It all began when I finished reading The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (4 stars). I went down a Goodreads rabbit hole of searching for more stand-alone magical-realism books. My search wasn’t the most successful but I did find a handful of promising titles; one of them being Spells for Forgetting. The premise sounded so interesting that I had to check it out. After a period of waiting at the library, I finally got my hands on it and following a few stressful weeks and a heavy load of romance-only bingeing, I welcomed a chance of pace and atmosphere.
Rating
Overall Review
If I had to describe this book in 3 words, it would be: moody, magical, and mysterious. Did I alliterate on purpose? Maybe. The mystery of this book isn’t anything groundbreaking and the twists are in no way mindblowing but somehow that’s the beauty of the story. It’s a humble story about a weird overlooked island and the mystical lives of its inhabitants. The mystery itself was adequate and well balanced with the romance and overall melancholy. It was everything I wanted from a book like this.
What I Liked
The Atmosphere: This read like a movie. And ordinarily this would not necessarily be a good thing in a book review but I honestly think it worked perfectly for this book. From the first page, you are sucked into the eery island of Soirse and through the entire story, that uncertain chilliness remains. I loved it.
The Writing: Before this book, I’ve never read anything by Adrienne Young but I very much plan to now. From the pacing to the world-building, to the magic, it was all done really well. She did a great job of drawing me in and keeping my attention while she built up this island of Soirse, its past, and its residents. I never felt a moment of info-dump and despite the amount of character POVs and the constant bouncing timeline, it never felt like there was too much going on.
What I Didn’t Like
I’ll be honest with you, there isn’t much I didn’t like about this book. I guess if there was, I wouldn’t be rating it 5 stars, would I? One area of improvement I will mention is…nope, I’m sorry but I’ve got nothing. And as someone who has an opinion about everything, this is unusual for me. But I just really enjoyed my time with this book and looking back, I don’t think there is anything really that I would change. And honestly, I think I’m okay with that.
Read With Me
It’s like live-tweeting while reading, but in a blog. [spoiler free]
- Page 1 Jan 12, 2023. 8:20 amIt’s been an extremely stressful couple of weeks for me (and will continue to be so in coming weeks). The only reason I’ve paused my romance comfort-reading binge is because this became available at the library. If it doesn’t hit in the slightest, my finger is not far from the dnf button
- Page 63 Jan 13, 2023. 6:44 amI don’t know how to explain it but this reads like a movie
- Page 84 Jan 14, 2023. 11:37 amIt just hit me that if Jake and Eloise ever got together, Emery and August would have been step cousins. How awkward. Maybe that’s why nothing ever happened there?
- Page 187 Jan 14, 2023. 2:23 pmI wish I had more of my usual snarky commentary but that’s just how sucked into this book I am
- Page 320 Jan 14, 2023. 4:48 pm“There was no way around it. I’d chosen August over him. And I’d do it again” Damn, that’s cold. But also, like fair?
- Page 327 Jan 14, 2023. 5:07 pmYoooo, I’ve seen most of the twists coming but not this one. That was well done
- Last Page Jan 14, 2023. 5:43 pmWelp, that was better than I was expecting
Have you read Spells for Forgetting? What did you think? And if you haven’t, do you think you might give it a chance?
Haliyah 