Book Review: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

 

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My rule is that if a book grips me in the first few pages I will continue to read. This book gripped me from the first page, nay, the first line itself. Mika Moon is a 31 year old witch (born in South India, to boot) who has always been told to stay away from others, because 'the world is not a safe place for witches'. She, and other witches, meet up once a quarter to discuss spells and potions and other witchcrafty stuff.
Mika wants togetherness, she wants to be a part of the society, a society that, just a couple of centuries ago, was cruel to witches like her. One day she gets a curious message asking her to come to Nowhere House. Her curiosity takes her there. The house is owned by Lilian Nowhere, herself a witch, and who is a mother to three adopted children, all of the witches. Lilian is never around and the children are looked after by an assorted family of Ian and his husband Ken, Lucy and Jamie, a devastatingly handsome librarian.
Mika is told that she has to be a tutor to the children and should teach them to learn to control their Magic. Magic, like fire, works best when it is controlled. Little does Mika know that there is more to the invite than that meets they eye.
Read on....
I like the simple language used in this book and the fast pace. While there are 31 Chapters, each of them is small enough to give you a sense of progress. Also I love the Subtle references to magic that interweaves the book. Mika's car is named 'Broomstick'. It can't get more magicky than that, no?
What I would have wanted is for Mika to demonstrate more of her skills, especially in that scene where Jamie went to meet his mother, I would have expected her to cast some spells on his brothers, like levitating them and pasting them on the ceiling or something. Nothing happened. He went in and came out with some books!
I saw the reference to this book in one of the Insta posts where one person had mentioned this book as one of the best that he has read. I bought it a couple of days ago and finished reading it now. I am happy that I did.

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