Season of the Witch

I grew up on Sabrina The Teenage Witch. My cat is named Salem. We all want a Harvey. But no, I haven’t gotten into the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (or Riverdale). I was a bit scared away by how DARK it was supposed to be, but when I saw this book was coming out I thought hey, I like books, I’ll give it a try. And while this book is definitely not the stuff I normally read, but I kind of liked it. I listened to the audiobook which had two different narrator and while there’s no Salem, this book did make me a little bit interested in watching the show.

Sabrina’s a few months away from turning sixteen and having her Dark Baptism, where she’ll go from quirky half-mortal witch to full-fledged witch serving Satan. She lives in Greendale with her two aunts, Hilda (who for some reason has a British accent) and Zelda (who’s so mean in this one) and her cousin Ambrose who is sentenced to never leave the house. No pets, sadly. But Sabrina’s dealing with a lot leading up to that Dark Baptism-like her friend turned maybe boyfriend mortal Harvey Kinkle, a mean trio of witches who go to the Academy of Unseen Arts, and a spirit hanging out by a wishing well who promises to make all her dreams come true. What’s a teen witch to do? Cast a couple love spells, head to the fair, and traipse through the forest, obviously.

So even though my only background on Sabrina is the light-hearted comedy with Melissa Joan Hart, I didn’t hate this book or feel too out of the loop. Sure, I’m like where the heck is Salem, and why is Hilda British now, but it slid into the usual book form for me pretty quickly. There are two main plot: Sabrina’s chapters and “What Happens in the Dark” where we take on the perspective of another character–Hilda, Ambrose, Sabrina’s friends, Tommy’s brother, the local witch leader, etc.  It’s an interesting way to tell the story and I like getting the “dark” side of things, plus having a different narrator was a cool technique!

Overall, this book is interesting. If you like the show, I think you’ll really like this book but even a newbie like me was intrigued.