I wasn't sure what to expect from this story, but it hooked me pretty quickly. Homeless Fade, receives a phone call from her mother insisting that she return to Willow Sound and locate her missing Aunt Madeline - whom locals believe is a witch.

The story showcases Fade as she grapples with her past, including her relationship with her mother, while she fights with the people of Grand Tea in an effort to uncover what has become of her estranged aunt. The story was fast-paced, eerie, and constantly left me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was coming next. Overall, it was a quick and easy read that I enjoyed.

This book was beautifully eerie with a tough as nails protagonist that you can't help but love!

I love witch stories that center around familial ties and the bonds shared among found family. I also love sleuthy mystery elements that help keep a story moving along. You jump in immediately, and I really appreciated that. Sometimes standalones take too long to get to the actual plot because they want to set up the characters and background first to make you love them, but this book makes you love them through their actions.

Couldn't put it down!

Fade is sent to Willow Sound to look for her missing, estranged aunt. Fade discovers her aunt's cozy cottage in disrepair and rotting. As she goes to the nearby town of Grand Tea to search for answers, she encounters hostility. The townspeople blame Madeline for all their bad luck and have created stories about the "witch". The story explores loss, family dynamics, superstition, and historical tragedies. There were sections of the dialogue that seemed forced to me, but the gothic style resonated with the overall themes.

God forbid a woman is happy and self-sufficient.

What a start! I had to make a pause to breathe after the prologue . Beautiful, gory, macabre, grotesque, intriguing - the prologue was enough for me to know I would rate this book 5⭐

The story follows a homeless girl Fade Luck who discovers her aunt is missing. She goes to the strange small town under a huge rock formation that looks like a tea cup and tries to discover what happened to her aunt. This aunt was always considered a crazy weirdo or/and a witch because she liked her lonely life in a small cottage on a cliff where the ocean waves roar and the woods keep her isolated. While trying to figure out what happened to her aunt, Fade diggs out family secrets, new friends, new enemies, jarred protection spelles, hidden cellar, and burned remains.

Full of metaphors, this book is exploring many sensitive subjects considering societal injustice, discrimination, greed, herd mentality, hatred towards those who do not belong to the herd, and misogyny that is specially strong if a woman is happy with who and what she is. Yes, I did find some dialogues a bit boring and forced, but that didn't change my overall impression.

The beginning of this book started a little slow but once it got into the mystery and supernatural elements I was pulled in. While it is not based on a true story there are real events that the author pulled inspiration from. Plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing on what exactly this little town has been hiding, from not only Fade but from everyone.

This was a really wonderful book, I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style and plot line.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the earc of this book

A very unique book and atmosphere.
Thought ot kinda felt flat in some parts I enjoyed the story.
I liked also the characters

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars

The Witch of Willow Sound is a haunting tale that reads like fog drifting through an old forest, mysterious and poetic. Vanessa F. Penney’s prose carries a hushed intensity that lingers long after the final page, making this a memorable debut that feels both grounded in folklore and eerily personal!

The story follows Fade, a woman reluctantly drawn back into a fractured family history when her aunt Madeline, labeled a witch by her superstitious coastal village, vanishes without explanation.
As Fade searches for answers in the quietly hostile town of Great Tea, she uncovers more than rumors and superstition: what she finds is a bunch of grief and a quieter kind of magic that flows through memories, rituals, and the natural world..

What I loved most was the atmosphere. Great Tea has misty docks, creaking floorboards, overgrown paths, and steep cliffs that seem to whisper secrets!. It’s less about jump scares and more about unease.. The magic here is subtle and metaphorical, steeped in herbs and intuition, .

This isn’t a fast paced novel. It’s quiet and deliberate, more about what’s unspoken than what is. But for those willing to slow down and sink into its rhythm, there’s a lot to savor.
It does remind me a bit of Weyward.

Thank you to ECW for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review!

Actual rating: 3.5/5 stars

I was originally drawn to this novel based on both its stunning woodland-gothic cover, and it’s comp-title comparing it to Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea. Although it took me a little time to recover from the whiplash of the wrong expectations that set me up with, I still ended up enjoying this for what it was.

The Story:
Madeline Luck is a witch: everyone in the isolated village of Great Tea knows this. They invent bizarre lore around here, blame her for all their misfortunes and stay away from her remote cabin in the forest on the outskirts of town. When Madeline goes missing, her estranged niece Fade travels out to this close-knit community in order to investigate the disappearance. What she finds is a legacy of witchcraft, hardship and family lost and found.

What I liked:
The Witch of Willow Sound opens with one of the strongest prologues I’ve read in a long time; a tense and truly dark scene of a witch-burning in a Nova-Scotian small town, witnessed by our narrator from the shadows. I was on the edge of my seat and immediately hooked. Was I finally in for the truly dark witchcraft story I’ve been looking for?
Then, in chapter 1, we switch narrator, timeline and tone drastically. Everything after the prologue feels much younger and more whimsical, almost bordering on “cozy horror”. It took a bit of readjusting, but I ended up loving this vibe, and the atmosphere and setting became some of my favourite elements of the story. The town of Great Tea feels overwhelmingly whimsical and magical, and yet below this cottage-core beauty lies a foundation of generational trauma and darkness. The author never allows us to forget about that dissonance and does an amazing job with sustaining the sense of unease that comes from that.
The same cozy-with-a-dark-aftertaste-vibe comes through in the magic-system. Without going into spoilers, the book covers tea-magic and memory-spells; both of which with a strong bittersweet aftertaste.
The author mentions in her afterword that she took inspiration from real life Nova Scotian towns and their folklore/history, and it shows: Great Tea felt like a world that’s alive and breathing beyond the pages of the story.

What I didn’t like:
As hinted at before, expectation-management is important, especially for a debut author, and I don’t think The Witch of Willow Sound does itself any favours here. The prologue being so different from the rest of the story in tone, might set some readers up with the wrong expectations, or come off as the novel being “confused about its tone”. The same can be said for the comparison to Our Wives Under the Sea in the tagline, which I genuinely don’t understand. I often disagree with certain comps, but in this case I genuinely cannot think of a single similarity between the two books. I almost question whether the person that came up with that line has even read either book, or if Witch of Willow Sound may have been going for a completely different tone originally.
The feeling that the book isn’t quite sure what it wants to be cropped up a few other times too, specifically in regard to the writing. At times it leans into the Shirley-Jackson-gothic, only to flip to a piece of dialogue that reminds me of T-Kingfisher’s comedy-horror. I love both these authors and styles, but I don’t love the flipflopping between them.
On a more subjective level, it was the dialogue and the way our protagonists voice was written that hindered my enjoyment the most. Fade is supposed to be a 30-something-year old, but her hotheadedness, quasi-witty banter and edgy snark in the most inopportune situations made her read far younger (more like YA). Then there was the cringe of how she swears every couple of pages, but self-censors by using the world “frig”. Awkward the first time, and got only worse from there.
A final writing-quirk that irked me was the overabundant use of onomatopoeia. Once you notice it, you cannot unsee the fact that they are EVERYWHERE. Your milage may vary with these, but when every page contains at least one or two instances *click click*, *creeeeaaaak* or *shhh,shhh*, I feel like I’m reading a toddlers read-aloud book…

Overall a mixed bag that I enjoyed overall, but had some room for improvement. I will definitely follow what this author does in the future.
Many thanks to ECW Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

🫐☕️

This book feels like home. Quite and soft, sad and freeing. Even when the nature rages all around. You want to come back to it's embrace as soon as you finish reading and never let go.

I loved the characters and though I didn't relate enough for them to become favorit ones, they definitely left their presense in my soul and were a true part of the surrounding story. You wish you knew them personally. You wish you were friends.

The writing is descriptive, hauntingly beautiful and poetic. I fell in love with the book from the first page because of it. Sometimes you just immediately feel a connection with a story and this was the case.

This book talks about magic. Not fantasy-magic or the one that turns out stories. Real magic. Of memories. Nature. The one that exists in our life. The one we often forget about.

The ending went through me in a rain of tears and imprinted all the quite strenth of the book's emotions on me to stay. Amazing experience. Thank you Vanessa F. Penney for letting me live through it. I hope to save this freedom in my mind for a long time.

"A woman after my own heart. If that's witchcraft, sign me up"

- - -
Thanks to NetGalley and ECW Press for providing me with this free eARC in exchange for my honest review!

3.8/5 but I was taught to round up for scores

This book was really interesting in the folklore, but Nish was my least favourite character, to the point that it made it a struggle to get through scenes with him in it. He seemed cheesy and reminded me of early 2000’s fanfiction of nerds, and not in a good way.
I wish it was longer and flushed out the whole story more. I wish they went into more detail on the chambers and the institute and the trauma from it all. That seemed separate from everything else. It just wasn’t cohesive in an exciting way. It was very easy to read and easy to get into, but it’s not something I’d particularly recommend to anyone.

Thank you Netgalley and ECW for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Never has a book made me fear the page turn one moment, then have me wanting to cozy up with a cup of wildberry tea and freshly baked bread the next.

The Witch of Willow Sound is a great new addition to my growing collection of ✨ feminist witcherature ✨ and is an atmospheric, modern gothic mystery centering around the women who are called witches and the lengths some will go to in order to keep their secrets hidden.

This was a beautiful, well-written read, and I did not expect to feel as emotional as I did upon reading the final chapters. I loved how the author was able to strike the perfect balance of immersing the reader into their world with descriptive prose whilst still maintaining the rough-around-the-edges, sarcastic tone of the protagonist. I also loved how inspiration was taken from real witch lore and traditions, and the care taken in weaving these into the world of the story.

I look forward to seeing what Penney works on next, and what a great debut to come out the gate with!

Thank you NetGalleyand ECW for the ARC in exchange for my honest review 🖤

Thank you NetGalley and ECW for providing me with an ARC copy for an honest review!

To start, I was drawn to this book by the cover and description of a gothic/witchy atmosphere. This story is full of excellent imagery and is incredibly sensory (you can smell the musty wood the author is describing and feel the ocean breeze she mentions on your skin).

I found the main character Fade vaguely unlikable, but reliable. She is the way she is because of her life thus far- you can’t blame her. She is often reserved and hotheaded. Any depth of her character ends up translating poorly through dialogue.

The conversations are the real thing that hindered this book for me. They often feel jolted or inauthentic. They don’t feel like two people having a genuine conversation. The main character’s internal monologue is so strong, while her speech pattern and way of talking are clipped, often one or two words at a time, and sometimes out of place. The other characters in the book aren’t much better.

The story itself felt quite slow at times, but around the halfway point you begin to get backstory on the characters family, which helps to reinvigorate your attention. This boost did not last long for me, and I ended up feeling like I was trucking through to get to the ending. The concept of this story is definitely there, the execution just seemed to be off.

The writing style felt very staccato. Lots of short sentences and rushed thoughts, which can be very effective. In the end, it just ended up making the whole story feel a bit lifeless at times.

During the last few chapters, I was having a hard time keeping the motivation to finish it. The ending felt both predictable and anticlimactic. It knew what it wanted to do, it just didn’t quite stick the landing.

I’d also like to note a few grammatical and spelling errors I encountered throughout. I’m hoping that those get ironed out before the release date, but they definitely impacted my experience.

Overall, this was an interesting read with some good imagery and a unique setting. If you’re looking for an interesting, witchy vibe, this could be a nice choice! I just wouldn’t shoot it to the top of your TBR.

★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ /5

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

After a bit of consideration, I decided to DNF this book at 48%. I wanted to love this book so so so badly. As a Canadian who loves all things witchy and mystery, this book sounded right up my alley. I loved that it was inspired by real Canadian folklore and I loved the atmosphere created regarding the town the book is set and Aunt Madeline’s house. But I genuinely could not bring myself to care about any of the characters, especially our protagonist Fade. I found her incredibly boring and annoying as a protagonist, and she reads significantly younger than she is. It was a shock to find out she’s in her early late 20s/30s when she’s constantly replacing the F word with “frig”. This book is also incredibly slow. I made it to the halfway point and barely anything has happened. Which this would be fine if the characters were compelling enough for me to continue reading. But as I mentioned, they really weren’t.

I’m sure there are people out there who would really love this book, probably people who care more for the literary fiction genre than the mystery/thriller genre, but unfortunately I wasn’t one of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read The Witch of Willow Sound by Vanessa F. Penney in exchange for my honest review. I requested this one because I love stories of families with witches. This wasn't what I expected, but that wasn't a bad thing. I'll get my only complaint out of the way up top. The main character says "frig" all the time instead of actually swearing. To me, this was very silly and temporarily took me out of the story every time it was said. Yes, I get that this is a nitpick and a very minor issue to have. I honestly would have just preferred if she actually swore.

With that out of the way, I can talk about all the things I enjoyed about this book. This is a very strong first offering from Penney. The world building was great, and the major characters were well built, too. A few years ago I would have complained that the main antagonist was too much like a cartoon villain, but now we live in a world where people like that openly exist. Overall, I enjoyed the ride Penney took me on and will definitely be looking forward to what she puts out next.

This book I wanted to read due to the cover. The cover is beautiful. The story started out good. It kept me wanting to read more but as time went I felt like it dragged a little and was a bit repetitive. I honestly didn't care for the FMC and the others. The use of "frig" annoyed me the amount of times it was used. I felt like the FMC wasn't a 27 year old woman, it was making me think she was a teenager. I felt like the book was all over the place a bit. I did like the setting and the way it seemed creepy and weird. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

3.5. Witchy fun. reminded me of a Nancy Drew game - exploring an old house, walking around meeting random new characters, a caricature of a “villain” in the mayor. I wish the reasoning behind many characters actions were better explained, and the the “twist” was revealed too late in the book in my opinion. Great atmospheric read, but could go deeper into character backgrounds and motivations

Why does the narrator use the word “frig” every couple of sentences???

Once you get past that teeth-clenching, cringe-inducing distraction, The Witch of Willow Sound is an easy and enjoyable witchy folklore tale that reveals layered social commentary on the vilification of rebellious women, mental health, and societal biases. Despite the unbearably unnatural dialogue and a hollow, caricatured protagonist, the story itself is a fast paced and immersive read, with moments of atmospheric, lyrical prose that transport the reader deftly into the novel’s rich, textured, and palpable landscape .
This light witchy tale cast just enough magic to keep me reading in one sitting.

I love horror books and here is one of the best I’ve ever read.
Holy shit; I ate this book up in one sitting.

From the beginning I was intrigued. The book feels dark and creepy from the very beginning and you directly realise you can’t trust anyone.
Phaedra is a really nice protagonist with some realistic troubles due to her family history and upbringing.

Her investigation on her missing aunt is extremely well written and I was absolutely hooked. And I can say I had many theories and every single one of them was completely wrong in the end.

But what shook me most was the realisation that some of the mentioned cruelties had actually happened and that the author based her story on them.

I can absolutely and wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone who loves horror in books and wants to have a book you just can’t put down

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!

ARC review- The premise of this book intrigued me from the beginning and the mystery of the story kept me in it for the first 60%. The ending felt a bit rushed for me and I just wanted a bit more from it! Overall, would recommend checking this one out!