The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Review

Book Summary: As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for....

Warning: may contain brief spoilers for the book, but mostly spoiler free.

As with a lot of the books I've read lately, this one here came to me through a TikTok recommendation. I will say that rec's from TikTok are very hit or miss. Mostly, if I'm being honest, misses. I'm convinced that a lot of the BookTok'ers that I follow are paid to like the books they recommend, because a lot of their recommendations are utter garbage.

But, that's not true of The Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. This is a very good book. We'll get that out of the way. I do have some qualms with it, but we'll get there in a bit.

One of the things I look for in every book I read is how quickly I get attached to the characters. I loved Mika right from the beginning of this book. She's quirky, has personality from the top of her head to her toes, and despite being the definition of sunshine, she's also flawed and broken like we all are. Mika knows of her flaws, but it doesn't stop her from living a life she thinks is all she can have. Watching as she's proven wrong is pure delight.

The found family trope is always a good one, especially when it's written well, and this one is definitely written well. We have the quirky grandparents, the moody (i.e. grumpy to Mika's sunshine) love interest, and three adorable little girls – including one that hates Mika's guts and threatens to murder her constantly. Add in a magical house that makes Mike feel safe for the first time ever, and you have a recipe for a lot of fun and almost instant character chemistry.

What I won't say about this book is that it's light on tropes. This is the pure definition of grumpy-sunshine when it comes to the romance. I don't mind that, even if I felt like at times the grumpy in this one was overplayed to make the MMC even more grumpy.

The Plot

I won't spoil the plot for you. What you need from the summary should get you where you need to go. What I will say, however, is that the "danger" in this book, the thing that brings all these characters together, makes absolutely no sense at the beginning of the book. The rationale for the residents of Nowhere House (the main setting of the book) to bring Mika in, is paper thin, and will make you scratch your head, wondering why what's going to happen is so dangerous. Even more, the obvious solution to the entire "danger" is to just take the kids to the beach for the day of the "danger," and be done with it.

But.

But, the twist at the end makes it make much more sense. And I didn't see it coming until about 3 pages before it happened, despite it being very well foreshadowed. That's a sign of an excellent plot, if you ask me. And there was a secondary twist, that was equally well foreshadowed, that again, I didn't see coming.

The Characters

As I said, I loved Mika. I also liked the MMC and the family that surrounds him and later Mika.

But I adored the children, who are really the main drivers behind the plot – even if they don't get as much 'screen time' as I'd like. Terracotta, who is like 8 years old, is by far my favorite. She absolutely hates the idea of Mika coming into her home and ruining their perfect life, and she is not afraid of letting everyone, including Mika, know about it. The homicide threats are both terrifying and hilarious. And, as you might expect, when it all comes to a head, it makes everything warm and fuzzy.

The way Mandanna ties everything together and drives the plot forward with slow and steady character progression, is very well done. You can feel the love that each character has for each other, and you can tell that even though there is betrayal and angst, that all the decisions made are made out of love and desperation. Even before the twists that make the "danger" make sense, you still know that these characters were brought together for the best of reasons.

Of course, there is angst and betrayal at the end. You knew it would happen, and it did. The author isn't at all shy about reminding the reader that there are big secrets being kept from Mika. Because we get POVs from characters besides Mika, we know for a fact that secrets are being kept. We just don't know what they are until the end. So, the betrayal and the angst that results aren't surprising, but they are well done. You still feel it when the secrets are revealed, which is exactly what you want.

I will say that the angst is cleared up quite fast. Because of the timing of the betrayals, Mika really does forgive really fast. Add in the romance that is culminated right at this point, too, and I could see where others might consider this quite rushed. I still liked it all, however, so it didn't detract from the story.

The Woke

I like diversity and inclusion in my books. I really do. If I could have a sassy Latino in all my novels, I'd be a happy camper. There's nothing better than adding that type of thing to the story. It makes it real and enjoyable.

What I don't like is when it shoves it in your face and then goes into horrible man-hating rhetoric. While not a big part of Society, there are a few spots in this book that, as a man, made me uncomfortable. And not in the "that's a truth which makes me, a man, uncomfortable," but in the "wow, she took that too far" uncomfortable way. Just little things, like talking about how the reason why all witches need to hide in the world is because of men. Things like making the villain a conglomeration of all the negative aspects of a white man. It's fine, but felt like a political statement instead of a well integrated part of the plot. This felt even more true until the end, where at least the villain starts to make more sense.

LGBTQ+ is also well represented in the book, and I like that. If you do notice, however, that everyone outside the FMC and MMC are gay, then I wasn't alone. Again, it felt less like the author was writing to be realistic and more that she wanted to stand up and shout, "look how inclusive I am." Given that I'm pretty sure Mandanna is of Indian descent, I'm not sure that she really needed to make that point as hard as she did.

None of this really detracted from the book. The quirky grandparents in this one were about as gay as you can get, and I adored Ian and Ken. They're adorable, and I want a spin off. I'd read about Ian's flamingo pink beehive any day of the week.

The Magic

Before I finish, I should talk about the magic. Unlike the previous book I read, The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic, this book actually had witches who used magic, which is great. Magic didn't play a huge role in the plot, but it was there, and it was satisfying enough that it added some spice to the overall story.

While I wouldn't say that the magic and world building in this one were overly well done, I can say that I enjoyed what little there was. Mandanna did a great job of making the magic fit into the regular world, gave fairly good reasons why it was secret (even if the reason was because 'men'), and they included enough about magic that you can use your imagination to fill in a lot of the details that weren't included.

Conclusions

I loved this book. I'd read more from this author. The few things I felt were forced or a little rushed did not take away from my enjoyment at all. The best part, well the best parts I guess, were the instant attachment I had to every character in this book and the awesome way the twists came about. Well foreshadowed twists that I didn't see coming is just about as good as it gets because it allows you to think back and say "wow, I really should have seen that coming." And, that I didn't see them coming, just goes to show how good this book really is.

If you like bits of magic in a found family trope, this book is for you. It's warm and fluffy, and just, really, really good.

4 Stars.