Or better yet, Bad Witch Burning to me reads like a story less about witches and magic, but rather an emotionally-charged novel that carefully and thoughtfully weighs and explores the choices of our morally-grey and flawed protagonist, Katrell, the implications of her choices, and what happens when the path forward is obstructed by, well, Katrell herself. While the story does indeed have magic and a witch, I would better describe this story as more of a dark contemporary with witchy and magical elements. The synopsis of this story makes it sound like it’s an action-packed, heavily supernatural or fantastical story filled to the brim with magic, witches, and witchcraft. But, the more Katrell summons, the more she risks, and soon Katrell will be faced with a choice: turn away from her magic and live a life of poverty, or confront the darkness she has set in motion. One day, when Katrell accidentally raises someone from the dead, she realises that she can make a lot more money, thus offering her a chance for a new life. She sells her services to clients with lost loved ones, but it isn’t quite enough to keep the power on or pay the rent. The story follows a Black witch named Katrell who possesses the power to summon the ghosts of the dead. Bad Witch Burning may be the kind of story that pulls you right in and never lets you go, but it is also, unexpectedly emotionally-charged, heart-wrenching, and utterly devastating story that I loved. If you were living in poverty living with the constant anxiety of housing insecurity and you discovered that you not only could raise the dead but could sell your services for several thousand to bring someone’s loved one back, would you do it? This is a question that is asked again and again in Bad Witch Burning, Jessica Lewis’s dark and phenomenal debut. Katrell faces a choice: resign herself to poverty, or confront the darkness before it’s too late.

The further she goes, the more she risks the lives of not only herself, but those she loves. And, warning or not, she has no intention of letting this lucrative new business go.īut magic doesn’t come for free, and soon dark forces are closing in on Katrell.

However, when her next summoning accidentally raises someone from the dead, Katrell realizes that a live body is worth a lot more than a dead apparition. What do ghosts know about eating peanut butter for dinner? Things get worse, when a ghost warns her to stop the summonings or she’ll “burn everything down.” Katrell is willing to call them on their bluff, though. Clients pay her to talk to their deceased loved ones, but it isn’t enough to support her unemployed mother and Mom’s deadbeat boyfriend-of-the-week. Katrell doesn’t mind talking to the dead she just wishes it made more money.

Bad witch burning jessica lewis