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For fans of Lovecraft Country and Candyman comes a witchy story full of Black girl magic as one girl's dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.
Katrell can talk to the dead. And she wishes it made more money. She's been able to support her unemployed mother—and Mom's deadbeat-boyfriend-of-the-week—so far, but it isn't enough. Money's still tight, and to complicate things, Katrell has started to draw attention. Not from this world—from beyond. And it comes with a warning: STOP or there will be consequences.
Katrell is willing to call the ghosts on their bluff; she has no choice. What do ghosts know of having sleep for dinner? But when her next summoning accidentally raises someone from the dead, Katrell realizes that a live body is worth a lot more than a dead apparition. And, warning or not, she has no intention of letting this lucrative new business go.
Only magic isn't free, and dark forces are coming to collect. Now Katrell faces a choice: resign herself to poverty, or confront the darkness before it's too late.
"As intense emotions leap from the page in every vibrantly depicted scene, Lewis's YA debut portrays both Katrell's hopeless love for her manipulative mother and her fear of abject poverty with stinging realism. Katrell and former foster child Will are two kind, passionate, stubborn Black teens who want only the best for each other after having endured the worst. Their wonderful connection anchors this chillingly supernatural tale, easily breathing life into its world full of ghosts." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Full of wonderful Black girl magic...a necessary read."—Booklist, starred review
"There are pacing challenges toward the end as the narrative stalls due to some repetition, but the character development is outstanding...A gripping, supernatural twist on the no-win decisions created by the cycle of poverty." - Kirkus Reviews
"Bad Witch Burning is a masterpiece of emotion. Such a beautiful, nuanced and powerful book." - Namina Forna, New York Timesbestselling author of The Gilded Ones
"Heart-rending and chilling, Bad Witch Burning is a dark and daring portrait of a Black girl taking back her power. Truly, Black Girl Magic at its finest." - J.Elle, NYT bestselling author of Wings Of Ebony
"The world is always telling Black girls that if we play with fire, we're bound to get burned. Katrell came out here and said 'We ARE the fire.'" - Brittney Morris, bestselling author of Slay and The Cost of Knowing
This information about Bad Witch Burning was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jessica Lewis is a Black author and receptionist. She has a degree in English Literature and Animal Science (obviously, the veterinarian plan did not work out). Her debut novel is Bad Witch Burning.
My Darling Boy by John Dufresne
The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.
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