"Initiated" by Amanda Yates Garcia

This is a delightful read, a memoir that Amanda Yates Garcia eloquently tells about herself, her self discovery and journey that will make you look into your own self discovery as well. I read this book in one sitting as I enjoyed her writing style and ability to tell her story through magic and witchcraft. As the Oracle of LA she gives us this gift of her book to share with all of us. This is a fantastic read that I recommend to everyone.

This book caught my interest because of what it was about (witchcraft) and that it was compared to one of my favorite books, When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. As soon as I saw that I became desperate to read this book. And for half of this book it lived up to that hype. But once we became closer to the present day, the less the book was like that and became more frustrating. For starters, the author seemed to think that modern young witches did it for aesthetic purposes alone. That they didn't take it seriously. They were on the computer more and did sigils. As someone who practices sigil magic and someone who knows this generation of witches, it left a sour taste in my mouth simply because it's not true. If anything, with computers, it brought witchcraft to everyone instead of putting up walls, making it accessible to everyone, no matter where you live. It was insulting to read that.

The early part of the book did show all she had to overcome to become the person she is now. But she often ignored that side of her. When she finally decided to embrace being a witch she claimed to be THE witch of Los Angeles. Which honestly feels insulting to other witches already practicing and who had been practicing for some time. Then at the end it was suddenly a claim of feminism which seemed a little forced. As a feminist I know the idea the author was going for, but even I couldn't follow the links some times. She compared the kidnapping of Persephone to the patriarchy. Which has become an old idea. Most people have come to understand the translation was off. So to have that point pushed again and again, it just felt dated. A lot of the ideas near the end felt dated.

I truly wish I liked this book, but it simply rubbed me the wrong way again and again. There are far better feminist witch books out there that aren't dated. With people who actually understand what it's like to be a minority (being trans, a person of color, and so forth) where the author seemed to try at first but didn't fully understand it.

With Halloween on the horizon, witches are prevalent in decorations (like my framed Hocus Pocus song), memes, and spooky stories, but "Initiated: Memoir of a Witch" by Amanda Yates Garcia (releasing 10/22/19) is a story of "true" witchcraft--one woman's story of her lifelong practice of Wicca.⁠

Initiated may not fly off the general memoir shelf, but it will move in collections where metaphysical and pagan titles are popular. Crossover appeal to HS collections where the same topics have traction.

I really wanted to love this book. However, it just felt bland to me. I couldn't seem to get into this book like I wanted to. The author's writing style just seemed to drag on for me. However, maybe someone else will enjoy it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

I didn't feel like the author did a great job with what should have been a fascinating subject matter. It came across as a little scattered and uneven. I would have appreciated a little more background into witchcraft, I think it would have been more interesting and opened the book to a wider audience.

This wasn’t at all what I was expecting. It wasn’t my cup of tea; just a little too out there for someone without an extensive knowledge of the metaphysical or witchcraft.