Review: These Witches Don't Burn

 


I did not expect this to be so good. So often queer YA set in the real (ish) world either wants to pretend that queerness is totally normal and accepted and causes no problems, beats the reader over the head with how traumatic it is, or falls into this weird space of making really unsubtle points about how queerness is hard but also cool and sort of reads like it’s written for someone who wants to feel like they’re super in touch with the queer youth. This book was none of those. It did an absolutely amazing job of weaving queerness into the plot in subtle but crucial ways, and it doesn’t shove aside the challenges of being a queer teenager for the sake of focusing on the plot, but the homophobia wasn’t overwhelming and it never felt preachy. It just felt really refreshingly honest. 

And that balancing act applied to the other elements of the story as well: the chaos and drama of teenage relationships melted smoothly into the witchy whodunnit mystery, as the main character Hannah worked to track down someone using blood magic in her town, keep her toxic ex at bay, and flirt with the cute new ballerina (who might be more involved than Hannah realizes). I do wish that there had been a more satisfying resolution with Veronica, the ex, because oh my goodness that girl could not admit that she was in the wrong and she was DEFINITELY in the wrong. But perhaps that will happen in the sequel, which I definitely want to read. Overall, a really fun, emotional YA read.



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