Information:
- Author: Krystal Sutherland
- Genre: Paranormal, Horror, Thriller
- Page Count: 390
- Year Published: 2024
Read This if You Like:
- Contemporary Magical Settings
- The kind of witches who use rituals written in Latin and talk to demons and stuff
- Demons
- British Settings
- Strong Female Characters
- Shocking Twists
- Murder Mysteries (Sorta)
- Serial Killers
Spoiler-Free Summary:
Ever since the murder of her sister, Zara Jones won’t simply move on, and she’ll do anything to get her back- even resorting to study of the occult and necromancy to raise her from the grave. Jude Wolf, daughter of a billionaire, has been cursed ever since a deal with a demon went wrong, and has to spend every day dealing with constant pain and nightmares. Meanwhile, Emer Byrne is an orphaned girl who spends her days hiding out at Oxford, pretending to be a student, while also running a steady business of giving powerful invocations to women who desire magic and power. Jude and Zara are forced to work together when they meet each other at a crime scene and find a murdered girl- and a clue that leads them right to Emer’s location. While Emer may be the solution to Zara and Jude’s problems, there’s also a serial killer whose target is Emer’s clients- and the girls are going to have to work together to find the killer. But as more secrets emerge while Zara, Jude, and Emer continue on their journey, they find that finding the killer is a more dangerous task than they could’ve imagined.
Review/Opinions:
Alright, so I want to start by saying that every year, it feels like people are planning for Halloween earlier and earlier. It’s to the point that Bath and Body Works started selling their Halloween stuff in July. It’s honestly ridiculous, even if it’s just because people are super excited for Halloween. Anyway, if you are part of the early Halloween preparation crew, most likely one thing you will be doing is preparing your list of horror and thriller novels to read around Halloween to get into the spirit of the season. And I read The Invocations in August, yet I will say it’s a book that definitely has to be on your spooky season TBR. Part of it was because it felt like a YA contemporary equivalent of Even Though I Knew the End (An Adult focused Historical Fantasy novella that also follows a woman dabbling in occult magic who has to track down a serial killer), which was one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. But even if The Invocations didn’t remind me of that book, I still would’ve loved it the same amount, because it was one of the most thrilling and suspenseful YA horror books I’ve read in a while.
The best part of this book is the amount of twists and suspense. The prologue of this book immediately hooked me in- we don’t learn anything about the main characters until after that part, yet it was full of suspense and set up the vibe of the story well before delivering a shocking twist. Then, each of the first 3 chapters each focused on one of the 3 main characters, and perfectly set up their backstories and personalities. And the book only gets better from there, delivering many shocking revelations and engaging scenes all with relatively fast pacing, that leads to a somewhat chaotic but also really enjoyable and surprising climax. And also the magic elements in this book aren’t just a tiny magical realism element- there’s plenty of talk about the witchcraft used in the story, and it all plays greatly into the murder-mystery like elements. Plus, the amount of references to Latin words, mostly in magic spells, makes it a decent book if you have a niche interest in learning Latin. But, there’s also a lot of blood. I’m not exaggerating, pretty much all the magic in this book relies on blood, to the point of which characters need to sacrifice it to contact demons. It’s not described too in-depth, but there’s enough scenes that it somewhat breaks YA limits, so be warned.
This novel also wouldn’t work without the great main characters. Emer, Zara, and Jude are simply some of the strongest female YA characters I’ve read in a while and are really layered and developed. While the book follows all their POVs, it’s also 3rd person, which sometimes causes POVs to sound the same, but all 3 of the girls have really distinct voices and personalities that I never forgot whose POV we were looking at. There is a tiny bit of sapphic romance that blossoms between Jude and Emer, but it’s far from the main focus, instead focusing more on the 3 girls trying to find the serial killer before eventually developing a friendship, with occasional comments of Jude being attracted to Emer while Zara teases her about it. Also, all 3 of the girls are deeply sarcastic. Beautiful.
If there was one thing I would critique this book for, it would be the pop culture references. As this takes place in modern day England, there’s a bunch of one-liners about various real-life brands and events, including but not limited to a visit to a McDonald’s, low-rated books on GoodReads, Amazon Prime (which honestly led to the funniest line in the entire book), multiple luxury fashion labels, mainly Alexander McQueen (because Jude is the daughter of a billionaire and also because the 3 girls have to infiltrate a bunch of fancy rich-people places), and NFTs (which was simply… weird.) I understand the need for these references, as every book takes place in a certain time period, and besides, witches in contemporary settings are one of my favorite niche tropes, but because this book wasn’t about Disney Channel type witches and focused on the sophisticated kind of witches who make deals with demons and chant ancient rituals in Latin and stuff, the references somewhat broke the immersion.
Other than that, this book was one of the best YA horror books I’ve read, with many twists and turns as while as well-developed and unique characters. It may not be for everyone due to the horror elements, but if you enjoy darker YA books and witches, I highly recommend this book, especially if you’re planning to read some more horrifying novels for spooky season.
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