e-Audio, 11:00:44
Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker & Kristin James
Release Date: July 23, 2024
Published by: Hachette Audio (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Read from: August 5-6, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
Content Warning: Death, Toxic Relationship, Alcohol, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual Assault, Blood
For Readers Interested In: 2slgbtq+, Audio, Horror, Most Anticipated, Witches, Feminist, YAIf boys will be boys, girls will fight back.
For high school senior Nell and her friends, a vacation house on a private Florida island sounds like the makings of a dream spring break. But Nell brings secrets with her—secrets that fuse with the island’s tragic history, trapping them all with a curse that surrounds the island in a toxic, vengeful mist and the surrounding waters with an unseen, devouring beast.
Getting out alive means risking her friendships, her sanity, and even her own life. In order to save herself and her friends, Nell will have to face memories she’d rather leave behind, reveal the horrific truth behind the encounter that changed her life one year ago, and face the shadow that’s haunted her since childhood.
Easier said than done.
But when Nell’s friends reveal that they each brought secrets of their own, a solution even more dangerous than the curse begins to take shape.
Perfect for fans of Courtney Summers and Rory Power and reading like a YA feminist spin on Stephen King’s The Mist, So Witches We Became is a diverse, queer horror about female friendship, the emotional aftermath of surviving assault, and how to find power in the shadows of your past.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I’m not gonna lie, I had some doubts when I started this, but once it got going, I just couldn’t stop reading. It was definitely a slow burn, but it hooked me once I got to the meat of the story.
So this one starts with some teens that go to an island to celebrate spring break. Things seem to be going fine….. Until some uninvited people come to the island. All of a sudden a mist like figure thing shows up and traps all of them on the island. It was thick enough to be a sludge and to leave a film on everything. And that was just gross lol I didn’t understand what they meant when they compared it to The Mist, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense once you read it.
The characters were what made this story. At first I was annoyed because I thought they were a little boring. But the more it got into the story, the more I saw why it was written this way. Each of them had a special part in this story. And unfortunately, everyone had a terrible beginning to this story, that started way before their time on the island. The way the anger was roiling through my veins when I was listening to this!!! Ugh I can’t even explain how I felt when I was reading this. I don’t want to say too much, but everyone played a part in this story. Some of them were just not good.
This did a number on me tho, I can’t lie. After just living through Hurricane Beryl, it was a bit hard to read this. BUT if I had the power to do the things they did, I wouldn’t be as mad. They kicked ass! And let me just say, I don’t feel sorry at all for that ending. They deserved all of that and more. I don’t think y’all will understand until you read this, so please do. I need someone to talk about this to.
Lastly, the horror part of this took a minute to get to. I thought the Mist itself was creepy, but it was just like a heavy presence. So when I realized that that wasn’t the creepy part, I was a little annoyed. It didn’t seem like anything else was going to be creepy. But Lordt, that water around the island? Yeahhhhh, that caught me off guard. That was the part that made me sit up and keep going. I hope that it gets y’all to pay attention too.
This book was a feminist, queer horror story for the ages! I can truthfully say because I didn’t read the synopsis, it worked in my favor this time. I went into this not knowing anything at all and I got a story about surviving assault and the power of your friendships.
Overall, I give this
