Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire

This was so stinking cute. I really loved the way that Don Martin wove a cute, cozy Appalachian town with an absolutely terrifying eldritch nightmare in the woods. Being raised in the South I know better than to listen to the voices in the Appalachian woods, but he does a great job here with using that lore and mythology to build a rich and satisfying mystery.

Verity herself is a really intrepid, thoughtful protagonist, and I love her familiar, Jack, more than life itself. I used to live with a black cat (aka a void) named Batman, once upon a time, and Jack is a fantastic void indeed. He had such personality!!

Recommended by Caitlin S.

Verity Vox, witch in training, has finished her year in a small apartment above a bakery and heads to her next post, a small Appalachian town cut off from the rest of the world and cursed by a man calling himself King Earl. Verity and her familiar, Jack-Be-Nimble (often in the form of an adult black cat or a kitten), meet and befriend Gilly Green and learn the lay of the land. Verity uses her magic (words-and-music-based) to repair broken items and return them to the townspeople, and to help their barren gardens and sickly farm animals thrive again - but it's all a band-aid on the constant wound of Earl's curse, and soon Verity must face him and his deal-making magic head-on and sacrifice for the people she is show more coming to love.

See also: Kiki's Delivery Service, Alix Harrow, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Quotes

There was a power in words and that power grew the more those words found a life outside of the writer. (9)

A bubble of possibility exists in moments when two people are about to go in separate directions, and all sorts of wild magic exist in liminal spaces. (18)

Her worth and belonging were all tied up in the value she provided others. (102)

She would succeed because she believed she could. What was magic after all but having the gall to believe you could tell the world around you how it ought to be and then watching as it did as it was told? (139)

But if she could just keep flying, just keep running, just keep fixing tiny problems as they arose, she could ignore the looming pit in her stomach....that something was wrong. (210)

She told herself that her magic had defined her worthiness, thus without it - without all of it - she must be worth less. (247)

"Every experience is a learning experience when you're a witch in training." (275)

...sometimes we must fight monsters so that others don't have to. (300)

"...power does not solve everything. In fact, it can keep you from learning. Power must be measured with wisdom and humility and care." (306) show less