Author: Katie Schickel
Publisher: Forge
Year: 2015
Genre(s): (sub) urban fantasy, contemporary fantasy
Part of a Series: No
Rating:
Why I read it: Once Upon a Book Club
Summary: Alison Darling just wants to be like the other moms in her small New England town of Monrovia. She wants to wear nice clothing, go to yoga and drink lattes as she carts her perfect children around. Instead, she’s barely holding it together as she and her husband raise their three children – Gillian, Henry and Sophie.
When the mother who abandoned her as a child dies, Alison finds herself swept up in a strange world of witchcraft. At the same time, she is invited to join the Glamor Girls – Monrovia’s version of Mary Kay or Avon. She soon learns that all their beauty products are just potions and that they use magic to attain their perfect life. For the first time, Alison feels like she finally belongs.
However, Alison soon learns there is a price to pay for all of that and she wonders if it is worth it. Will she give in or will she find the strength to embrace her true heritage in time to protect her family and town from the Glamor Girls?
Review: I really loved this book and the reason I didn’t finish this one sooner really was chalked up to a lack of time than interest.
Schickel has created a wonderful little world, one where it’s easy to believe that witches exist. That yes, the Mary Kay espy could be a coven and their products are really potions. And that these potions bring them what appears to be the perfect life – loving marriages with active sex lives, well-behaved children, expensive wardrobes, and perfect bodies. I do wish the book had explored how artificial their lives were and how they weren’t truly happy. I feel Schickel could’ve dove in a bit more into that or at least have Alison really confront them with it.
Or better yet, if the book had had one more chapter where we really saw how Alison’s actions affected the other members of the coven and how everyone’s lives changed. Really see Alison embrace who she truly is and where her power lie.
Alison’s story is interspersed with chapters that detail how Freya became the way she did and develops the relationship between the sisters. While most chapters are in first person POV these chapters are in third person but the change didn’t feel too jarring. Schickel’s writing overcame that easily enough.
All her characters are distinct and feel like real people. I believe everyone knows someone like the women in Glamor Girls. And none of us would be really surprised to learn they were using magic to achieve their so-called perfect lives, I bet. It would make a lot of sense to us and make us feel better about our lives too.
There is also great tension in the story and not just from the bad witch plot. Schickel also packs tension from aspects we can all understand – a mother concerned about her son’s development as well as trying to help her daughter when things start to go upside down, a wife trying to strengthen her marriage, a friend who struggles when she doesn’t feel supported by another friend and then has to do something to hurt said friend to stay part of the “cool” crowd, etc. This is a story about witchcraft but also a study about human relationships as well as our relationship with ourselves.
Bottom line: A bewitching read that draws you into its world and characters.
Sex: Mentioned but no graphic depictions
Moonlight Musing
If you knew a product was magical and could change your life at least superficially, would you still use it?
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