VenCo: A Novel

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Lucky St. James, a Métis millennial living with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella, is barely hanging on when she discovers she will be evicted from their tiny Toronto apartment. Then, one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. Burrowing through a wall, she finds a silver spoon etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM, humming with otherworldly energy.

Hundreds of miles away in Salem, Myrna Good has been looking for Lucky. Myrna works for VenCo, a front company fueled by vast resources of dark money.

Lucky is familiar with the magic of her indigenous ancestors, but she has no idea that the spoon links her to VenCo’s network of witches throughout North show more America. Generations of witches have been waiting for centuries for the seven spoons to come together, igniting a new era, and restoring women to their rightful power.

But as reckoning approaches, a very powerful adversary is stalking their every move. He’s Jay Christos, a roguish and deadly witch-hunter as old as witchcraft itself.

To find the last spoon, Lucky and Stella embark on a rollicking and dangerous road trip to the darkly magical city of New Orleans, where the final showdown will determine whether VenCo will usher in a new beginning…or remain underground forever.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: VenCo, a front corporation for a CoVen (get it?) is a really fun gynergetic fantasy of what it would take to overwhelm the patriarchy and restore women to power.

Do you need something else to get one for this hijacked-by-jesus (who has a sly off-kilter cameo) sacred solstice holiday?

How about this: Lucky, our PoV character, is at a low ebb when we meet her...she's been struggling along, caring for her dementia-ridden paternal grandmother, scraping the money to survive, and now...the capitalist axe comes down, they're losing their home. Relatable, if in a grim way, to most all of us in or after middle age. Plot twist: It's now that Lucky discovers she's a witch, and the coven that's forming needs her...but not in Toronto, in New Orleans. The coven is forming to bring the world that Lucky's been angry with for most of her life, patriarchal racist exploitive horror that it is, to an end. She's got to assist the assembled women...including transfem Freya, explicitly accepted as a woman...in locating and assembling the spoons that'll generate the power they need to accomplish the task.

There are lots of names that don't always have solid characters attached, there is a notable holeyness to the plot, there is a powerful aura of wish fulfillment here. There is also an even-handed treatment of adversarial relationships. There is a demonization of Patriarchy, it's true, but not (to my surprise) of men.

The reason I gave it four stars is that this story was just plain fun to read. I wish it had been a wee tiny tidge tighter of plot. I'm not going to hold it up as a best of my reading year book. But I loved feeling so at home with Lucky, her deeply stressful life, and her middlescent discovery of her powers and her purpose. I thoroughly agree, in 2024, with the need to smash the Patriarchy and all its boosters and adherents. I was deeply gruntled by the transfem Freya simply...being...unremarkably one of the coven.

If you're going to be among the unenlightened, even the benighted, this coming Yule, bring this on your Kindle. You'll have an escape into a much nicer version of the world at hand, and a little spirit boost as the impending events of 2025 loom ever larger. show less

Overall I found this fun and not that deep. I enjoyed it when I could engage on that level; and occasionally I found it irritating and wanted the more critical, accurate, complex, challenging book that it absolutely could be. It's totally ok to just enjoy a fun story. It's also ok to go harder, really interrogate patriarchy and capitalism and not pull your punches.

Books about witches are a dime a dozen lately, and it’s pretty rare for any of them to have that actual spark of magic that makes them worth reading, but Venco passes the test and has made it onto my shelf of wonderfully magical witchy novels. Author Cherie Dimaline had me charmed from the outset by starting her story in Canada (Toronto, meh, I’m a west coaster for life, but we’ll take it), but she kept me hooked with the authenticity that suffused the entire story. From her characters (a motley crew of witches-of-all-kinds) to her villains (touching on historical intrigue), and from the various modes of magical practice to the action-driven plot, this novel felt grounded just outside of reality and in a world that we definitely show more want to revel in. Well, maybe not the part where witches are still being hunted down by men who can’t take “no” for an answer or handle their emotional challenges, but instead we want to believe in a world where destiny brings together the people who are meant to meet and where there is strength in the families that we found with people who could have stayed strangers. I sincerely hope that we get a second novel set in this world, but if we don’t I am happy to be able to receive the blessing of knowing that these characters have just started their journeys of redemption, discovery, and creation and we are free to imagine them doing absolutely anything. show less

Lucky St. James does not know she's a witch. Until she discovers the key to a long-locked cabinet in the basement of her apartment building and opens it to find a novelty spoon engraved with the word "Salem". She does know she feels a strange affinity for this object, a desire to keep it with her at all times. It won't be long before she's approached by a representative of the mysterious VenCo and learns of the existence of other spoons, each bearing a different number and each belonging to a woman who is meant to join a potentially world-changing coven. Lucky, who's been struggling financially as she cares for her increasingly forgetful grandmother, jumps at the chance of a better paying job. The problem? The spoon she's found is the show more sixth out of seven, and if the final member doesn't find theirs soon, the coven will never be able to form at all.

VenCo takes place in our own modern world, featuring locations from Toronto to Salem to New Orleans and everywhere in between. It also features a diverse cast of women, each of whom is given the opportunity to tell the story of how she found her own spoon, and, in some cases, how she found herself along the way. The style is lovely, with figurative language painting fresh and interesting detail and summaries that pop up like a quick snapshot of everything you need to know about a portion of the characters' journey without dragging things out.

It also makes use of the omniscient point of view in a way that gives the reader insights into multiple characters while I as a reader still felt emotionally connected to them. The narration doesn't take the old-school path of telling the reader that the villain is an evil person and raining down judgment upon him, but it does provide a view of his actions and an explanation of his past that allowed me to form my own conclusions. There's a certain level of trust, as if the author knows the way the reader will view him simply because of the way he treats and has treated other characters. The narrator doesn't need to state that he's sexist or point out the ways in which he's being sexist. The narrator trusts the reader to know it when they see it. And in my opinion, this approach absolutely succeeds.

Readers should be aware that there is sexual content in this book, including characters seemingly being magically compelled into desiring sex, but I thought this was handled very well and actually fit in with the feminist themes at the novel's core. I won't spoil the ending, but the way this element, along with others that had been set up along the way, factored into the final chapters was very satisfying. The author clearly knew what she was doing and handled everything so skillfully that I consider it one of the best endings I've read in some time.

There's not as much magic as I would have liked to see, but the depiction of it is fresh and interesting (or at least I can say I've never seen the same before). It also ties into the themes in a way I really enjoyed seeing after I picked up on it. I did wish I had a clearer idea of how much power various characters had, especially in moments where the villain was going up against members of the coven or their allies. At one moment he seemed nearly unstoppable, at another moment very weak, probably due to my lack of understanding the abilities of his opponent, but that's the largest criticism I have for the book as a whole.

I would recommend this book to fans of fantasy with a modern setting, especially if you're intrigued by an extended road trip serving as the modern equivalent of the historical fantasy's journey. Those who enjoy books with diverse characters will also not be disappointed, and the feminism is, in my opinion, perfectly on point. It doesn't have fantastical creatures or the modern equivalent of sword fights or witches slinging spells at their enemies, but it does explore magic in a way that weaves it into the world we know so perfectly as to give the impression that it almost could be real. If that's the kind of book you like, I encourage you to give this one a try. show less

I will start of this review admitting I am a BIG fan of Dimaline's stories, having previously read [The Marrow Thieves], its sequel [Hunting by Stars] and [Empire of Wild]. I approached [Venco] with a little bit of trepidation. While I enjoy stories that dip into magical realism and mythology, witchcraft has always fallen a bit flat with me. I should have realized I could trust Dimaline to give readers a delightfully modern, feminism-empowering story filled with fabulous kick-ass characters, great dialogue and wonderful soul-searching. At its heart, this is a story about finding family, self-appreciation and making meaningful connections, all wrapped up in a suspense-filled race to find seven enchanted spoons and bring the coven show more together before the spell is nullified and do battle with the coven's nemesis. I have my fingers crossed Dimaline has a sequel in mind!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy. show less

I don't like stories about witches. I don't like alternate reality stories. Or sci-fi. Even magical realism bugs me. But I do like Cherie Dimaline because her stories are about people. Some of them happen to be, in this case, witches, but they are well developed characters that I can relate to. For example, in this book the witches worked hard to find and interpret clues to aid in their quest. Things didn't fall magically (or otherwise) into place without some work. I loved the aspects of Aboriginal folklore that played into the story. And the time-limited quest kept the plot moving and me turning the pages.

But I am a little tired of all the bad guys being men. Here we have a male witch-hunter, an abusive husband, an absent father. And show more the acknowledgements say it is always a good time to hex the patriarchy. Sure it is. But not all men are part of the patriarchy. Many enable, support, mentor and cheer for women. I think we are ready for a little more nuance beyond the black and white of male and female conflict.

Overall a good book, well written with a gripping story. show less

I’m a sucker for a quirky title, and, conveniently for me, I’m also a sucker for books about witches. But more than anything else, I am a sucker for an intersectional feminist novel. Lucky St. James is familiar with the magic of her indigenous ancestors, sure, but just how relevant this history will become develops over the course of this whirlwind adventure novel- at the center of which is the sheer significance of female relationships.
VenCo is a quick-paced adventure story of a young woman discovering herself, her family, and the importance of both. It’s touching without being mushy and so exciting!