It’s hard to pick just one favourite from our 2024 Book Club lineup, but Charlie Lavender is definitely right up there! If you love witches, magic, mysteries, secret societies, worlds hidden within worlds, and loveable oddball characters, this book is a must-read!
The cinematic writing style grips you from the start, keeping you on the edge of your seat. So much so that it’s easy to imagine this as a Netflix show—fitting since it originated from a pitch to the platform. Our main character Charlie, is a socially anxious teen, starting at Normal High. She quickly befriends Ichigo, a tech and science whiz, and the school quarterback Josh, who it turns out has a hidden nerdy side. Their friendship and support of one another is so heartwarming and pure, that you can’t help but be entirely invested in them. Honestly, this trio will melt your heart!
The book is packed with multiple POVs, intriguing backstory scenes, a secret evil order, a magic school, a mysterious (and maybe magic) owl, a budding queer romance, 90s nostalgia, and an amazing Halloween party scene that gives off Donnie Darko vibes (I think we’re really going to have to wait for the third book to prove or disprove my theories from this scene). Carson’s writing is top-tier—his imagination, forward planning, and foreshadowing will leave you craving more. Plus the addition of the expanded QR content will give you little inklings of more to come. Seriously, don’t skip those QR codes, they’re so worth it!
Though there are unanswered questions at the end of book one, rest assured they’ll be revealed in future volumes of this four-book series. The second book is set to release in November, and you can bet we’ll be reading and discussing it together in our book club!
A bit about the book...
If you discovered a world of magic existed just beyond the reach of ordinary people, would you be willing to risk everything to explore its secrets?
A bundle of awkwardness and social anxiety, Charlie Lavender isn’t sure about starting her freshman year in small-town Normal, Illinois. Little does she know her new best friend, a love triangle, and…a magical owl(?) are waiting for her in the Fall of 1993.
She definitely didn’t expect ominous priests, probable witches, and a secret, several-thousand-year-old war would also become part of everyday life.
Welcome to Normal, where nothing ever is. As she and her newfound friends search for the truth about a world of magic just out of view, the real question is, can Charlie accept the last thing she ever expected to happen? For the first time ever, she’s fitting in.
Charlie Lavender and the Origin of Everything Volume One is the perfect read for fans of Supernatural or Stranger Things, discover more when you order this thrilling YA adventure today.
Find it here...
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