In my typical fashion, I did not originally realize this was book two of a series.

All that considered, it's a fun read with teen witchy vibes, coming into your identity and has strong LGTBAQIA representation. It was a slow-paced read for me, but had a lot going on. It's not going to scare the average reader, but will likely make you smile.

After picking up B*Witch a year and a half ago, I was excited to read the second instalment in the series, Witch Rising. For a pun’s sake, your expectations should rise from book 1. In Witch Rising, you can tell that the authors have spent a lot of time in this setting, with these characters, which makes you come to care about them as well.

Witch Rising picks up from where B*Witch left off. Once again, we travel back to the fictional Sorrow Point. True to the town’s name, life is becoming increasingly bleak for our witch main characters. Antima—a dangerous anti-magic organisation—are constantly gaining new followers, and, in uncanny resemblance with real-life politics of the time—a modern witch hunt has already begun.

Greta and Div’s once rival covens, keep working together to investigate Penelope’s death and improve life for all witches in any way they can during this hard time. Binx’s decision to switch covens complicated matters, of course, and so does the love triangle that begins to form.

Book 2 of the series is a clear improvement compared to the first instalment, with action and mysteries throughout, rather than mostly in the last few chapters. The pacing, which, at times, was an issue in B*Witch, is much better. Moreover, knowing who the characters are and what is at stake for them makes thing much more interesting.

The writing style of Witch Rising is simple, easy to follow, and binge-worthy; you can finish the book in a very short time, as the chapters are just a few pages long and the alternations in viewpoints work well, painting vivid and diverse portraits.

The one thing that could be improved style-wise is that the writing occasionally felt a bit redundant. For example, the names of the characters’ pets, and even the names of their wands and their gardens were given each time said things were mentioned. While it’s good to remind the reader of such things once in a while, to make the setting more vivid, I think that names only, or objects only could work better most of the time, to give a fuller impression of seeing through the eyes of the characters, who wouldn’t need to rationalise or explain to themselves. In that case, an appendix at the beginning or the end of the novel would be helpful, so that readers would still be able to check elements they forgot.

Characterisation in Witch Rising is solid and enjoyable to read. It’s really fun to get to know so many witches from different backgrounds, with different sexualities and gender identities, some of them neurodiverse as well. My one complaint was the Witch Rising felt a bit short compared to the previous book, leaving you wish you had spent a little more time with each character. Since Ridley and Iris were some of the characters Book 1 focused on the most, I would like to have seen a fuller character arcs from them, particularly in the case of Ridley. Binx, on the other hand, really grew in this one, as circumstances forced her to question her choices and achieve character growth.

Despite the rivalry between the two covens, it is really refreshing that none of the two is truly evil; just different. Div, Aysha and Mira proved to be more layered than initially suspected, though it would be nice to see the latter two a bit more developed, so that they could stand on their own as much as the other characters. An interesting backstory seems to be implied about Div, the most developed character from that coven (if you don’t count Binx who joined recently) and that too could definitely be expanded in possible future instalments.

The ending was magical (pun intended) and appropriately upbeat for a YA book that is meant to affirm diverse identities and living as one’s true self, empowering young readers. The final events leading to the resolution did seem a little rushed, as, until a certain point, you are bound to think a third instalment will be necessary to get any sort of conclusion. In that sense, things worked out a bit too easily, to reach the satisfying ending, but who doesn’t need a little magic in 2021? The last chapters, easy as they are, will leave readers feeling wholesome.

That being said, some of the final scenes also seem to imply that Book 3 is a very real possibility. While the main conflict of Witch Rising is adequately resolved, there’s a character that still remains a mystery, while the seeds of new secrets are planted in the last chapters, and some romantic subplots have potential to be expanded. It’s hard to know the authors’ intentions about the future of the series before Book 2 officially hits our shelves, but after so many second instalments ending in painful cliff hangers, it’s good to have a second instalment that stands on its own, whether the series is becoming a trilogy or not.

Witch Rising while not perfect, is a fun fantasy book about coming out of dark times, about found family and learning to live as yourself—whatever that self might be. If you love (mostly) girl gangs, witchy aesthetics, and high school settings, this series is definitely for you.