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Conjure Up Some Enchantment with These New Witchy Books
Readers just can't get enough witch stories in 2021. And what's not to love: It's not everybody who can attend shadowy academic societies, flout the fates, and brew a potion that'll give your hair added shine and bounce.
We've seen witches soaring to the top of just about every genre this year, from claustrophobic thrillers about Puritan paranoia to romances all about what happens when a hex goes pear-shaped. There's no denying their power—three big witch stories may be a trend, but 13's a coven.
Below, you'll find some prime examples of this bookish trend across genres. These are the bewitching books that have cast the biggest spell on Goodreads members in 2021, which we figured out based on the number of Want to Read shelvings.
We've seen witches soaring to the top of just about every genre this year, from claustrophobic thrillers about Puritan paranoia to romances all about what happens when a hex goes pear-shaped. There's no denying their power—three big witch stories may be a trend, but 13's a coven.
Below, you'll find some prime examples of this bookish trend across genres. These are the bewitching books that have cast the biggest spell on Goodreads members in 2021, which we figured out based on the number of Want to Read shelvings.
Historical fiction
In this tense historical thriller from the bestselling author of The Flight Attendant, Mary Deerfield's Puritan village is consumed by a terror of dark forces, but she has demons much closer to home—her brutal and well-connected husband, whose abuse has risen to a fever pitch. As she begins to find her way out of her marriage, her neighbors' suspicions grow that mishaps around town point to Mary being a malevolent witch. (Spooked Puritans have a flowchart for problem-solving that always ends with "Witches, probably.")
In this biting story of social power dynamics, the women of Manningtree have to contend with a wave of Puritanism spreading in 1643. When a black-clad stranger named Matthew Hopkins arrives in town to ask uncomfortable questions about what the women of the town have been occupying themselves with while the menfolk have all gone off to war, Rebecca West falls under suspicion of witchcraft, naturally. And she's had just about enough of men like Matthew Hopkins.
If you routinely brew anything more herbal than a cup of tea in 1618, you'd better make sure you don't make a lot of enemies, or it's an even bet you're going to be accused of witchcraft. When Katharina Kepler is accused of trying to poison an old woman using a bitter witch's brew, her famous mathematician son, Johannes, must do his best to clear her name and save her reputation, her livelihood, and her life.
Fantasy
Fathers-in-law can be a lot. In this bold mythological debut, Angrboda is a prophetic witch who, while recovering in exile after being set aflame by the Norse god Odin, falls in unlikely love with Loki, Odin's trickster godson. But they and the three children they raise together can't stay hidden from Odin forever, and when her clairvoyant power returns, she must decide whether she'll use her gift to create a new future or succumb to the fate she's already foreseen.
After 25 years, Alice Hoffman is giving fans the conclusion to the enormously successful Practical Magic series! Jet Owens has heard the call of the dreaded deathwatch beetle, and she knows her days are numbered. (Seven days, to be specific.) To break the curse that's followed the family for centuries, three generations of Owenses will have to travel the world to uncover the truth of the family's past—and the future of the ones they love.
Persephone May has always had a habit of manifesting the strange and the unusual, and she's been alone for most of her life because of it—better not to get too attached to people who'll send you packing after they witness something they can't explain. But when she gets invited to the mysterious Wile Isle, she discovers the family she's been searching for her whole life—and, of course, nothing is ever, ever that easy.
Young Adult
Katrell is a teenager making ends meet and supporting her unemployed mom the best way she knows how: offering her services as a medium who can communicate with the dead. Things get a lot messier when she realizes that not only can she communicate across the veil of death, she can raise the dead entirely and bring them back to life, a venture that's both lucrative and dangerous the more Katrell engages in it. Resurrection pays well, but is it worth the grave risks?
Teenage rites of passage aren't supposed to be easy, and for Voya, being tasked with sacrificing the life of her first love or risk her whole family's magic being stripped feels...a little excessive. But to complete the ritual, she'll have to fall in love for the first time, and when a matchmaking program pairs her up with the maddening Luc, she has her work cut out for her. Clock's ticking. Can she really fall in love with a guy like this, and if she does, will she be able to complete the ritual and fulfill her duty to her family?
After teenage Frances Hallowell inadvertently kills a man who attacks her, she's whisked away by mysterious nurses to a sanitarium. But Haxahaven Sanitarium turns out to be a different kind of institution entirely: It's a school for burgeoning witches to learn their craft and refine their skills. When she's approached in her dreams by a mysterious and handsome boy named Finn, who promises to teach her magic beyond what she's learning at Haxahaven, she must decide what the price of power is and what she's willing to pay for it.
In this climate change–influenced young adult tale, Clara, whose magic is tied into the Earth's atmosphere, is beginning to feel the effects of the ozone layer's collapse. As fires and storms batter the Earth, she has to focus all of her power to keep things together. And as if that weren't enough, the price of that magic is that she has a tendency to lose the ones she loves—which really complicates things as she begins to fall for her magic teacher, Sang. Modern witches deal with a lot.
There's no rivalry like witch rivalry. Iraya and Jazmyne are divided by the bitter divisions in their magic orders, and a truce between them would be unthinkable—that is, until they're faced with something deadlier than the bad blood between them. When Jazmyne's mother, the queen, makes plans to sacrifice her in order to consolidate her power, she can only turn to Iraya, who's been imprisoned by the queen all her life. Vengeance makes strange bedfellows.
Coming from a magical family doesn't make grieving any easier, and since Edie Mitchell's mom died, she's struggled to come to terms with the hole left in her life. But when she finds her mother's teenage journal, it sets her on a journey of discovery as she searches for items infused with her mother's memories, giving her a picture of the woman she was that Edie never could have seen otherwise. If she manages to find every talisman, will she be able to make peace with her mother's death, her powerful family's expectations, and her own future?
Wyatt Croft, a transgender witch, is in self-imposed exile from the fae-ruled kingdom of Asalin after things go down in flames with his betrothed, the fae prince Emyr. But when Emyr tracks him down on Earth with news that they risk losing the throne entirely if they don't go through with the marriage, leading to dire conditions for the witches of Asalin, Wyatt will have to confront his past and reconcile it with the man he is today.
Romance
Who would've thought that casting a hex on your ex-boyfriend (a small one—a small hex!) could have some screwy consequences? When Vivienne Jones cast a curse on her ex-boyfriend Rhys Penhallow a decade ago after having her heart broken, she thought it would just be a one-time thing—no harm, no foul. But when she returns to her hometown of Graves Glen, she realizes that the hex has created all manner of chaos for Rhys and the town itself. She'll have to work with Rhys to undo the curse while trying to ignore their growing attraction. Stupid sexy Rhys.
Emmy Harlow got her heart broken by charming jerk warlock Gareth Blackmoore years ago. And she's fine, and she's over it. But when she returns to town for a spellcasting tournament run by her family, she discovers that Gareth's been two-timing her best friend Linden along with Talia Avramov, a devilishly attractive practitioner of the dark arts. Of course, Emmy agrees to help the two settle the score with Gareth, but it would all be a lot easier to focus if Talia wasn't so...well, enchanting herself.
Family feuds can be tough on anyone, but Danica Waterhouse's family of witches takes it to a whole new level in their long-standing argument over whether to engage with "mundanes." When she meets Titus Winnaker, a handsome baker with bum luck in love, her world is turned upside-down as she falls for him and pours gasoline on the fire of her family conflict. For a mundane, Titus is pretty magical.
Horror
We've all been there: You and your partner have just broken up, you're starting over in a new town, and you're desperate for new friends. When Annie moves to a small, sleepy village from New York City, she becomes fast friends with Sophie, who's fascinating, confident, and everything Annie wants to become as she figures out what her life looks like now. But there's more to Sophie than meets the eye, and Annie begins to realize there's something...different about her. Something strange. She might be a witch, is what I'm saying.
A single mother and her three daughters move to a remote Scottish island. But the locals have warnings for the island's new occupants: There are wildings and other supernatural beings that wander the place. Then 22 years after two of the girls go missing, they return...yet one of them is exactly the same as when she vanished...still seven years old.
Which witch stories have you been reading in 2021? Let us know in the comments below!
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Check out more recent articles, including:
The Best-Loved Audiobooks Featuring Full Casts
A Reading List of New Books to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
Goodreads Members' Most Read Books (By Genre)
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Sep 24, 2021 01:53AM
An interesting selection of books to get us in the mood for Halloween.
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amazing selection. I want to read them all.
Hour of the Witch is amazing. Now I want to read the rest of them.
No books about warlocks?
The Near Witch by VE Scwab got me in the Halloween mood as well
Great list - although you must add the new title from Lizzie Fry, THE COVEN. It's superb.
What about A Lesson in Vengeance? Haven’t read it yet but I believe there’s witchiness involved
Funny, but I had been noticing a lot of witch books this year, and saw couple more on Netgalley coming out next year-year of the witch> I reviewed three of these for a review blog--Cackle is a good one, and so is the Orphan Witch, but interesting on the witch theme in the books out or coming out.
Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "No books about warlocks?"No one liked my thematic jab at the ubiquitous "are there any books by men" whine? Too obtuse? Probably too obtuse. Sigh.
Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "No books about warlocks?"No one liked my thematic jab at the ubiquitous "are there any books by men" whine? Too obtuse? Probably too obtuse. Sigh."
I'd love to read some books by men about warlocks. Unfortunately, most of the ones I've seen are litrpg and excuses for harems. Message me if you find something worthwhile.
Where’re Kim Harrison’s witchy tomes, the Hollow series beginning with Dead Witch Walking, HMMMM?
The Ex Hex is a fun romcom perfect for putting you in the Halloween spirit
It's from last year, but I just finished and LOVED Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas.
Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "No books about warlocks?"No one liked my thematic jab at the ubiquitous "are there any books by men" whine? Too obtuse? Probably too obtuse. Sigh."
Chris_Bohjalian is male
Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "No books about warlocks?"No one liked my thematic jab at the ubiquitous "are there any books by men" whine? Too obtuse? Probably too obtuse. Sigh."
I'm late but I get it and appreciate it! ;-)
