Begone the Raggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan

Rating: 4/5

This is a lovely written book about a girl named Mup, her family, and the realm of witches that is just outside her door. While there were some elements of the plot and themes that I didn’t necessarily enjoy, the writing style is truly lovely and engaging, with Mup’s spunky, matter-of-fact voice and some beautiful imagery and worldbuilding standing out the most to me.

This is really a book about family, as Mup and her mother are all fighting in various ways to protect each other, but complicated relationships between aunts and grandmothers throw a wrench in the works. Almost every (important) character is a woman, with a reverse Damsel in Distress as the main plot incentive—Mup’s dad is kidnapped by the witches—so people who like female-centric novels will appreciate the different aspects we get here, with the many differing personalities and ways of handling obstacles presented through the various female characters.

However, I’m not sure I particularly enjoyed some of the themes that Kiernan presented in this book. The main theme was basically “let people decide for themselves what to be,” and while there were some interesting conversations about not being controlling, overall some of the presentation fell a little flat for me, especially with the ridiculous conversation, presented as serious, where Mup has a conversation with her two-or-three-year-old brother about him being a puppy. I also was confused by the odd imagery given in describing Mup’s mother, who is one of the flattest characters in the book despite being one of the most important. I went from wondering if her power would corrupt her to wondering if I was supposed to admire her because she’s So Powerful despite being standoffish and distant for the whole book except for the end.

So, basically, it’s a homerun on the writing and worldbuilding (though the magic itself was just “shoot lightning and fire from fingertips, whiz bang pow”), but just a bit of headscratching and disgruntlement at the themes that ended up being hammered in over and over again at the end. Also, I’m not sure how I feel about ten-year-olds (or however old Mup is supposed to be) swearing, or the presence of swear words (though many would probably consider them “tame”) in a book for children.

Info: Celine Kiernan; published 2018 by Candlewick

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy

Warnings: Several uses of the word “Damn” as a curse, mostly by adults and once by Mup

Recommended Age Range: 10+