Book Review: Witchy by Ariel Slamet Ries

January 20, 2025

In this book, we start the journey of a young witch and learn a bit about her back story. When she was just a little girl, the authorities came to her home and murdered her father, because he had too much magic. In this world, there is a very fine line between having a lot of magic, and having too much, and all of it is connected to how much hair you have growing from your head. No witch it allowed to cut their hair, because it is seen as a blessing from the spirits. In order to protect herself, our young witch starts putting a glamor over her hair to make it look much shorter than it is, and all of her classmates tease her about it. They say “no wonder she is such an out of control witch, she can’t even grow enough hair to give herself magic” when in reality, she is working hard all day everyday to make sure no one sees how long her hair really is. In the pages of this gorgeous graphic novel, our young heroine reaches the age that she can be recruited into the witches guard, and she wants to do everything in her power to stay out of it. Will the judges figure out her secret? Will she have to face a future she deeply doesn’t want? Or will she be granted with the freedom to become the kind of witch she wants to be? It is all in the hands of the judges.

This book was such a page turner I finished it in less than an hour. I could not read it fast enough and I cannot wait until my library lets me know that I have the next book waiting for me. I would recommend this book to honestly, anyone. It might have some themes a little fear provoking for young readers, but I would say upper elementary school on, this book is lovely. But please do your own research beforehand, every person is different.