[9/10] Backwoods Witchcraft by Jake Richards ⬇

[Review goes here]

[10/10] Brainscan #33: DIY Witchery by Alex Wrekk ⬇

My gold standard of all witch books I have read, and it's in a 60-ish page zine.

[8/10] Conjuring the Commonplace by Cory Thomas Hutcheson & Laine Fuller ⬇

REVIEW

[7/10] Consorting with Spirits by Jason Miller ⬇

So, I hate this guy. I want to throw a drink in his face. His whole personality leaps off the page, and it is rancid. Also chapter 2 definitively opens with a story about Dave Chappelle's Netflix comedy special and how it's an example of people being just too sensitive. I truly fucking hate this man.

And goddammit, I like his book. Now, he does spend a lot of time insisting that this should not be your first witchcraft book, and I would agree with that, but not for the same reasons. He talks about his book like it's super advanced stuff, but it's really not. It certainly does not cover basic witchcraft, but it is pretty basic spirit work. There is a quote in chapter 7 that says "If every book has to contain every possible preliminary and protection, then there will never be room for the substance of the book itself." I love that, and I wish more books were allowed to cover one specialized topic without rehashing the basics.

One criticism that I have heard from others is that if you do not follow Hekate or St. Cyprian, there will be nothing in this book for you. I disagree with this, but I see where it's coming from. He gives multiple examples of what it would look like for you to customize a ritual to fit the entities that you work with, and he always does this by designing a ritual for the entities he works with. He is not great about reminding you of this and it's easy to lose track of.

All in all, it is a good basic spirit work book with good advice. And if you see Jason Miller, please slap him for me.

[9/10] The Crooked Path by Kelden ⬇

REVIEW

[??/10] The Dabbler's Guide to Witchcraft by Fire Lyte ⬇

I am obligated to be grouchy about this one, because I have it on good authority that the author (Don Martin, who seems to have dropped the pen name Fire Lyte) stole a bunch of stuff uncredited from Tumblr. I can't give it a good rating because of that. However, I also can't give it a *bad* rating, because it was (unfortunately) a great book. It is well written, kept my attention, well-researched (and well-credited as long as it's a source deemed 'worthy' of citation...). I do take issue with the title and the use of the word 'dabbler' throughout the book. The original Dabbler's Week was designed for someone who was not certain if they wanted to practice witchcraft but wanted to try it out. Don's book is written for a beginner who is already committed to practicing. So for a beginner, this book outlines many of the less-often-discussed-in-books stuff about witchcraft spaces, and in a wonderful way that explains why not just what. Cultural appropriation is bad -- and here are real world examples of how it harms people. Yes, you can make up your own spells -- but here's why you shouldn't ingest herbs just because a dubiously researched book told you to. Yes you can buy fancy tools, but spending money is not a substitute for skill. This book is an excellent primer on how to navigate witchy spaces, not just witchcraft, and it's an excellent one to have on your bookshelf. But I won't tell anyone if you download a PDF, because Don sure doesn't have a problem with stealing.

[/10] Hex Twisting by Diana Rajchel ⬇

REVIEW

[3/10] The House Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock ⬇

This was not the right book to read immediately after finishing Queering Your Craft, and I am not its target audience. The House Witch is for a spiritual-but-not-religious cis-woman who is the spiritual-head-of-the-household, spends her days housekeeping and cleaning, and teaches her 2.5 children to say their prayers to the abstract Divine every night before turning on their essential oil humidifier for bedtime. That's... not me.

I would have been far more interested to read this book if it was more of a personal memoir. There are plenty of moments where the author is seemingly bursting at the seams to tell the reader about her own personal practice, but is confined either by herself or her publisher to keep all the information general and vague. There is a ridiculous amount of page filler in this book, nonsense fluff that serves no purpose other than bulking up the page count. I could not get a grasp on how this book was organized, with projects and spells seemingly coming out of nowhere in unrelated chapters, rather than in the chapters that are actually about those topics.

In the end, there were at least some nuggets of information that I was able to latch onto and learn from or that prompted ideas about improving my own craft, but they were so few and far between.

[/10] How to Study Magic by Sarah Lyons ⬇

REVIEW

[/10] The Little Book of Curses and Maledictions for Everyday Use by Dawn Rae Downton ⬇

REVIEW

[6/10] Queering Your Craft by Cassandra Snow ⬇

Queering Your Craft is better at Queer than it is at Craft, but it's still one that you should read. There are a few red flags in this book, such as a lot more gender-binary stuff than I would have expected from this author, not to mention their insistence that Easter was stolen from the so-called ancient Pagan holiday "Eostre", which is just straight-up not true, and we need to stop passing that story around.

The spells in this book are fine. The paradigm is alright. The author mostly works with elements and astrological charts, which isn't my thing, but was at least interesting to read about.

I do, however, appreciate the queer lens that the author brings to witchcraft. While I didn't get a lot of good witchy information from the book, I was very glad to have read it. It changed how I saw every book that I read after this one, and I am better for it. Overall, I'm very glad to have read it, I am very glad that it exists, I hope that many more books follow along in Queering Your Craft's footsteps, and I hope that they improve on it.

[6/10] Rebel Witch by Kelly-Ann Maddox ⬇

+1 to its score for a new witch, -1 to its score if you know what you're doing. Rebel Witch starts off excellent, with the author giving the reader permission to break the perceived rules of witchcraft and have the freedom to experiment and find what works for you. It's very good advice to give, but the problem is that that's all there is. There are no spells, no in-depth instructions, nothing to help someone new start practicing, and nothing new for an advanced witch to consider.

That being said, it IS a book that I would give to a brand new witch. For the newbie, my advice would be this: Get a notebook and pen, and be sure to do the homework at the end of the chapters. Fully read Parts 1 and 3, but skim through the repetitive Part 2 and only stop to read what is interesting. Don't let this book be your only source of information; find a practicing witch who can answer questions. Treat Rebel Witch not like an instruction manual, but like a travel pamphlet, and you'll be fine.

[/10] Spellcrafting by Arin Murphy-Hiscock ⬇

REVIEW

[6/10] Weave the Liminal by Laura Tempest Zakroff ⬇

It wasn't until the last five or so pages of this book that I figured out why I wasn't vibing with it: the author is coming from a perspective of Witches As Otherworldly Creatures, and I come from a perspective of Witches Are Just People. Her many examples of witches being naturally good listeners, or better at empathy than others, or that other people will naturally gravitate toward a witch because of the magnetism of that power didn't sit right with me in a way that would take longer than a blurb to explain. But while I often found myself disagreeing with her conclusions, reading Weave the Liminal did give me plenty of things to think about, and a lot of opportunity to come to my own conclusion about things I otherwise wouldn't have come up with on my own. I told the witch guild that it felt like having a very intelligent discussion with someone that you fundamentally disagree with. I am better for having read this book, even if I don't necessarily endorse all that was in it. [More in-depth review on my blog]

[7/10] Witch in Darkness by Kelly-Ann Maddox ⬇

Witch in Darkness was a nice step up from the previous Rebel Witch. It was allowed to be more specific in its scope, and I think it's better for it. I also, unfortunately, found myself in the target audience for this one while I read it. There were definitely tears. Again, like Rebel Witch, you'll get the most out of it if you do the homework at the end of the chapters. This time, it comes with tarot spreads in addition to the journaling prompts, which was nice. I didn't get to try all of them, but I found it to be a nice inclusion. This book is also less fluffy than Rebel Witch was, though it still maintains a little bit of that tone, it does not feel patronizing this time around. In between her first book and this one, Kelly-Ann lost her brother, so she is not coming to the reader from a comfortable place on her armchair; she is going through it as well.

[/10] Witchcraft Activism by David Salisbury ⬇

REVIEW

[5/10] Witchery: Embrace the Witch Within by Juliet Diaz ⬇

Didn't hate it. Didn't love it. I wouldn't give it to a new witch, but an advanced witch would find nothing revolutionary in here. It sits in a weird valley of law-of-attraction and Wicca-with-the-label-torn-off that just doesn't do it for me. At one point, the author says to use a full fluid ounce of essential oils for a spell?? She does not mention dilution? HELLO? That is so much essential oil??? NO THANK YOU?! Just overall weird vibes from this book. And I don't appreciate being told that I am "making love to the universe" whether I know it or not.