Originally Written: 9.2.21
I don't think I will read this again. That's the sad part of this to me because I really thought I would love this book. However, certain elements kept dragging this down. And dragging it out, as it eventually revealed.
First of all, I do not really feel like the readers get enough information about the characters. Felicity, the lead, is almost completely removed from what is happening around her which in turn left me feeling bored with the story. Felicity didn't care much about her day to day school tasks or her future which made me think well, why am I supposed to care about the story? She is supposed to be focused on finishing her senior year but we only read about the fact that she is working on an essay or project as a quick bit of scene direction. It's not enough to convince me that the story needed to be set at a school.
For the most part, Felicity comes off as obsessed with the idea of witches but her narration does not give enough to really convince the reader that the situations she finds herself in are unsettling enough to worry about. They are just happening, and Felicity is afraid to sleep, but she won't tell anyone because she can't appear weak after happened to her during her original senior year. With that in mind, the surrounding characters felt like a sea of nameless faces because Felicity made very little effort to learn anything outside of the bubble of "magic" she had created for her life to exist in. She's isolated and alone but only because she has made herself that way, and has allowed others to both keep her at a distance and manipulate others to follow their example. I guess that's why parts of this book took place while students were on break for summer and Thanksgiving, since it really didn't matter if they were around or not.
Next, I understood what was coming with certain characters from the start. When the reveals came, I wasn't surprised but I was left asking why did this character do what they did? The reasoning just didn't land for me. Or characters, I guess, as the reveal goes. Every moment of "dread" or threat to Felicity felt so contrived that I was surprised this apparently smart young woman didn't suspect someone was manipulating things around her from the moment it started. Or at least suspect something other than "magic" which never felt convincing whenever it was mentioned. It was obvious who was in control, who was in charge, but the story made it take too long to really focus on what had been going on for the most part.
Also, the pacing made me feel like the story was dragging. Felicity's narration felt a bit plodding, with weird hooks to the end of chapters that just felt forced. Something would happen in the story, what I thought would be a real turning point, and then the next chapter would be several days later with everything just going along as it had been before. No real consequence to the reveal, just moving along, nothing to see here. It made the story feel a bit argh to me by the time I got to that ending.
It felt like the book was a long trek through the maybe beginning of a new relationship with one girl who was maybe haunted but not really, only for it to try to turn into some sort of thriller in the last 30% of the book. Except that the characters involved act so above mundane things and are trying to outsmart each other and it just made me think why to all of it. The book needed more build up, the story needed more true scares, uncomfortable threats brushed aside as harmless pranks, things that helped the plot make sense when the story finally decided to stick to a thriller/suspense/mystery track. That break almost makes this book feel like two separate stories. And I liked the ghost story/haunting/romance part way more than the "I'm in love with a sociopath" segment, although that song really fits with this story in my head now.
What I really expected out of this was a story about the influence of witchcraft on the legacy of a school and the toll it could take on impressionable young minds. Instead, I could barely keep the witches apart in my head or remember what had happened to them in the past. Felicity seemed to be throwing the word magic around for the hell of it, which just made me sigh every time she mentioned tarot cards, crushed herbs, stones and candles. If that stuff was really magic, the world would be a very different place indeed.
I guess the point is that everyone is some sort of crazy, some are just better at hiding and blending in than others. But if that was going to be the point, I wish there was a more definite reveal about what these characters really were: monsters, witches or just misguided kids.
Rating: 2 Stars
Originally Written: 9.27.21
