If you liked the vibes of A History of Wild Places, then you will have to check out Spells for Forgetting. Both have this small town vibe meets mystery. While the beginning took a while to get into it – which was my main critique – I enjoyed the last 40% the best. Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
Emery Blackwood’s life changed forever the night her best friend was found dead and the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her. Years later, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence on the misty, remote shores of Saoirse Island and running the family’s business, Blackwood’s Tea Shoppe Herbal Tonics & Tea Leaf Readings.
But when the island, rooted in folklore and magic, begins to show signs of strange happenings, Emery knows that something is coming. The morning she wakes to find that every single tree on Saoirse has turned color in a single night, August returns for the first time in fourteen years and unearths the past that the town has tried desperately to forget.
August knows he is not welcome on Saiorse, not after the night everything changed. As a fire raged on at the Salt family orchard, Lily Morgan was found dead in the dark woods, shaking the bedrock of their tight-knit community and branding August a murderer. When he returns to bury his mother’s ashes, he must confront the people who turned their backs on him and face the one wound from his past that has never healed—Emery.
The town has more than one reason to want August gone, and the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises spanning generations threaten to reveal the truth behind Lily’s mysterious death once and for all.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Spells for Forgetting begins with mysterious fires and the weight of a small town. How it feels when this insular group turns on us. When the full anger of community falls upon us. This community is one of my favorite aspects of Spells for Forgetting because Young describes it so succinctly. How there is this sense of family, of belonging, and of looking out for each other. But also how when it turns against us, when we lose our good favor, it can turn sinister.
Immediately it felt ominous. The mystery of what happened when everything looks worse in the dark and you’re forced to leave before you can explain. Spells for Forgetting plays with the timeline to reveal pieces of the history. Of what happened in foggy memory. And while this made the pacing a bit slower in the beginning, it ramps up the tension. Another element I enjoyed in Spells for Forgetting is this line between protection and possession. When people try to protect us thinking it’s for our own good when it’s really fueled by fear.
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Because we can often think we are doing the right thing, keeping necessary white lies, but often it ends up that honesty is the best policy. That secrets will come out because everyone has them. That anyone can dig up the past and let the ghosts out. At times Spells for Forgetting feels like a murder mystery conspiracy story. And I think that just speaks to the strength of the vibes and atmosphere, the tension and fog. With crumbs being left and secrets being revealed it can feel a bit slow at times, but once it clicks and gains steam I couldn’t look away. Find Spells for Forgetting on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.