I went quite a bit of back and forth about deciding to review this book because I didn’t want to say anything negative even though it didn’t quite sit well with me. But here we are, so buckle in.

Hi! Welcome (back?) to another book review. If you’re new here, there will be spoilers ahead (what are spoiler-free book reviews anyway?).

First of all, grateful to Atmosphere Press for providing an eARC of A Southern Enchantress by Deborah Trahan via NetGalley for an honest review. I jumped into the book knowing that it’ll be spooky with witchcraft and communicating with ghosts and it ticked those boxes.

What fell flat for me was the narrative. The story takes place in two timelines connecting 5 generations of enchantresses. This is magic realism set against the end of the World War II and in modern time. I honestly, enjoyed reading more about the historical fiction plot-line than I did the magic realism. I’ll admit that I’m new to the genre so this might be an adjustment but the two timelines that the narrative flows in, isn’t really linear. There are time jumps and too much happening where the motivations of the characters behind their actions isn’t quite explained.

Why does Esty hate Addy? Why is Suzzane just straight up doing what spirits are telling her to do? And why is Addy kind of entitled? Oh, and why did Addy, without understanding her “visions” decided to pursue a man she saw in her vision?

So Addy and Esty are sisters vacationing in Pass Christian, Mississipi, with their other sister who is inconsequential in the story, where their grandparents live. Mimi, grandma, is gifted like all the women in her bloodline and wishes to pass on her craft. Addy, even though already having visions, refuses to indulge her. Surprisingly, she is looking for the man her visions showed her though and when she finds him, she wholeheartedly decides to pursue him. He is not all that great. She sees it. She still indulges him. He is getting posted in Germany soon and before he leaves, they meet up and he drugs her before he rapes her.

Esty is just straight-up a sour kind of kid whose motivations I did not understand at all. Following Addy’s predicament, all choices for her future is taken away from her and her grandpa marries her off to the officer right before he leaves and her father tells her that she cannot return home to New Orleans because she is so suddenly married that he cannot explain this to their neighbours. There is a child out of that relation that Addy gives up but Esty finds and raises with Addy’s husband who she marries after Addy dies (ngl, that felt like murder).

In the present timeline, this daughter that Esty raised has Suzzane and gives up her other daughter. This other daughter is killed by her husband. Suzzane ends up dating this man and they start repeating history, but this time, when the spirits tell her to “make him pay”, she knows what she is doing. She reconnects with her heritage, figures out that the dead ex of her boyfriend is actually her sister and extracts revenge with the help of spirits.

But all of this didn’t really stick for me. The characters were one-dimensional with no strong passion for anything. Even the revenge fell flat because of this. The relationships didn’t have anything in them more than convenience and I struggled to understand why Suzzane needed to be married to Max to get revenge the way she did.

However, I liked the premise of the plot and it definitely opened up the genre of magic realism for me. The glimpses of the rich culture of New Orleans that we got throughout the book was definitely worth it. I have rated it a 3. If you’re looking for something with a touch of history and a dispassionate revenge, this is it.