Carpe Jugulum
by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 1998)
audiobook read by Nigel Planer (Isis, 2000)
A perfectly respectable Discworld novel. The vampires pose a serious threat; Agnes Nitt evinces personality(ies). Still, there are rather more characters than focus, and thus a nagging sense of Pratchett extemporising a skyscraper and pulling it into place at the pointy end.
The Invocations
by Krystal Sutherland (Penguin, 2024)
audiobook read by Kit Griffiths (Penguin Random House Australia)
Itchingly dark, powerfully feminist. There is nothing cosy in Sutherland’s depiction of witchcraft. Instead, ‘The Invocations’ recasts the bleak horror of ‘House of Hollow’ as a visceral manifestation of (societally ingrained) misogyny, endured and countered by three resilient, resolute, sorely representative 17-year-olds.
Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron
ed. Jonathan Strahan (Random House, 2012)
audiobook read by Katherine Fenton & Jay Villiers (AudioGO, 2012)
Seventeen mostly YA tales at the borderline between long short story and novelette (plus a token Neil Gaiman poem) offering imaginative takes on the witchy theme. Unfortunately, very few repay their length. Charles de Lint, Tim Pratt and Margo Lanagan stand out.
Witch for Hire
by Ted Naifeh (Amulet, 2021)
While Faye Faulkner’s witch magic is alluring, Naifeh pulls no punches and allows very little catharsis in this exploration of high-school bullying and teen insecurity. The illustrations match the subject matter, bruised and murky in dark shades of green, yellow and orange.
The Near Witch
by Victoria Schwab (Hyperion Books, 2011) [republished as by V.E. Schwab]; audiobook read by Heather Wilds (Blackstone, 2019)
![Book cover: “The Near Witch” by Victoria Schwab (Hyperion Books, 2011) [republished as by V.E. Schwab]; audiobook read by Heather Wilds (Blackstone, 2019)](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Schwab_Near-Witch.jpg)
A claustrophobic fantasy that paints the evils of superstitious fear (and a pig-headed patriarchy) but which makes a protracted novel out of what should have been a novelette—and then omits the more interesting of the final confrontations. Narrated with bizarre emphases.
Doctor Who: The Witch from the Well
by Rick Briggs (Big Finish, 2011)
As ever, Big Finish have gone beresk with their screeching creature effects. Notwithstanding such overindulgence, this pseudohistorical take on the seventeenth-century witch trials offers uncommon nuance and character depth. A particularly good story for Paul McGann and Julie Cox (as Mary Shelley).
The Witches
by Roald Dahl (Jonathan Cape, 1983); audiobook read by Miranda Richardson (Penguin, 2013)
Scary and horrid and yet rather wondrous and fun, Roald Dahl’s take on witches remains a classic of middle grade fiction. Miranda Richardson’s audiobook reading is nicely pitched (notwithstanding her overly grating Grand High Witch and some oddly lacklustre, unnecessary sound effects).
The Witches and the Grinnygog
by Dorothy Edwards (Faber & Faber, 1981)
Somewhat abstruse and unlikely to appeal to post-millennial YA readers, Edwards’ tale of pagan magic reawakening in a small English village remains a curious, highly ambitious work, told always indirectly and sketching out its titular characters by painting the landscape around them.