We've been swamped with doctor appointments and some deep post-holiday cleaning and organizing, and this book, The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland, is now overdue at the library. Eeep! I'll be returning it this Friday, so I decided I'd better get started yesterday... and ended up finishing it around midnight last night.
I read for maybe 3 hours in the morning, another hour in the car after bringing Paul lunch, and then another 3-4 hours at bedtime. It was only around 400 pages, but I had expected to spread it out over the next few days. The story just sucked me in. Hard. Definitely 5 stars!
While this one is categorized as YA, and the 3 main characters are all 17, it is very dark and gritty, with lots of violence and trauma. There are witches and demons and a serial killer murder mystery, mostly set in London, with a peppering of Oxford and Irish countryside. There's also some mild romance, a bit of humor and poetic whimsy, and an excellent twist ending.
The overall vibe of the story reminded me of Kory M. Shrum's Blade Born. And also her Shadows in the Water series. And Holly Black's Modern Faerie Tales. And now I think I need to hunt down Sutherland's other books and possibly carve a little space out on the permanent shelf for her.
2026's reading list is off to a good start! What's your first book the year?
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