The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family–and a new love–changes the course of her life.
As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for….
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)
The Reason
I can’t resist stories about witches!
The Quotes
“Niceness is all about what we do when other people are looking. Kindness, on the other hand, runs deep. Kindness is what happens when no one’s looking.”
“It’s not always enough to go looking for the place we belong. Sometimes we need to make that place.”
“It’s a leap of faith to love people and let yourself be loved.”
“Maybe some kinds of trauma can’t be revisited — and some need to be.”
The Narrator(s)
Samara MacLaren. She was great!
My Thoughts
I had high hopes for this book and ended up a little disappointed. I love found family stories, I love witchy stories, and this one felt like it could be right up my alley. The first part of the book was very promising, but the further we got into the book, the more I started getting annoyed with the characters, and after everything, I didn’t like where the story and characters ended up.
One of the things that resonated most with me was the conversation about being kind vs. being nice, and I really did love the initial idea of the story and the anticipation of found family. However, there were things that happened in the story that I can’t talk about without giving away spoilers, but I didn’t like what happened, and I didn’t like that the characters did that, and I didn’t like that it was brushed away like it didn’t matter.
I wish it was a better story with better characters, but giving credit where credit is due, it was well written and a very easy read. I’ll check out the author’s other books because I think she’s a good writer, I hope I’ll find some better stories amongst her works.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
