Witches and an evil curse? Sign. Me. Up.
I was so excited to finally get the chance to read this book, and I was not disappointed at all! I found it easy to be an easy, quick read because I couldn’t stop reading!
Penny lives on an island off the shore of Sparrow, a town cursed by three sister witches for over 200 years. Each summer the sisters take possession of three girls and spend the summer drowning boys in the water surrounding the town. As society tends to do, people get weirdly obsessed with this tragic event that takes place every summer. One of the new visitors is Bo, a teenager who randomly ended up in the town because it was the end of the bus line. He and Penny meet at the annual drinking-on-the-beach-waiting-for-the-witches-to-arrive party. Penny ends up bringing Bo back to her island to give him a place to sleep. So begins Penny’s summer of trying to protect this boy she’s falling for from being carried out to sea by a witch.
It was so weird to me that people travel to this town to celebrate and await the opportunity to be possessed by one of the witches, or to watch while poor boys and men are drowned. The town hosts festivals and seems to thrive on the attention. I guess it’s the ultimate form of rubbernecking. 🤷
This was a story that went in so many different directions that I wasn’t expecting. Penny and Bo both harbor secrets that they are not ready to share with the other, so there is a lot of avoiding and tiptoeing around things. Some secrets are kept from the reader, while others we know about.
The story jumps back and forth between the perspective of Penny and of Bo, which helps us to see some of their secrets. There is also a view of what happened to the three sisters where we learn about how the town murdered them by drowning them as well as a little about their personal lives.
There is a romance that builds between Penny and Bo. I wasn’t super connected to it, but I think it was necessary for the story to really pull together, so I didn’t hate it. It felt a little fast for me, and I think they just needed a little more time to really connect. However, it’s not a deterrent from reading this book at all!
Overall, I absolutely loved reading this story. I was invested in the story of the three sisters as well as the story of Penny and Bo. I highly recommend this one!
To Read or Not To Read:
If you enjoy witches, magic, YA, and curses,