, revenge and ambition, these three lives converge in the same current. A peculiar encounter, with lies and truths, with fears and confrontations that will manage to turn all that impenetrable loneliness into something inspiring to witness.

The most interesting thing about the plot is the magic, of course. The way it connects with the characters and their pasts, how it can be an escape, but also a horrible consequence to face. It is beautiful and terrible, addictive and evil. It is protection and also fear. It's everything.

I have always found the author's prose excellent because it has that dark and realistic tone that is simply wonderful to read. She mixes the grim reality, in the case of this book, of women, and weaves it with magic in such an organic way that it is addictive to witness. Her way of writing has no limits and that is what I appreciate most in her books. There is gore and fear, there are graphic and disturbing descriptions that it is impossible not to face them with your mouth open. I dare say that the first half of the book was a little slow and I felt that the story got lost at times, but it manages to pick up very well towards the end. Still, it's an incredible story. I highly recommend this book and the author if you like graphic horror, gore and witchcraft.

(4.5) ★★★★☆
Thanks NetGalley & Nancy Paulsen Books for this ARC!