Recently, after having finished reading Magic Lessons (October 6, 2020) by Alice Hoffman, I sat down to start drafting this post, part of which is a list of other books I have read by Hoffman as well as books about witches. I discovered in listing them, that I have read MANY books featuring witches, which means that many books about witches are out there in the world, which made me ask "Why?" To answer this, I am starting with myself. Why do I like to read books about witches enough to seek them out regularly?
1. Many of these books include the history of witch hunts in both the US and around the world
2. For the same reason I read fantasy books in general - the possibility of magic and the supernatural being real leads to exciting day dreams (I have my three wishes all ready to go should I ever encounter a being that would like to grant them.)
3. Maybe it is a cliche, but powerful women are of interest to me.
The first Hoffman novel I read was Practical Magic. While it was published in 1995, I did not read it until last year and I only did that because a second book had been released and I thought I should read this one first. And though I should have known better, I had seen the movie, and don't often read a book AFTER I have seen the movie, but of course it was far better than the movie, which I liked. This was the first novel Hoffman wrote about the Owens women, but it is not the first chronologically. Magic Lessons takes place first and tells the story of the beginning of the Owens family starting with Maria who is found abandoned in the woods by Hannah Owens who is herself a witch who can "see" that Maria is as well. The Rules of Magic, published in 2017 is a direct prequel to Practical Magic and features Frances and Jet who are aunts to Gillian and Sally.
While those are three of the most recent witch books I have read, I have also read a surprising number of others that I liked:
The All Souls Series
- A Discovery of Witches (2011)
- Shadow of Night (2012)
- The Book of Life (2014)
- Time's Convert (2018)
There's just something about witches and vampires that is irresistible entertainment.The first book has been made into a television series and I have heard they are making two more seasons that will correspond to the second and third books.
If you want your witch books to be hilarious, you can't miss with the Tiffany Aching novels by Terry Pratchett. I have read other books by Pratchett, but when I found out he had a young witch character i zoomed through them.
- The Wee Free Men – 2003
- A Hat Full of Sky – 2004
- Wintersmith – 2006
- I Shall Wear Midnight – 2010
- The Shepherd's Crown – 2015
One I read back when it was first published, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009) by Katherine Howe, has a companion novel, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs that I have had in my TBR since it was published a year ago.
There are others on my TBR I am looking forward to. I am on a witch roll.
- The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (October 13, 2020). The Ten Thousand Doors of January by the same author was one of my recent reads.
- The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan - This one is witches and historical fiction that takes place in Gilded Age New York and London.
In case you are looking for a different format, I have read two witchy graphic novels in the past few months as well:
- The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner
- The Witch Boy and The Hidden Witch by Molly Knox Ostertag
Why are books about magic and witches in particular so popular? What are your favorites?
