Like her father before her, Joan Matthews is a witch. For generations, their family of binder witches has protected Calvert, Oregon from vampires by strengthening the land with spellcraft. Pushing back against tradition, Joan defied her father and left town to become a war witch, one who fights the monsters hand-to-hand. But when her father dies, Joan returns to find her hometown assailed by a vampire lord's endless attacks--and the answers lie with the one woman who chose a rival over Joan.
Leigh Phan once believed her heart was safe and her future was set. When Joan left town, Leigh's choices led to ruin and unintended consequences. Now Leigh harbors a dark secret forcing her to live a moment-to-moment existence. Her only hope of survival lies in trusting the war witch who left her behind.
Now it's up to Joan to fight for a town she left behind, while Leigh faces a destiny she never imagined was possible. With Calvert on the brink of total destruction, Joan and Leigh join forces and face inconvenient truths in order to save their town--and each other.
PUBLISHER: Bywater Books
YEAR: 2023
LENGTH: 248 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Main Character(s).
CONSECRATED GROUND is poised to be the start of a very cool post-collapse-style fantasy series, where witches and vampires are in conflict and the scattered human settlements oscillate between xenophobia and cooperation.
As the first book in a series, the actual story is very complete and can stand on its own satisfactorily, while still laying the ground for later stories. The worldbuilding is very focused on what matters to Leigh and Joan, sketching and brief detail things that Joan finds to be unremarkable and then delving more into information that surprises her. I like the style of world building, since I don’t like feeling as though the narrator is a tour guide to the world, in addition to actually dealing with whatever makes them the protagonist of the story. That does mean that late in the book I still was putting together bits of information about how the setting worked and the powers in play. I appreciate that the magic system specifically allows for people to create their own spells and figure out ways for the magic to flow. It makes it feel kind of scrappy, allowing for magic users to surprise each other. Not only are there different kinds of witches, but they might accomplish the same spell with different triggers.
I was pleasantly surprised that this book alternates narrators, even though the main focus is on Joan. I liked slowly untangling the history between Joan and Leigh. Gradually showing Leigh's perspective means that there's time to wonder before getting answers, while controlling how soon Joann pieces things together within the actual story.
If you like this you may like:
- The Fall That Saved Us by Tamara Jerée
- World Running Down by Al Hess
Graphic/Explicit CW for grief.
Moderate CW for blood, fire/fire injury, violence, injury detail, kidnapping, trafficking, confinement, slavery, parental death, death.
Minor CW for vomit, cancer, drug use, drug abuse.
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