About the book
Author: Alice Hoffman
Publisher: Scribner
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My review
There’s just nothing like a witchy book from Alice Hoffman. I saved this for the very end of October (an excellent decision), and it more than hit the spot. It’s allegedly the start of a new series, but The Witches of Cambridge is entirely satisfying as a standalone. If you loved her Practical Magic books, you’ll love this one too — the vibes are perfect.
The story is about two young women named Ava and Lauren who are the two freshman inductees to the (secret, magical) Lilith Society at Radcliffe College in Boston in the 1950s. It follows them over the course of their four years at Radcliffe, as they find (and lose, and find, etc) friendship, their way back from the crooked path of dark magic, and perhaps most of all, love. Along the way, they (and we) learn more about the history of the Lilith Society and our characters’ ancestors, dating back to the Salem Witch Trials. But what — or who — is causing some their fellow witches to disappear at the end of each year?
This is the kind of witchy book with a witchy vibe (herbs, phases of the moon, fated futures, true love) that doesn’t feel the need to explain every detail; there are definitely some world-building elements, and certainly some character motivations, that you can’t look at too closely at. But that’s not why we read Alice Hoffman. Come for the magic, stay for the power of love.
Content and trigger warnings
Forced institutionalization
Animal death
Child abuse
Pregnancy
Violence
