These Witches Don’t Burn (Review)

Information:

• Author: Isabel Sterling
• Genre: Fantasy, contemporary
• Page Count: 324
• Year Published: 2019

Read This If You Like:

• Queer representation
• Witches
• Urban Fantasy
• Female MCs
• Toxic Exes
• Teen Drama
• Cliffhanger endings
• Books where the “detective” character is somewhat unreliable and the main characters have to do all the investigating themselves
• Starts of duologies

Spoiler-Free Summary:

Hannah is a witch- an actual Elemental witch with control over the elements. And if she’s caught using magic around Regs (basically a muggle or regular human), she could lose her magic for good. So Hannah just enjoys her normal life as a high school student and works at the local witch goods store, eye-rolling at what the Regs purchase. But when signs of black magic start emerging around Salem, Hannah is sure it’s the work of a malicious Blood Witch, but the rest of her coven and her parents don’t believe her. So Hannah has to find the witch by herself… even if it requires working with Veronica, another Elemental witch and Hannah’s ex who hurt her and hasn’t really apologized. And Hannah is also starting to fall in love with Morgan, the new Reg girl in town. But as the attacks grow larger and deadlier, Hannah will need to find the criminal before her coven, and her romance with Morgan, is destroyed.

Review/Opinions:

I found this to be a fun, if not perfect, take on magical witches in human-dominated towns. Most of the time, I felt like this was the exact vibe of a 2000s Disney Channel movie- it had a creative plot with a story that actually was pretty good, but it also had a lot of teen drama, including crushes and rivals (which I will discuss in this review) that severely overshadowed the magic and witchcraft that I wanted to see more of. That said, this book had a lot to offer.

The magic elements of this book, as well as the overall plot, was well-thought out despite how the standard high-school life scenes invaded some of it. Despite taking place in a normal town setting and not a magical fantasy world, a lot of thought was put into the idea of the modern witches of Salem. We got a lot of description on the spells and how magic is used, the structure of the Elemental coven, as well as the consequences of disobeying the Coven (and how hard it is to avoid doing that.) The main plot of finding out who was using black magic also had a good amount of twists and unexpected moments, and the final reveal was kind of shocking to me. I also was annoyed with the “detective” character- he proved to be unhelpful and ignorant to the protagonists. But I also liked this aspect too- it allowed the main characters to work on saving the day on their own instead of having someone handing them the clues at random points.

The romance subplot in this novel was also a good one. Hannah and Morgan had a really nice relationship dynamic, and it didn’t get to the point of a super bad breakup for them (although there was a moment or two of tension between them.) It was also fun to get to see moments of their dates for some happy parts, as this book could get a bit chaotic. Their relationship is a bit more of an insta-love one (Spoiler: they kiss for the first time on the same day they meet), which I know is a pet peeve of many readers, but it wasn’t excessive enough to feel like Hannah was obsessed with Morgan.

Of course, I can’t talk about the romantic subplot in this book without discussing Hannah’s former lover: Veronica. She ended up being one of the most unlikable characters that I’ve ever read about for so many reasons. Although we only get little snippets of what she was like during her and Hannah’s pre-book relationship, it was obvious that she was toxic and they wouldn’t have worked out as a couple. And despite being forced to work with Hannah due to the current threat in the world of witches, Veronica is still rude to Hannah at many different points. Also, Veronica makes no attempts to apologize to Hannah for the damage she caused (and still is making.) Although Hannah and Veronica find a slight bit of common ground by the end of the novel, it’s obvious Veronica has a lot more growth to go through. I did hear that Veronica is more toxic in the prequel novella, so I guess I can look forward to that.

One last thing I want to note about this novel is how it’s a YA book that actually has the main character’s parents get a good amount of page time. I feel like parents typically are ignored or at the least get a scene or two in YA in favor of the main characters, so it was refreshing to get a handful of scenes with Hannah’s parents (who are also witches!) and see their relationship with Hannah. And we also get the even rarer event of seeing the parent’s reaction to the larger events as the novel, as YA parents often tend to not have a part in these events.

Overall, this is a good choice for anyone looking for magical, urban fantasy reads. Despite some flaws in characters and events, it has a strong, witchy story with great romance.

This book is the start of a duology, the second book is This Coven Won’t Break. There is also a prequel novella, This Spell Can’t Last, which is an ebook-exclusive.