Book Review - Cari Thomas's The Hedge Witch

The Hedge Witch by Cari Thomas
Published by: Voyager
Publication Date: June 6th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Rowan's family is large and quirky. The Greenfinchs are part of the Wort Cummings grove, another mark of eccentricity against Rowan. Yet Rowan would turn her back on all that for a chance at being popular. She doesn't want to think about how she fits into her family or her grove, she wants to dream about her first kiss and boys. But dreams will have to wait as reality crashes in. She's going to be spending the summer tending to hedges. In Wales. Rowan should be pleased she's leaving the crowded homestead and spending the summer in the Welsh countryside helping her Aunt Winnie who is a hedge witch. After all, those hedges do need watching. But Rowan is convinced her socials need watching more. How else can she know what all her classmates are up to? And it's not like remote Welsh villages are known for their cell service. Though her mother insists they are known for their rugged and handsome boys, which Rowan does not want to hear about from her mother. Especially when she learns that her Aunt Winnie has a boyfriend, meaning Aunt Winifred officially has more of a life than herself. Remote Welsh villages also aren't known for their magic. Because magic is supposed to be locked down. There's a lid on it so that the non-magical folk, the cowans, don't learn of it's existence. And someone isn't playing by the rules in Coedyllaeth. And unbeknownst to Rowan she's about to fall in with them. There aren't many kids her age about and the few magical ones there are form a little band. A band that has their own rules. Laila seems to be the leader, a daughter of a Moon Sower who takes Rowan under her wing. As Rowan informs her, she is desperate for gossip. Any gossip. And that's how she learns about the the oddly quaint town that is chockablock with eccentrics, after all a remote Welsh village surrounded by mystical woodlands with plenty of space and privacy does attract them. What these secretive folk don't like is odd happenings. And they've been occurring. Words disappearing from signs, hands disappearing from clocks. Things that could be written off as vandalism but that others would say is magic. They need to stop. And Rowan might be the only one who can stop them. Maybe summer won't be so boring after all?

When you find a series you love it's hard to wait for each volume to be completed. It might feel like eons when it's just a year or two. We're not bringing George R.R. Martin of Patrick Rothfuss into this conversation. Obviously. And I feel a bit of a hypocrite mentioning this in regard to Cari Thomas's The Language of Magic series because I binged all three available books one after the other last summer. It took me about a month and as I'm writing this review I am feeling the need to do a reread to stave off the withdrawal but will probably save that for when the next book in the main series is minimally announced. Because Cari Thomas is a thoughtful author and besides the man tetraology she is writing a companion prequel novella tetraology with each volume focusing on one of our heroines, Anna Everdell, Effie Fawkes, Rowan Greenfinch, and Miranda Richardson. As I type this I am awaiting the shipping notification for the second novella focusing on Miranda, The Burial Witch, but the first novella wisely focused on Rowan. I say wisely because Rowan is my favorite. Or maybe I should say, because I am Rowan. The thing about this world and these character that Cari Thomas has built is is they are relatable, they are wonderful, and they are occasionally problematic, which makes them painfully real. Effie and Manda in particular aren't written to be sympathetic, but that doesn't mean reading about them isn't enjoyable. You are completely drawn into the drama. The four of them bouncing off each other and causing chaos. Of course, taking them out of that dynamic and seeing them on their own is what this spin-off series is about. And that brings us back to Rowan. I loved Rowan for the moment she first appeared on the page with Darcey being mean about her weight. And then I met her family. They out Weasley the Weasleys. The Christmas celebrations in Shadowstitch are ones I want to crawl into the book and live. Here though she's thrown out into the country, away from her copious family, and she has to learn to solve problems on her own. Which she does with great aplomb. I also love that she has a batty Aunt that is basically a combination of the Witches from Discworld, prickly like Granny Weatherwax but with a libido of Nanny Ogg. I'm so glad she made an appearance in Shadowstitch. Dare I say I just want more of all of it? Yes I do dare. More!