Bad Witch Burning

Bad Witch Burning is a contemporary fantasy by Jessica Lewis that is slated to be released in August by Delacorte.
I received this as an ARC and have tried to make sure my review is as unbiased as possible. That said, I absolutely love this book.


Trigger Warnings: animal death, physical and emotional abuse of a minor, gaslighting, murder/manslaughter with some gore. It’s not super graphic, but it does happen.


This book is light on the world building and heavy on the characters, immersion, and emotional response. It hit me hard from the author’s note/dedication and continued until the end of the book (and beyond, really, because the book hangover for this was real!) It’s unapologetically #ownvoices and #BlackGirlMagic and shines a harsh light on real world issues faced by teens every day, with a new spin on zombies/undead/necromancy and ghosts.

I never thought of myself as someone who enjoyed contemporary fantasy because I love lots of worldbuilding, but I’ve read a string of contemporary fantasies lately that are changing my mind and this one is no exception. It doesn’t suffer at all from the real world setting, and in fact, that aids the story because the focus is on the characters, who feel multi-dimensional and fully realized.

The magic is not a hard magic system, but it isn’t prone to info-dumps either. While the main character, Katrell, already has her powers at the beginning, they’re easily explained as we see them in action, and the exposition is delivered in brief snippets that are strong with voice, so it didn’t feel like exposition. And then when her magic suddenly does change, the nature of those changes are discovered by the reader and Katrell hadn’t in hand.

The plot is easy to follow and straight-forward, delivered in a single point of view, first person (Katrell) present tense. I normally favor third-person, but it really worked here to pull me in. The storytelling is straight-forward without tons of descriptive language. There are descriptions, but they aren’t poetic. They’re mostly focused on Katrell’s emotional response to the events and the motivations for her choices, which make this a fast-paced, tightly woven story without fluff but which packs a lot of emotional punch.

Quick bit about the plot: Katrell is our protagonist, a 16 year old who’s balancing so much trouble and responsibility that high school seems like the least of her concerns. She is far more worried about having a roof over her head and something to eat, even if it’s just a couple of Pop-Tarts or some crackers and peanut butter (hidden in her room) for a meal. She juggles (badly) school and two part-time jobs, taking as many hours as she can get because her mom is “in between jobs” (and has been for months), and her mom’s deadbeat boyfriend-of-the-month comes over, eats all their food (which is why she hides food), and never helps with any bills. They’d have been homeless by now if it weren’t for her side-scheme. Katrell can talk to the dead, and people are willing to pay for conversations with their dearly departed loved ones.

But then a ghost tells Katrell to stop talking to the dead or she’ll “burn everything down”. Katrell tries, but then her hours get cut and rent is due. As if that wasn’t bad enough, her mom’s boyfriend threatens her and her dog, and when he hits her, her mom won’t defend her, just telling her to respect him so he won’t get angry and hit her more. Katrell has no one to turn to. Her mastiff is her loyal companion, but he wouldn’t hurt a flea, and her mom tells her it’s her fault, but also promises that it’s “you and me, forever” and “things will get better soon”. Things spiral from there.

I’m not going to go more into the plot because I don’t want to spoil anything. From here on I’m going to talk in vague terms.

But the characters are where this book really shines. Let me tell you about the characters.

Katrell’s voice is so strong and she’s easy to root for even when she makes awful decisions. Her desperation comes through, and her relationship with her toxic mother is the first time I felt really seen, from how she lies to herself to allow herself to keep holding on, downplaying her mother’s abuse and focusing only on the rare good times, believing her mom despite her lies. She’s desperate to prove she’s the good daughter, desperate to keep them financially afloat, and killing herself with too much responsibility and nowhere to turn.

But it’s not just Katrell. Every character’s motivations made sense, and each had their own goals and struggles.

Will is her best friend, and Will’s tragic experiences in the foster system reinforce Katrell’s determination to stick with her mom. Will’s facing her own struggles too, slowly learning to trust her newly adoptive parents, even with such things as being able to look them in the eye or speak to them. She’s got her own goals too, pursuing an art competition even in the face of bullying (mostly due to Katrell refusing to let her give up). And nothing is wasted in this book as even Will’s struggles with learning to drive play a role in impacting the plot. Will is the light shining for Katrell on how things can be.

Katrell and Will’s friendship is awesome. Even when they fight, even when Katrell goes and does the very thing Will tells her not to do, they clearly care about each other. Katrell pushes Will to keep improving, to not let fear stop her, but also she’s patient with her, tries to protect her, and tries to think of Will’s wishes and safety—at least, until she's drowning under her mountain of mess (that she built herself) and sets her world on fire. And Will is fiercely loyal to Katrell, including delivering hard words to Katrell when she needs them.

Mike the guidance counselor is amazing. He doesn’t know exactly what’s going on with Katrell because she can’t bring herself to trust him, but he’s pretty sure her home life isn’t good (though he has no idea how bad it is) and he tries to help. He role-models healthy boundaries for Katrell and good goal-setting, which she then uses with Will to encourage her. Mike and Katrell’s scenes are short but sweet and full of impact.

I loved how even minor characters impact the plot, whether they’re setting fires and contributing to Katrell’s burning her life away, or whether they’re there helping to slosh water on the flames. If it was just Will, things would’ve ended differently (even though Will is amazing), because the lifeline wouldn't hold up to the fire. It's too easy for something to go wrong, or to rationalize that you're really still all alone. But four lifelines, all from different people who are showing her what love really means, that's why she can fight back to the surface.

This book was incredibly emotionally engaging for me and deeply immersive. It’s possible that it’d be less emotionally intense if I didn’t see my own childhood in Katrell’s relationship with her mom. I don’t normally cry with books but I did with this one, and I cried after too. I struggled to put the book down to do anything else. The chapters are short and snappy, and there’s no filler. I think every plot point that came up was used, as I mentioned above with Will and Mike. The cover is probably the thing I like least about this book. It’s good, but it’s just not my favorite. But I did come away from the book with further musings on the impact poverty can have on kids especially, as these concerns drive so much of the book and ring with truth.

This book is heavy but it's a good kind of heavy. The troubles Katrell's really dealing with are troubles people deal with every day. The Revenants are just the figurative piece. And Katrell is so determined and Will is phenomenal and their interactions are so wholesome, it keeps it from being too heavy in my opinion.