Hi ForeverBookers,
How are you all doing? I hope you’re well!
I’ve just finished A Pinch Of Magic by Michelle Harrison, which I really enjoyed.
It’s a Middle Grade book, so intended for younger readers, although there are a few instances that I thought were more intended for the YA bracket, although they probably can be read by readers ages 8-12 too. I didn’t feel like it was a necessarily easy read in that some parts were slow. Some of the themes were more YA also, as I said.
The book is told from third person perspective, I think because it’s aimed at a middle grade audience. Third person is perhaps easier to understand than first person or definitely second person narrative. I often find that adult books are written in first person.
A Pinch Of Magic has a small cast of characters but they are what sells this book. It primarily follows three sisters that get muddled up in a curse...can they unravel said curse or is it the end for them...literally? You’ll need to read the book to find out!
I read “A Touch Of Magic” for the following readathons:
The OWLS - I'm still reading my OWLS (I know, but I feel that in the current situation in the world even Professor Vector would give me a month longer!) Anyway, I read "A Pinch Of Magic" for Arithmancy, which was to read a book outside your favourite genre. I’m classing Middle Grade as a genre here. I really don’t read too much of it, and it’s certainly not a favourite!
The Cardcaptorthon - The Loop - Read a book that’s literally always on loop - of the booktube channels I watch, “A Pinch Of Magic” is quite often mentioned! And it’s a rather new release (#27)
Reading Rivalry (on Facebook) - A book involving a strong female friendship - the friendship between the sisters is strong!
Fiction Feud Society (on Facebook) - ROAD TRIP - The girls go on a road trip to find the answers they need. What they really do is leave home for a time but I consider that a road trip, as they travel to do it.
Believeathon 2 - I read this for Poachers Pocket Inn, which is to read the first book in a series! This prompt is inspired by this book too so I felt I had to read it! I took part in a couple of Gavin’s live shows for Believathon!
Always Fully Booked “Reading Rainbow Challenge” - Gold on the cover - I thought this one would be hard to do! It’s a bonus too!!!
Always Fully Booked “On The Cover Challenge” - Read a book featuring: a tree - there are 2 trees on the cover!
Raedathon - I low-key took part in Raedathon again! This is the 24 hour readathon hosted by one of my favourite booktubers, Jadeyraereads! I took part in a couple of her instagram live shows too.
Spoilers Below!
“I never meant to hurt anyone,” she whispered, gripping the sill with numb fingers. It was true, she hadn’t wanted to cause anyone harm then, but now, revenge was all she could think of.
And she would have it, even though she knew it would not save her.”
This is the last line of the prologue, whereby a girl, we’re unsure of who she is at the start, is in trouble. It didn’t click who she was for me until near the end, which I think is the point. There is talk of execution in the prologue and a couple of other places too, which is another reason for why I don’t think this is necessarily suited to middle grade readers. It’s not focused on but it’s there none-the-less. In the above quote, the girl is plotting revenge on someone for what they did in the rest of the book. It’s a little foreshadowing, which I liked. Who or what happens in the run up isn’t spoiled though, as there wouldn’t be much point to the book if it was.
“The Poachers Pocket was the rowdiest place on the isle of Crowstone, and had been in the Widdershins family for generations.”
We’re introduced to our main characters in chapter 1, which is called Trick Or Treat. I’m always more likely to read a book if the chapters are named instead of just numbered because I like to have some idea of what will happen in the chapter. Also, it adds something to the story, I feel. It’s like if the author cares enough to title their chapters, the story will have more to it.
The main character is called Betty but her sisters Fliss and Charlie, are present throughout as well. Betty wants to be an explorer and is quite often found making her own mottos of “Betty The Brave” or “Betty The Explorer.” She thinks she’s just the plain, boring sister because her Granny won’t let her leave Crowstone.
“She didn’t need father or his boat for adventures. Here, on the marshes by night, she wasn’t just the middle Widdershins sister: plain and blunt against Fliss’s prettiness and charm, and sensible next to Charlie’s cuteness and mischief. Here, she was Betty the Brave; Betty the Explorer! She could go anywhere, do anything.”
Betty thinks this when she’s going to a Fayer with Charlie, something she’s not supposed to do. They live at the Poachers Pocket Inn, which is an inn on the isle of Crowstone. In this world, which is similar to our own, there are isles known as the Sorrow Isles, called Repent, Lament and Torment. Repent is where a prison this story centres around is. It’s literally where the prisoners are meant to repent for what they’ve done. Lament is where the graveyard is and Torment is out-of-bounds.
“Those on Torment had been exiled: people who had been released from the prison but still had punishment to serve by not being allowed to return to the mainland, or those who had committed crimes not serious enough to be locked away for, but enough to warrant being banished.”
We don’t see much of Torment in this book, it might come more into the stories of the second or third book. Most of A Pinch Of Magic is set around Repent and Lament. I think each book might focus on a different isle, to be honest. So here for example, the prison on Repent is a huge part of the plot, in A Sprinkle Of Sorcery (book 2), I predict, Lament will play a bigger role and in the third book, which is still untitled, Torment will be the main setting. That’s my prediction!
Getting into the plot of this book now, it’s simple because it’s aimed at a younger audience but it follows the sisters, who are told by their Granny that they can’t do things like others their age can.
“She bit back a frustrated growl. All that sneaking about and effort, for nothing! She didn’t feel like a big adventurer now. She felt like a silly little girl. And the worst of it was there was a tiny part of her that was relieved, because in those misty moments before Granny had appeared, Betty had been scared.”
This is what happens when Betty is caught going to the fayer with her little sister, Charlie. She doesn’t know why she can’t do things like normal children her age, as we don’t. Not until Granny tells her and her sisters about the curse.
“Oh Granny, please ...” Betty said. “I know I was wrong to break your rules, and I know I don’t deserve whatever magic thing you were saving for me ... but please don’t punish Charlie.” She slumped back in her chair miserably. “It’s not her fault. It was all my idea.”
“I know.” Granny’s voice was soft. “I don’t intend to punish either of you, though. It’s never been about that, only about wanting to keep you safe. But tonight, I realised that keeping secrets from you only put you in more danger. And that’s the reason I’ve decided to bring everything out into the open.” She placed her pipe in her ashtray, then rose from the table. “Wait here.”
This tells us that Betty is desperate to learn of the secrets, Granny has been hiding, saving for each girl. She doesn’t want Charlie to suffer for her stupid idea of going to the fayer. I found Charlie to be a cute and funny character! She certainly bought the most comedy to the book with her mischievousness. She even gets a pet rat, which she calls Hoppit from she the street!
“You can’t tell!” Charlie begged, her eyes huge and round. “Granny’ll make me get rid of him!”
“Him?”
“Well, I think it’s a him,” Charlie said as a tiny, quivering nose edged its way out of her pocket. A pair of beetle black eyes emerged, followed by a fuzzy brown body.” I found it incredibly cute and funny how Charlie thinks the rat is a him as that she’s under 10 years old, I mean would she understand the difference between boys and girls at that age? I know, I sure didn’t!
Without Charlie’s character, I don’t feel I would have enjoyed reading “A Pinch Of Magic” half as much! “But he’s poorly...He walks funny too. That’s how I catched him.” The way Charlie talks is very endearing. I just wanted to go inside the book to cuddle her.
Each girl is set to inherit a mystical object on her sixteenth birthday. Fliss, as she’s already sixteen, has a mirror that shows her whatever she wants to see, Betty will get a set of dolls that will make her invisible, and Charlie will inherit Granny’s bag, which she’s NOT happy with at first! That is until she learns that it’s a magic, travelling bag.
“I want the dolls,” Charlie complained. “The bag is ugly,” is Charlie’s first thought of the bag, until she learns of its magical capabilities.
Granny allows Betty to have her gift early because she’s learnt what the magic is early. Charlie has to wait because Granny still uses the bag. Again, she’s not happy about this, either! I laughed at just about everything Charlie said or did. I wish I had been like her as a child.
Betty was quite a repentful character in “A Pinch Of Magic.” Whenever she made a mistake, she apologised for it. This was fresh to see because in most books I read this is not the case. In most books I read, the main character is very sure about whatever they’re doing. They don’t need to feel sorry because they aren’t punished, or if they are they still think they were right and go on a quest to prove that, quite often. Betty thought that she would be punished here for taking Charlie to the fayer, so she apologised. This would teach younger readers that it’s right to seek forgiveness when they make a mistake. A negative point of the story is that the character of Granny smokes, though. It’s only present once in the first book but I don’t know if it will be present more so in the other books. If this was an adult book, I wouldn’t have brought it up but because it’s aimed at children, young children I thought it right to bring attention to it. This surprised me. I’d have thought any talk of smoking would have been edited out in this day and age!
The girls’ father, Barney Widdershins, went to prison before the book starts. He’s only referred to, he’s not actually in the main plot of the story. Fliss, the elder of the sisters is the only one that really misses him, perhaps because she’s the oldest so has the most memories of and with him. “...Betty herself had felt betrayed. She couldn’t have felt it more if he had rowed them out to sea and abandoned them. How dare he leave them like this, after Mother?” Betty feels stranded or forsaken by her dad. She doesn’t have the same memories Fliss has and after what happened to their mother, she feels as if he just left them high and dry without anything.
“I’m not sure whether that makes you feel better or worse, but your mother ... it wasn’t the curse. It was bad luck.”
The girls’ mother, disappeared. Granny is explaining the curse to the girls here, and what it all means. Their mother died one night out on the marshes. That’s all that’s said about her death, though. I’m wondering if in A Sprinkle Of Sorcery (book 2) or book 3 we’ll learn what REALLY happened to their mother, as I believe there’s more to this revelation? I hope we do and that there is!!!!!!
“One prisoner in particular caught Betty’s attention, for he was different to the rest. He was dark skinned, something that was out of the ordinary in Crowstone. Everyone the girls had ever known was a different shade of pale, all of whom greyed as the years passed. He was around Fliss’s age, and his black, wiry hair had been cropped close to his scalp. Yet it was more than his appearance that made him stand out.”
This is our other main character, as well as the three sisters and someone else I don’t want to spoil. He’s called Colton and he’s a prisoner on the island of Repent. The girls go to see him, without their Granny’s permission by using the travelling bag. This in itself is dangerous, especially when only Charlie can work the bag...
Colton wants to get out, of course. We learn some of his backstory and why he was put in prison in the second half of the book. I REALLY hope he’s a part of “A Sprinkle Of Sorcery!”
“She was crying so hard that she never saw Colton move closer to her. The touch of his hand on her arm came as a surprise.” The story goes on to say that Colton had forgotten what it was like to feel close to anyone. When Betty is distressed, Colton shows that he is a caring character and that he only wants what’s best for the girls. I thought this was a sweet moment. Colton is like a big brotherly figure to both Betty and Charlie.
In “A Pinch Of Magic,” there’s a hint of romance between Colton and Fliss. I really want this to be expanded upon in “A Sprinkle Of Sorcery.” There won’t be much I know, because of the age group it’s targeted towards but I’d like to see a little. I think Fliss and Colton would make a great couple, if they both make it to the second book.
A side character is called Seamus Fingerty, although he’s referred to just as Fingerty. He’s a bit of a mystery in himself. He’s very much a Marmite or a love him or hate him character. I loved him! “I don’t do favours for no one,” sums him up quite well to begin with. As the story progresses he becomes a nicer character though. Especially when Betty promises him drinks on the house if he helps her and her sisters.He tells stories in the Poachers Pocket Inn. He joins the Widdershins girls’ adventure for answers. Does he help or does he just create more questions for the girls, even with the promise of free drinks? You’ll have to read to find out!
There’s another side character that causes problems for the girls. I don’t want to spoil their identity here but can the girls work around them to get the answers they need?
The main story can be summed up rather easily, I feel. The girls need to find answers to break the curse that’s always been a part of their family! Each Widdershins girl that’s left Crowstone for longer than a day has disappeared. Why? You’ll have to read to find out!
The other main character, I really don’t want to spoil any of, except that they’ve been betrayed by those close to them in the past...can they get their own back on those that wronged them? Again you’ll need to read to find out!
Overall, I really enjoyed this story. It was full of dangerous whimsy, suitable for a middle grade audience, of course. I haven’t gone into maybe as much depth as I normally do because it’s a middle grade and because if I spoil one thing, I’ll end up spoiling it all and that’s not what you want for this book. It’s best to go into blind, not knowing anything. That’s what I did! I’ve summarised the main characters, which I think is all you really need as it’s a very character driven story.
I’m giving “A Pinch Of Magic” 4 stars because while I did love it, there were a few things that weren’t wrapped up for me. As well as a few slower parts too—things I can’t write without spoiling the mysterious plot. If the author wraps up the story well in the sequels then who knows, they could get five stars! The ending came a bit out of nowhere too. One minute everything was going badly but the next everything seemed to wrap up, or did it? You’ll have to read to find out! I have no idea where the sequels will go...
Stand by for my next review...coming soon!
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