Book 40, 2019

The Witch Squad by M.Z. Andrews

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Since I have today off, I stayed up late last night to finish reading The Witch Squad by MZ Andrews. This is the first installment in the "Witch Squad" mystery series, featuring main character Mercy Habernackle, who is attending a "finishing" school for witches.

Upon arriving at the Paranormal Institute for Witches, Mercy is hoping to meet others like herself--gloomy and morose and shunned by the rest of society. Instead, most of the girls she encounters are chipper, cheerful, and sweet, including her tiny dynamo of a roommate, Jax. It is Jax who drags Mercy into the beginnings of friendship with three other students: Alba (who's more like Mercy with her aloofness), Sweets (the plump, cheerful girl who stress eats), and Holly (the vivacious blonde bombshell).

On their first official day of classes, the Headmistress, Sorceress Stone, takes the five girls to the scene where a local girl has recently been murdered. The police in Aspen Falls are aware of the special abilities of the students at the Institute, and Sorceress Stone wants the girls to learn how to aid an investigation, There, Mercy encounters the ghost of the dead girl, but she and her classmates are whisked away before she can speak to Morgan.

The girls continue to bandy about solutions to the murder in their spare time, but when one of their own is abducted, they must pool their unique, individual talents to save her and to solve the murder.

This was a fun, light story. Characterizations were done well, including Sorceress Stone, who reminded me of an odd combination of Dumbledore and Umbridge. It was interesting to see Mercy learn to embrace having friends, when she'd spent most of her life keeping others at arm's length.

Favorite lines:
♦ "I'm a good witch. I'm just not a nice witch."
♦ Witches are worse than Taylor Swift, they won't just write a song about you when you break up, they will put a hex on you!

Likable enough to entice me to read more in the series.