Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, this review is independant.

VenCo is a new take on the "getting the band back together" trope (which is one of my favorites!) with a splash of mystery and some great representation of women's power. We follow Lucky St. James and her tag-along grandmother Stella, across magical North America on a quest designed to complete the Salem coven and trigger the rise of a feminine power. The characters are nicely realized, and Dimaline provides them with richness and intersectionality to give diversity without a "collect them all" feel. I enjoyed the book overall, and was swept up in the story.

It reminded me strongly of NK Jemisin's The City We Became, with some elements of Gaiman's American Gods. Bringing in elements of history and adventure, we see many of our characters as avatars of a new or other world. This has some of the same drawbacks of, particularly, The City We Became, where some parts of the action slow to really drive a particular point home, with varying degrees of subtlety. I would recommend this book for those who enjoyed The City, American Gods and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

enco is the latest novel from Métis author Cherie Dimaline, known in large part for her award winning YA novel The Marrow Thieves and who also has written adult contemporary fantasy with her book Empire of Wild. Dimaline's works have dealt heavily with the indigenous communities of North America (not just Métis peoples) as they deal with life in the modern world...or oppression in near future ones, and are often harsh and brutal. But that harshness and brutality is to good extent, and her books tackle strong themes effectively and leave you with lasting impressions, especially as to the injustices that are very real around us. I imagined VenCo, a novel advertised as witches fighting against the patriarchy, would similarly hit upon such themes, and with some of the advertised blurbs mentoining it as being full of "adventure" and "funny", I was eager to give my advance copy at try.

Those blurbs turned out to be a bit misleading, as while there are humorous points, VenCo is a serious and often dark book featuring a Métis woman and her grandmother discovering a potential coven of witches and going on a chase for a final seventh wish - and a magical spoon - which could help them somehow dismantle a patriarchy that keeps women and people who don't fit into male stereotypes down. The book has a notably dark antagonist (see below trigger warning) that kind of keep it from ever being funny, but its lead characters are very charming and easy to enjoy and the plot largely works as it does hit upon its main themes. The book also avoids the way too common binary dichotomy of men vs women and makes clear that gender isn't a binary, and that the patriarchy keeps down trans, NB, and other individuals as well, with such characters considered possible parts of the coven as well, which I appreciated. That said, the setting felt very incomplete and the triggering material almost overshadowed this book at times, and didn't quite always feel necessary, which made it hard for me to really love VenCo.

TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual Assault/Rape, in an unconventional sense at least. The antagonist in this book is like the personification of the oppression of Patriarchal Societies, and he has magical powers that include mind-influencing and terrifying, such that even if he never explicitly on page rapes anyone (although he sort of tries at one point), he more or less arouses involuntary sexual responses from those who get in his way (and not in a "he's hot way", but like a "forces a male character to think about women and masterbate type of way" - I may not be describing this right, but I have no interest in going back and rereading that sequence) It's rough to read, and while it fits the themes...it might be a bit much. Also this novel includes homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and more of that ilk.


---------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
Lucky St. James wishes life could be as simple as it seemed sometimes growing up, when she lived with her Métis mother, who scrounged Toronto for scraps for them to live on and enjoy during her childhood....before her mother died young. Now, Lucky lives with her loving but fading grandmother Stella, and is barely holding on - with an eviction notice just having come to their apartment. There seems little hope...until Lucky finds a metal spoon with the word SALEM and an image of a witch embossed on it in a long hidden tunnel in their building.

The spoon brings Lucky to the attention of VenCo, and specifically a group of five other women who have found similar spoons marking them as one of seven witches in a coven - a coven that together will have the power to break the Patriarchy and restore Women - whether they be cis, trans, or whatever - to their rightful place in society. But a prophecy suggests that Lucky will have to be the one to find the seventh and final witch and her own Spoon, and that they only have days to do it...or else the Coven will be lost forever.

Soon Lucky will find herself and her grandmother traveling through the United States and meeting other women involved in VenCo and Witchery as she attempts to find the last Spoon and Witch before time runs out. But Lucky is not the only one searching, and a powerful immortal witch hunting male, with monstrous powers of his own, is hot on her tail and if he catches her, it could spell the end for Lucky, Stella, and the chances for women everywhere....
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VenCo is the story of a world that is basically our own world - one where the patriarchy has set up systems that oppress women, non-binary peoples, and really anyone who doesn't fit into the stereotypical form of cis men. It's a story about women taking an instance of oppression as part of that patriarchy, a major symbolic one in the Salem Witch Trials, and forming it into their own symbol of resistance in the Salem spoons, and of them using their own witchcraft to slowly find a way to change theh world. And we see this in what little we see of VenCo, led by its trio of Mother, Maiden, and Crone, and in the coven Lucky and Stella wind up joining.

But largely, VenCo is an adventure story of Lucky and Stella on the road trying to find a MacGuffin, the seventh spoon and the witch it belongs to, before the patriarchy's representative, in the monstrous man Jay Christos, can stop her. And that adventure is well done thanks to Lucky and Stella's characters. Lucky is our main protagonist and it's super easy to care for her, given how understandable her position is: a girl who once had a childhood that was at times tough but at times filled with wonder due to the scrappiness of her barely getting by (and kinda homeless) mother who scavenged for things to enjoy, and who taught Lucky how to survive in this world, but now is a young adult herself on the verge of falling apart: she and her grandmother about to be evicted, the boy she is attracted to she can't quite spit it out to (and then he reacts poorly), and her own hope of a writing career seemingly has no chance of any success leading to her taking temp jobs that aren't quite good enough. Her grandmother Stella is warm, but losing her memory and Lucky finds herself burdened by this but unwilling to leave her behind, and so when VenCo comes calling with the possibilities of something better, she jumps....except that jump leads her on an adventure where she has no idea what she's doing and is always on the lookout for potential danger, even when she isn't quite aware of the evil chasing her. And Lucky is kind of original in her problem solving and in how she winds up dealing with the main antagonist in the end, which I really appreciated.

At the same time, VenCo struggles due to a number of factors. First, despite the book's plot summary and implications, the book never explains what VenCo does or how its people are organized, so they just sort of are there, even with the main coven's members all being women its easy to like and care about from brief backstory flashbacks. The book led me to believe we'd be dealing with an organization of women witches, but it's more like an outline of something that the book never quite fills in, making it kind of hard to care...especially when there's little payoff to the frequent interludes with the Mother, Maiden, and Crone. Secondly, and perhaps more o a problem for me, was the main antagonist, whose use of mind controlling magic, sexual mind controlling magic at that, is dark as hell and honestly is kind of a bit much...even if he never quite gets to literal rape on page, what he does is almost the equivalent, and I don't really think that was necessary, even if the final showdown works.

Basically, VenCo feels like a book whose setting and setup was incomplete and kind of skipped, and the antagonist's rape-happy-esque ways make it hard to read the skeleton of what remains, even if the lead protagonists are enjoyable. The result is a book whose themes are well taken and done okay, but isn't really one I'd be super happy to recommend.

✨ Review ✨ VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

I've been trying to review this for a week but just can't figure out where to start. So instead I'm going to quote Kelsi from goodreads who pitched...

"Have you ever wanted to read a book reminiscent of The Golden Girls, but it’s a witchy scavenger hunt around the country for magical spoons?"

SOLD.

Lucky St. James (Métis millennial) is fighting to keep her and her grandma Stella from getting evicted from the Toronto apartment when she finds a mysterious spoon, and they end up taking off and meeting up with Venco (COVEN) in Salem, MA. She sets off on a quest with the group of witches to try to complete their coven before time runs out. Chased by Jay Christos, an immortal witch-hunter, who's hot on their trail, they must find the remaining witches and spoons ASAP. They meet up with a series of witches across the US from rural villages to New Orleans in what was truly a fabulously thrilling quest.

The characters were just so lovable, and they lean into the characters diverse identities (single mother, trans, black, indigenous, queer, etc. etc.). I loved the group of witches they put before us.

Is this a series? No idea, but I sure hope so.

This book was an absolute delight.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: witchy fantasy / magical realism
Location: Toronto, Salem, New Orleans, and many places off the beaten path
Reminds me of: The Change but witchier
Pub Date: out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ diverse witchy stories
⭕️ badass multigenerational women
⭕️ cross-country quests

Thanks to William Morrow and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

The book turned out to be entirely different from what I expected from the blurb. I'm not saying it was a disappointment, just that the intro did not prepare me well for the book.

PROS:

- The relationship between all the women and the attention to detail about each women's life and struggle is done fantastically. Their pasts and journeys leading them to the witching world are well etched out.

- I especially enjoyed Lucky's relationship with both her mother and grandmother. Both Arnya and Stella are unforgettable, witty characters. I loved the focus on women from both the paternal and maternal sides of Lucky's family. Usually, feminist books tend to ignore the paternal side of the family and lay way more emphasis on the maternal family lines. I like how the author did not stick to this usual trope.

- The book has done an amazing job of showing a wide variety of representations, which include diverse characters from various races and gender identities. It also achieves the rare feat of paying homage to cultural traditions, e.g., Indigenous beliefs.

- Lucky is a character I can't help but root for, hoping she succeeds. I also can't help but appreciate how less of a whiny character she is. Despite all the problems and unknown factors, Lucky is thrust into, she still strives and triumphs.

- I loved how the final setting is in New Orleans. I just visited this place a month ago, and I can appreciate how if there is one city in the US that will be a fantastic backdrop for all this magic, it would be NOLA.


CONS:

- The flaw with VenCo is that it is hard to pinpoint the genre of the book. It's neither scary nor magical. It's neither thrilling nor emotional. It just dabbles in everything without much of a focus on anything, leaving the reader craving for something more.

- Also, 'VenCo' - the witty play with the word coven- drew me to this story. So, I was expecting a more corporate-style, well-oiled network of witches working together in the shadows of the modern world. But since that didn't happen and the powers/duties of the oracle were barely explored, I was disappointed. However, I hope there will be more of this in the next book.

- Jay Christos as an antagonist, fell flat. The fear of him and his reputation was well set up. But when it came to actions, he was not very successful. More than Jay himself, the idea of Jay sounded more appealing and threatening.

Really wanted to like this one but it was very slow to start and then rushed at the end. Some might like it but it just wasn’t for me. Thank you to NetGalley for chance to read and review this book.

What an awesome book! This is unlike anything I’ve read before. I connected to the characters & couldn’t predict where the story would go next.

VENCO

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5/5)

Summary: Lucky St. James is a Métis woman living in East Toronto with her aging grandmother Stella, who has lapses in memory and occasionally wanders off. They are about to face eviction from their crappy apartment when Lucky finds an antique spoon in the laundry room that leads her to a fledgling coven in Salem, MA, backed by a shadow mega-corporation of powerful witches called VenCo. Lucky and Stella have to go on a road trip to find the final member of the coven before the prophesied deadline passes and before the ancient male witch hunters (called Benandanti) find them.

My thoughts: This was a fun, witchy romp with a diverse cast of characters (including a witch who wasn’t discovered until she finally comes out as trans!), a healthy dose of “fuck the patriarchy,” and a main character with the right mix of strength, intelligence, and vulnerability to make her a realistic heroine. You do get a little background into all of the characters from their POV, but I really hope there are more books (either sequels or companion novels) to expand the worldbuilding and better explain the Benandanti (where do their powers come from? How long have they existed?). The characters are all quirky, magical, and insanely likable, particularly Stella, she is a HOOT, but this ultimately fell just short of 5 stars for me because I need more from this universe.

VenCo came out on 2/7 and is available now basically everywhere! Thanks to @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for the eARC. I am not being paid for this review, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lucky St. James lives with her Grandma, Stella, in Toronto in an apartment from which they will soon be evicted. A similar flat in the same or nearby neighborhood is much more than she can afford on her wages as a temp, and her Grandma, afflicted with memory loss, increasingly needs full-time assistance.

Lucky despairs over her future when she feel a compulsive need to dig through the basement wall of her complex. In a tunnel said to be used as an escape route for a patient when the neighboring building was a psychiatric institution. Among the debris, she finds an ancient silver spoon with a caricature of a witch along with the word SALEM.

Unbeknownst to her, this spoon is a summons to a coven, a coven that must reach completion within days by finding its final, seventh member. With the help of VenCo, a massive organization to recruit women and place them in positions of power, Lucky finds her coven, but she and Stella must go on a road trip to find the woman with the final spoon. Not only do they have to move quickly, before the deadline, they are being tracked by a witch-hunter determined to eradicate witches and their power for good.

Lucky is headstrong and determined, but Stella is irreverent and hilarious, and their road trip, while high stakes, also is riotously fun. The other coven members are equally interesting and provide ethnic and generational counterpoints to Lucky and Stella, and the stories of how they met their spoons are really powerful.

Lucky uses both the knowledge she gains from her coven, but she also relies on the Métis traditions taught to her by her late mother, making the book a celebration of women and indigenous knowledge. I haven’t completely unpacked this, but the number seven appears multiple times, not just in terms of the number of coven members.

On top of all the rich thematic content, the pacing is perfect. Not only is there a ticking clock, there’s also a chase, and both raised my blood pressure while reading the book. The coven does not win every battle, and there are some distressing scenes you should prepare for.

Though the book has a very satisfying ending, it also screams for more. I hope that Dimaline returns to this universe.

VenCo was such a treat and I want to thank #partner @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks and @librofm for the review ebook and ALC!

Lucky St. James is down on her luck, caring for her ailing grandmother with dementia, when she finds a mysterious spoon that ties her to a coven of witches. These witches must unite and find the final spoon before time runs out, all while avoiding a timeless witch hunter.

I also received this from @dogearedbooksames as a part of their DogPack subscription. I LOVED THIS BOOK in all the formats I read it in!

It’s an ode to the power of women, and the power of banding together. It’s about embracing who you are, and relying on your ancestors/and past to identify your truths. The novel is fast paced, part wild road trip and witchy in all the best ways. There’s queer and BIPOC representation and so powerful. I cannot recommend this enough!

This was a lot of fun. I had read The Marrow Thieves years ago and really enjoyed it, and Venco did not disappoint. I loved the focus on female friendship and relationships, and all the characters felt lovable and real. I love that this was told from an Indigenous woman's perspective, as well as the trans representation.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this advance copy in exchange for feedback. This was a gripping take on witches and the patriarchy. Recommend to fans of American Gods and The City We Became.

VenCo tells the story of how 3 witches that embody the Oracle (the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone) are tasked with guiding the creation of a new coven, but they are running out of time to do so. The coven is created when each potential witch finds one of the seven hidden Salem silver spoons. The story mainly focuses on Lucky St. James who struggles with living with Stella, her grandmother, who has dementia. Lucky misses her mother, who died when she was young, but she's grateful that her grandmother is by her side as she sets out on the journey to discover exactly who she is. The growing coven must not only race the clock to form (unclear why there is a time limit?), but must evade the last remaining Witch Hunter who is now on their trail. I originally thought that the book would focus more on VenCo, the company that is enabling women around the world to be empowered. There was very little about that in the book, besides at the beginning. I do think the story would have been enriched had there been more about the women in the Oracle and their pasts and their works in the world incorporated into the storyline. They were mentioned occasionally, but their actions were limited. The magic and the spoons were described in their history, but ultimately was a bit murky despite the repetition (not sure how souvenir spoons were meant to humiliate or harm?), but the stories of the women of the coven, their histories and how they overcame troubles in their lives while trying to do good in the world kept me reading. I absolutely adored Stella and the relationship she had with Lucky, and as the story evolved, Lucky began to see how fortunate she truly was to have Stella in her life too. I do wish there had been more of a back story of her growing up with Stella. Much of Lucky's history focused on her mother and the loss she felt. Also more history surrounding her father would have been welcomed, especially since Stella was his mother. I feel like some portions of the story were repeated often while others were slightly too thin. The best part of the book was the adventure Lucky and Stella took to find the final witch and spoon, with each part of the journey revealing more of themselves to each other and growing together as a result. It was funny, heartfelt, sweet, and the descriptions place the reader into the diverse scenery of their ultimate road trip. I loved how each step of the road trip also introduced a wise woman of different beliefs/cultures and as I looked up the terms, I learned that they were based on traditions or folktales of those regional areas. Very Interesting! A wonderful book and I hope to read more of their adventures! I think this would be an awesome streaming series!

Venco by Cherie Dimaline was a 4 star read for me. Engaging and I loved the backstory of creating this new coven and the spoons. I would have liked a bit more explanation as to why time was running out but I love the magical aspects! So many different emotions through out, as I was laughing and anxious, sometimes at the same time!

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up VENCO by Cherie Dimaline. The summary and premise sounded interesting, and I was really interested in Lucky’s journey and how she would get there. I was also interested in the characters we met, especially the other witches in the soon-to-be coven. There was a lot I enjoyed about the novel, and a few things I wish had been integrated better or explained more. We got the basics of VenCo, but not much more than that, including who else was involved, other than the potentially 7 witches and the three at the top. I also wondered where the three fit in with everything else. It seemed in some ways there was too much background, but in others, there was not quite enough information. The villain gave me the “icks” which, I am sure, was the point, but I also expected more between him and the witches he was hunting. I liked the story, loved Stella, and enjoyed the very end, but still felt that there was a bit more that could have been done to tie it all together and make it a tighter story. I, too, wonder if it is the start of a new series, and, if so, I would definitely pick it up to see what is next.
Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of the novel. All opinions are my own and freely given.

I'm grateful to Netgalley, the author, and publisher William Morrow for the opportunity to read this terrific story. I love novels that smack of the paranormal, ghosts, and witchcraft. This one, VenCo, is hands down the best I've read in a long, long time. I now have to look at and probably read everything else that this skillful auther has written.

We first meet Lucky St. James, our main character, who learns she’ll soon be evicted from the small apartment she shares with her loving but somewhat annoying grandmother Stella. Lucky could not figure out what to do, since she couldn't make ends meet even without the rent situation. But then she discovers an old silver spoon etched with the figure of a witch and one word: "SALEM."

Lucky can feel the low humming that comes from the spoon, and the adventure is on, leading her and Stella to a massive network of witches across North America who have been waiting for the last of these spoons to be discovered. As a reader, I was beyond thrilled to come along as Lucky and Stella take to the road and so discover VenCo (an anagram for the word "Coven,") an enormous group of witches hiding in the world in plain sight. As the seven spoons come together, women may be returned to their rightful power. But there has to be a bad guy in every story, and the Coven's adversary, Jay Cristos, a deadly witch hunter, is stalking them. Lucky and Stella meet some of their sisters and then make the decision to go to New Orleans, where dark magic and an unforgettable showdown will decide VenCo's future.

What a story! Where does Cherie Dimaline get this stuff? It is a page-turner of epic proportions, and I thought about it all the time while I was reading it, and even now that I finished. I know it is just coming out in February of 2023, but I am already looking for a second book and hoping it will be a long-running serial. Don't miss this book! It even made me cry as Lucky and Stella teach readers about families - ancient ones and newly discovered ones. Dimaline is a genius.

Can I tell you how crazy I am... I didn't realize VenCo is just CoVen flipped! Anyway...

This witchy, found family, Coven book was so intriguing to me following Lucky's journey. While looking for a job to help take care of herself and her grandmother, she stumbles across VenCo. But, behind the scenes, VenCo is this coven of witches who are looking to complete their circle by finding spoons that are a connection between the witches.

I found it so strange with the use of the spoons in the story, but as all the pieces come together and I found out more, I really enjoyed it. Lucky and her Grandmother's journey and connection of the women coming together was so good! As Lucky set out on this journey, we (she) learn about the backstory of each witch in the coven and how they found their spoon, and their connection. Of course, we have hiccups or things along the way that try to stop the women, but it was a fun journey!

I think this is one of my favorite witchy stories I've read thus far!

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline started off slowly...lots of parts to put together, but 20% in she had me hooked. It was kind of a coming-of-age-book, but in this case that meant discovering one was a witch. The story was about putting together a coven, and they didn’t have much time to do it. Imagine when Lucky thought she was going to a job interview, far from home, and have it turn out to be her introduction to the coven. She brought her grandmother, Stella, with her because she was too “demented” to leave alone at home and she had a responsibility. It turns out the newest member of the coven goes after the next member. Lucky had only a few days, but she did have a trail to follow.

It was an interesting story that started in Salem years earlier when a maid of a jeweler became frightened by his intentions and poured magic into seven spoons (which he had commissioned as souvenirs-he stood to make a fortune) and put them back into the inventory where they would wait until the correct person picked each up. Of course, there’s a bad guy, Jay Christos, the last of the witch hunters, immortal, hundreds of years old. He managed to kill several of her contacts, but Lucky outsmarted him, found the last witch and made it back to the coven in time, with plenty of interesting side trips. It was a thoroughly entertaining book.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of VenCo by William Morrow, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #Netgalley #WilliamMorrow #CherieDimaline #VenCo

Maybe my expectations were too high for this book. It was fine, but I just kept feeling like nothing was happening. The characters kept talking about changing the world and this and that, but by the very end of the book, nothing had even been attempted. I really enjoyed the writing and characters, and I feel that this book would really shine as a stated prequel to a series. I can't find any information about whether this is going to be a series, but even so, it still felt like a bit of a tease that nothing the characters wanted to accomplish actually happened.

Excellent book about women and the relationships they form with those around them.

Witches are the center of this novel, but Cherie Dimaline uses that subject to touch on so many other important topics, such as found family, discrimination, sexism, and much more. Dimaline is not afraid to explore all aspects of what it means to be a woman in this novel.

This book is magical and I highly recommend it.

Venco was a really great witchy read for the winter months. I really enjoyed the beginning of this book and thought it would be a story I would absolutely get lost in. However, I wish there was a little bit more background on the coven and it’s members and I wish there was more magic. The second half of the book just wasn’t as great. Overall, I still really enjoyed this book and would love to read a sequel or prequel with more information on the coven!