The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke tells the story of Sideways, described in the publisher's synopsis as an outcast teenage lesbian witch who finds her coven hidden amongst the popular girls in her school, and performs some seriously badass magic in the process.
Sideways Pike has always been on the outside of things at her local school, until the night she is hired by three of the most popular girls at her school to perform some magic at a Halloween party , and things go much further than she ever planned. It turns out that the girls are hiding some magic of their own, and soon the four begin to form an unlikely, but ferocious friendship where they have each other's backs and will protect each other from threats ranging from sleazy dudebros to modern day witch hunters.
This book has lots of queer rep , and it is an integral part of the story. The characters are well developed and I loved their banter and how they interacted with each other. I think it is a great portrayal of female friendship in all its complexity, and how important and difficult to form those relationships can be. The writing style I think will be divisive, I loved it, and I think the author has a wonderful way with words, but I think some readers may find it overly convoluted. The pacing of the story can feel quite slow at times but it does pick up as it moves towards the end, and I have to warn prospective readers that this book is not neatly wrapped up, instead you will be left impatiently waiting for the next book to see where the story is headed next. This was actually the one thing that frustrated me about the book, the whole thing felt more like a (very) long set up to a bigger story, one that we only see glimpses of in this book. That being said, I am definitely intrigued to see where this story is going next, I enjoy the company of the coven and love the magic system that the author has introduced. This is a series opener with a lot of potential.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I savored this novel like I haven't done in a long while. While the pacing could've used some improvement, I absolutely fell in love with the characters, dark vibes, and story. An original and very grounded look at teenage witches and casual queerness.

Overall, I really enjoyed this! I wish that this had been something accessible to me as a teenage reader. Younger me would have found a lot of solace in this! Who wouldn't want to form super close bonds with a group of girls and just be freaking witches together and start a coven? What the heck? YES!

This was so <b>cool.</b> Dark, witchy and super gay - I adored it.

The most special part of this book for me was the characters. They were all rough around the edges and at first, I feared that they were all just going to be stereotypes or tropes, but the author did a great job of diversifying them from each other and adding layers to them. I love that their friendships felt real. The way they interact with one another is reminiscent of how I would interact with some of my own friends, and I loved that. Despite the characters all being rough around the edges, they ultimately would do anything to help each other and are extremely loyal. I adore the found family trope, so this was wonderful to see, especially in a group of teenage girls.

Also, give me a book about books and I'm a super happy camper. I loved that the magic in this book gave the actual spell books themselves personalities and entities. I have to say, I wanted more out of the magic system, and I wanted to learn more about it, but I'm going to assume that this will be explored further in the rest of the series.

I did struggle with getting into the pacing and the writing style at times, especially in the beginning, but it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment.

In the end, this first book did it's job and got me very interested in reading further installments! I'm excited to see what happens to these cheeky girls.

this book honestly had me at teenage lesbian witch and i loved it so much!!! the friendship!!! the magic!!! the atmosphere!!! everything is just so good!!

let me start of by talking about the friendship because it's one of my favorite things about this book!! is there something anything better than a friendship beginning with a hexing of douchebag who hurt one of them??? I THINK NOT. they also would do anything for each other??? their friendship gets so strong so fast and IM HERE FOR IT. there was this part at a party when all of them dressed up as girls from a horror movie with the hoods the color of their magic and it was so powerful i love it so much

the magic itself is nothing special just sigils and incantations but i loved every scene when they practiced a spell or made a hex or the ones at the party!!! i just love how sideways, our mc talks about it and how she feels so connected with it and it's soo good!!! the magic books are so INTERESTING they literally feel and see and can communicate with the reader and they're just SO sassy i love it!

there's also this creature called Mr.Scratch AND HE'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE EVER HE DESERVES THE WORLD

the writing takes a bit to get used to but once you do YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO STOP!! the story just pulls you in and suddenly it's over and you don't know what to do with your life because you need the sequel RIGHT NOW!!

THE SCAPEGRACERS is the witchy contemporary fantasy of fall 2020! It’s got an utterly raw, authentic teenage voice that just rips you to the bone, and a cast of fantastic, prickly, utterly real teen girls. Clarke has created an incredible world with visceral magic system, and a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat till the very last page—and leaves you desperately wanting more. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next installment, and I know that Sideways Pike will be haunting my brain for a long time to come.

Wow.
Wow.
WOW.

I just finished this book mere minutes ago and I'm feeling all the feels.

I read most of the book in one go and I wish there was more. It can't end so suddenly no, no.

I understand that it's a trilogy (yay!) so this book was really a set up for the following two. That's okay, but I still wish a little more happened (a lot happened but you know what I mean). HOW WILL I SURVIVE TILL BOOK 2 HUH?

Let's get into it.
Sideways (what a cool name, if I was from an English speaking country I totally would've chosen a name like that for myself too, just saying, it's brilliant) is a lesbian witch plagued by loads of insecurities about herself and the friendship she formes with former mean girls - turned coven sisters, Jing, Daisy and Yates. Her dads own an antiquity store and they're absolutely adorable together (even though they don't show up that much, hopefully we'll see more of them in later books).

I loved the friendship, the spellcasting and even the witch hunters. I found it hard to dislike anyone except you-know-who (name starts with the letter M) and that rarely happens so A+.

In some scenes I did get the feeling that Sideways was trying a tad bit too hard to be cool when it wasn't needed, it's not a huge annoyance though.

Certain moments made me laugh and perhaps I'll fish them out another day and edit them into my review so I don't forget.

Honourable mention: the summers in Montenegro line. Made me think back to my own summers there as a kid.

Honourable mention #2: Mr Scratch. I love him. He's the best. More of him please. Loads more.

*Huge thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Witches, sisterhood but not enough plot to make it interesting.

Okay, that might sound harsh, but I felt like nothing really happened in this book, except for the last 4 chapters or so. And that's not to say nothing actually happens. A lot happens, I just don't know why it happens, and that to me is the biggest failing of this book. So many things and events are introduced and I expect they will be dealt with in later books (I believe it will be a trilogy), but if there isn't some form of immediate pay off in book one, it really feels as if you're wasting your time. It's a very long set up for a sequel.

Things I liked:
- The magic: it seems electric and full of power and potential
- Some of the descriptions are quite beautiful and it's very easy to picture the scenes
- The first part with deers and kidnapping. Great suspense and a thrilling mystery. If the whole book had keep it up like that, it could haven been great.

Things I wasn't keen on:
- The lack of plot. I frequently found myself thinking 'where is this going?' and 'but why?', and that shouldn't happen to a level it does here.
- Whorled. Do you ever notice a word and then it just keeps popping up? (That's probably just me, and I think I was just annoyed)
- I didn't connect with any of the characters, I kept forgetting who was who and what they looked like. To me, they were indistinguishable, maybe apart from Jing and Sideways.

Sadly not the empowering and suspenseful read I had hoped for, but I see a lot of great reviews, so if you're into witches give it a go, just be prepared for the first volume in a trilogy and not a standalone book.

ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting and a quick escapist read.

An intriguing plot with somewhat dull character development, yet all together a decent story that's fun!

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

Honestly, once I'd read the blurb and saw "As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider" I was incredibly excited about this story. The relationships, despite having magical connotations, are so realistic and relatable. The author shows the truth and complexity in regard to human adolescent friendships.

A fun story about a teen lesbian outcast befriending The popular girls and learning to do witchcraft. This was really great read love all the friendships and the mystery they all stumbled onto. I can’t wait for the sequel.

I guess my point is that teenage girls aren’t supposed to be powerful, you know? Everybody hates teenage girls. They hate our bodies and hate us if we want to change them. They hate the things we’re supposed to like but hate it when we like other things even more, because that means we’re ruining their things. We’re somehow this great corrupting influence, even though we’ve barely got legal agency of our own.’
Okay, before we get into this review, can we talk about that stunner of a cover for a second? The intricate design, the color gradient? I want this tattooed on my body no matter if I’m part of a coven or not because it is gorgeous!
Now onto the book which felt like a culmination of grandiose 90s Halloween movies and witchy shenanigans with a sprinkle of girl power. There’s an intricate magic system that involves specters, grimoires and devils who used to be books and I think the first book set it up with room to grow and explore in the following books. There are plot twists and mean boys and unexpected knights in shining armor and that will definitely enamor a lot of people.
For me though, my favorite part of The Scapegracers, aside from the spooky vibes and magic tricks that were as enchanting as they were anxiety-inducing, was the depiction of complex female friendships.
I admit, at the beginning of the book I didn’t like any of the characters, not even Sideways. But in hindsight, I wonder if this was intentional – because with every chapter, we get to know more about the girls, about why they are so abrasive and brash and as we gain insight into what made them they way they are, we learn to fall in love with all of them. Yates is by far the steadfast of the friends, but somehow, combined with Jing’s infallible sarcasm and Daisy’s ferocious snarls, they make up the perfect coven for Sideways. They rarely see eye to eye on anything and I loved their back and forths that eventually ended in compromising. These girls have a lot of bark and they will bite if you dare to touch any of them. There’s unwavering loyalty between the four of them and it was refreshing to see such a strong friend group that isn’t nice and proper but loud and volatile and still the most supportive it can be – even if not in the ways you expect support to be expressed. It’s the type of friendship rarely represented in books and for that, it was all the more intriguing.
Beyond that, the cast of characters is also wonderfully diverse – there are nonbinary and PoC- main and side-characters. Sideways is lesbian, several of her newfound friends identify as bi and queer and side characters such as Sideways’ dads are queer as well. And while there was some hint of romance, it wasn’t the driving force in this narrative but gave some proper hints at developments in the future installments of the series.
While we’re on the topic of queer characters, Sideways’ dads were definitely something else – I loved the glimpses we got at their relationship and how they care for Sideways’ in such different but equally supportive ways. Whether it’s the soft and kind energy of making pancakes in the morning or the protective decision to let your child skip school, they were just absolute parent goals even if Sideways is sometimes embarrassed by them. I hope they make a few appearances in the sequels as well!
Lastly, this story is written quite peculiarly and it’s certainly not for everyone. The descriptions are very intricate and unhurried, which reminded me a lot of V.E. Schwab’s atmospheric writing and you can tell that Clarke takes their time to set the scene and overall mood. And while I concede that it was a very fitting style of narration for this witchy story, I also felt that it took the tension and immediacy out of some of the more action-heavy moments in the book. When Sideways and her coven are hiding and doing their best not to be spotted, for example, the urgency of getting out without being caught was somewhat lost because the descriptions of every detail actively slow down the entire scene. Likewise, during one of their magic tricks in the earlier chapters, it was hard to feel the excitement everyone else seemed to have because the lengthy narration took away from the spontaneity and surprise of it all. This happened a few times and impacted the pacing of the story to the point where I thought that it dragged, especially in those scenes where it was about getting further with the plot or revealing a twist. Like I said, the writing style is a fitting choice for this kind of story but it might not be for everyone. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the atmospheric descriptions and the attention to detail for most of it.
Perfectly in time for the spooky season, The Scapegracers chronicles ferocious friendships, magnificent magic tricks and ominous plot twists that will make fans of girl power and witches fighting back very happy!

A+ for the witchy vibes and queer representation. I found myself really rooting for Sideways. Also, getting revenge on boys who hurt girls is always a win for me. I went into this not knowing it was a series. That being said, the pacing was off to me. There would be tons of action and then get super slow. The end of the book picked up but there weren’t enough pages to finish the story. I will pick up the sequel to this as I am invested in the characters and want to see what happens. Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for honest review.

The Scapegracers is a story about an unpopular teenage girl called Sideways who is exploring her magic and starts a coven with some of the popular girls from her school. The first third of the book was very slow for me and then it really picked up only to drop off again a short time later. One problem I had was that none of the plot points really finish, she just moves on to something else. More than once I found myself wondering what happened, how did it happen, or what the meaning of something was. I found the main characters to be superficial and pretty awful people. They tried so hard to be the cool ones that it was annoying. The writing is different, which may take some getting used to for some people. It had potential but fell a bit flat for me. However, I am curious to see where the story goes and may check out the sequel since this book left pretty much all the plot questions unanswered.

I'm a total fan of this book. An LGBTQ books, a witchy theme, plus a perfect combination of characters. Perfect for fans of The Fascinators. I love the vibes and characters. This is a total lovely witchy lgbtq book!

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

“The Scapegracers” is a young adult fantasy novel centered around a witch who goes by the name Sideways, who befriends and starts a coven with a few of the popular girls at her school.

Sideways is a bit of an outcast and doesn’t have many friends until she attends a party and meets three popular girls named Daisy, Yates, and Jing, who learn that she’s a witch, become intrigued, and befriend her. The four of them form a coven together, and a lot of this story’s plot is centered around what they learn and do together.

I thought the plot of this story was really interesting and it made this book stand out compared to some of the other books I’ve read in this genre. In addition, I liked how quite a few of the characters brought a lot of LGBTQ+ representation to the book. Overall, I thought this was a pretty good story, and fans of YA and/or fantasy books should check it out.

This is a DELIGHT! Queer, mean witches bonding together into a found family and being badasses. It's great!

Thank you to Erewhon Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Queer high school coven? Sign me all the way up. The Scapegracers, by Hannah Abigail Clarke, includes all the trappings of something fantastic. Although I desperately wanted to love it, ultimately it fell flat, with some awkward writing and bad pacing overpowering the fun premise.

The book starts with a bang, with Sideways Pike, our angsty queer teenager witch protagonist, doing some awesome magic that even she is impressed by. After a relatively dramatic beginning, the pacing falters and the book turns into, I’m sorry to say, something of a slog. Time and again, Clarke sets up some dramatic piece of action, only to follow it up by the most mundane, slow moving scenes imaginable. More than once, I found myself skimming through the more soporific bits of the novel, including plot expositions literally laid out in pages from a history book, until I was suddenly jolted back into the action. It is enough to give a reader whiplash.

If the pacing of the plot is sometimes tedious and often erratic, that awkwardness is reflected in the prose itself. Clarke slams from scene to scene with no transitions, a style that could feel deliberate if she did it consistently, but instead, like with so much else in this book, falls short. Clarke has a tendency to repeat turns of phrase too often, which adds to the feeling of tedium, as well as leading to characters that all sound (and act) the same.

There are good bones though, under the glacial pacing and sometimes clunky writing. This book is strongly feminist at its core. The magic is evocative and there is some excellently developed atmosphere. It cries out for a film adaptation — visuals instead of clunky prose, some actors to flesh out the slightly two-dimensional characters, and the time constraint of a two hour movie would all serve the story well.

In book TWs: dead animals, kidnapping, queerphobia (use of the F word), and a non-sexual scene that plays out similarly to sexual assault that could potentially be triggering (reminiscent of that scene in the first Maleficent movie)

I'm not gonna lie, originally, the cover of The Scapegracers is why I was interested in it. It's absolutely gorgeous, with it's intricate design and pale bi pride flag colors. When I read the description I was intrigued though, if not a bit hesitant because of the mean girl trope, which I was delighted to find completely subverted (which they now mention in the description). As shallow as it sounds, the cover is why I read it, but OMG that is NOT why I ended up rating it five stars, the cover is just the cherry on top of this book. Also, if you loved Silas from Sorcery of Thorns, you might really love this.

The Scapegracers follows Sideways, a teenage lesbian witch, who as you can imagine, isn't all the popular at school. She ends up getting hired by the popular girls at school to perform a spell at one of their Halloween parties (delightfully, Halloween is a big deal in their town), and after a series of events occurs at it, they become a coven of friends. It's got a contemporary setting, but I really liked how the magic was incorporated into it, and how everyone just sort of accepted it as real instead of questioning or mocking it. It was a fun twist on the world we live in.

This book is amazing. I loved every character in it (except for the antagonists), but I especially loved the focus on female friendship. Earlier this year I had read Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin, and fell in love with the vicious, wicked coven of girls in it. I wanted every book I read to have a friend group like that, and thought it would take forever for me to find another one that could compare. I was wrong. A few months later and I now have another all time favorite friend group: Sideways, Jing, Yates and Daisy. Each one of them is uniquely charming and beautiful, with unrepentant layers of rage and destruction for anyone who gets in their way. I adored how much they cared about each other, all four girls (especially the softest, Yates) showed each other physical and verbal affection, though it may have come across as harsh honesty at times.

I really liked how unapologetically queer this book was. Almost every prominent character in it was queer, and it was hinted at that another one might be. Sideways has two dads, she's a lesbian, she's got a (presumably) bi or pan love interest, Jing is bisexual, Yates is a questioning queer and Daisy is hinted at not being straight. There's also a pretty cool gay man (not naming names because of minor plot spoilers), a scene at a gay bar and the whole thing is just such a wonderfully queer space.

Magic wise, I thought that it was a pretty cool take on witches and covens. The Scapegracers might have been in a contemporary setting, but magic was thoroughly incorporated into it's world. I liked how Sideways's dads' business fit into things too. The best part of the magical aspects was by far the side character that appears about midway through the book. I love him dearly, and he reminded me of Silas from Sorcery of Thorns, both in personality and how his related magic fit into the coven's world. A large part of the magical (and creepy) aspects of the book shone through Clarke's gorgeous prose. They used such vivid and dark imagery to convey the setting, and overall had a really unique take on how to incorporate sensory feelings into the story. In fact, he was so good at it, that most of the time I could actually almost feel what she had written, as if it was happening to me.

The Scapegracers is delightfully wicked, with dark and moody prose blossoming across the pages as a backdrop for wild and vicious girls. It's the perfect Halloween book, if you're looking for something witchy, feminist and a tad creepy, look no further! Once you start, you won't be able to put it down, and it'll leave you wishing for book two when you're done.

For fans of inclusive horror and thriller titles, like Wilder Girls by Rory Powers, The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta, or Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand. The story is character-driven, and packs a lot of creepy atmosphere into a story about discovering your tribe and forming bonds. I think this could be a book that would appeal to fans of fantasy and realistic fiction both, while the magic (and horror) is definitely real, it is balanced by the relationship and friendship drama, and both aspects work together to keep readers wondering if Sideways Pike has found real friendship, and if her magic will help her, or cause her to lose it all.