{ARC Review} A Wicked Magic by Sasha Laurens

A Wicked Magic by Sasha Laurens
Pages: 368
Published by Razorbill on July 28, 2020
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy & Magic
Source: eARC from Publisher

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets The Craft when modern witches must save teens stolen by an ancient demon in this YA fantasy-thriller debut.
Dan and Liss are witches. The Black Book granted them that power. Harnessing that power feels good, especially when everything in their lives makes them feel powerless.

During a spell gone wrong, Liss's boyfriend is snatched away by an evil entity and presumed dead. Dan and Liss's friendship dies that night, too. How can they practice magic after the darkness that they conjured?

Months later, Liss discovers that her boyfriend is alive, trapped underground in the grips of an ancient force. She must save him, and she needs Dan and the power of The Black Book to do so. Dan is quickly sucked back into Liss's orbit and pushes away her best friend, Alexa. But Alexa has some big secrets she's hiding and her own unique magical disaster to deal with.

When another teenager disappears, the girls know it's no coincidence. What greedy magic have they awakened? And what does it want with these teens it has stolen?
Set in the atmospheric wilds of California's northern coast, Sasha Laurens's thrilling debut novel is about the complications of friendship, how to take back power, and how to embrace the darkness that lives within us all.

A Wicked Magic is a young adult paranormal witch tale by Sasha Laurens. I love a good witchy story, and A Wicked Magic really hit the spot for me, but I will say right off the bat…this book is a lot darker than I expected it to be. I did not expect it to be a light and fluffy read since the summary says it’s a mixture of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and The Craft and it also makes mention of a character being taken by a demon and held captive, but even so it was a dark creepy tale. And I loved it for that! Just be in the right mindset when you are going in. There are potential trigger warnings in this story as well, so if you are triggered themes including self harm, abuse, depression and kidnapping this might not be a suitable read for you. Proceed accordingly. But if you are a in the mood for a dark witch story, I think A Wicked Magic is a great novel for you to pick up.

In A Wicked Magic, we meet our main characters Dan and Liss. Dan and Liss are witches who experience a spell gone wrong, where Liss’ boyfriend Johnny gets taken by an evil spirit. This puts a huge strain not only on Liss herself but also on their friendship. So when Liss finds out her boyfriend is being held captive, she sets out to rescue him. Learning about the dark magic in this story was one of the highlights for me. I am always fascinated by magic, and dark magic is just as interesting for me to explore in novels because there tend to be so many shades of grey and interesting lessons in morality with dark magic. The villains tend to also be more dynamic and interesting. In A wicked Magic there were certainly bad guys, and while we heard a lot about them, we didn’t get to actually see too much with them and interact with them as much as I was expecting. The characters were the star of the show here. Whether you loved them or hated them, they were all very well developed and they each had very interesting character development and thinking. I really liked getting to know more about each of the characters, and they all felt very distinct to me. This will be a big plus for character driven readers.

I enjoyed that author Sasha Laurens did some unexpected (and at times strange) things with this story. I never quite knew what to expect and where we were going to go next, which as a reader, I really enjoyed. At times, the book lost me a bit, but then something else would happen and I would find myself reeled back in. If you are a fan of dark atmospheric reads that are not scared of dark magic and have plenty of creepy evil elements, then A Wicked Magic is a book you will want to read. I was in the mood for a chilling read and this was certainly that and more. I think it would be great for fans of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and for character driven readers.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2020 New Release Challenge

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