Book Review: The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton

The Price Guide to the Occult
Author: Leslye Walton
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Release date: March 2018
Pages: 288 pages
R.R.P: $24.99
                                          

When Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island more than a century ago, her otherworldly skills might have benefited friendlier neighbors. Guilt and fear instead led the island’s original eight settlers to burn “the witch” out of her home. So Rona cursed them. Fast-forward one hundred–some years: All Nor Blackburn wants is to live an unremarkable teenage life. She has reason to hope: First, her supernatural powers, if they can be called that, are unexceptional. Second, her love life is nonexistent, which means she might escape the other perverse side effect of the matriarch’s backfiring curse, too. But then a mysterious book comes out, promising to cast any spell for the right price. Nor senses a storm coming and is pretty sure she’ll be smack in the eye of it. In her second novel, Leslye Walton spins a dark, mesmerizing tale of a girl stumbling along the path toward self-acceptance and first love, even as the Price Guide’s malevolent author — Nor’s own mother — looms and threatens to strangle any hope for happiness.

My review

Thoughts on the book: The Price Guide to the Occult tells the story of Nor Blackburn who was born into a well known family of witches on Anathema Island who are cursed long ago by their ancestor Rona Blackburn. All Nor wants though is to live a normal life and forget about all things witchy, especially her mother who would do anything to become a more powerful witch including harming her daughter. But Nor's mother left the island many years ago and no one had heard from her in years until suddenly her mother writes a book with all other families spells in there for the world to see. Each one has a $ price attached but is that the only cost for casting the spell. Soon the whole world is in love with Nor's mother but strange things are happening on the island. Can Nor save herself and the island before its destroyed?


Thank you Walker Books Australia for my ARC copy of The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton. It sounded so amazing in the prologue and I dove into the first chapter with great enthusiasm but was immediately confused as to what was going on. There seemed to be a lot of names pop up with not too much explanation of who they were or why they were being explained. This immediately made it hard for me to actually get into the story and I just got more confused as the story went along. Is isn't know who I was meant to focus on and who to push to the side. Don't get me wrong the actual plot line for the story was amazing and I throughly enjoyed reading about the struggles Nor goes through throughout the book to try and defeat her mum all while trying to keep away from her heritage. I really liked the style of writing though and could see that the author has great potential for a fantastic book but this just wasn't to my liking because of the confusion. 

Unfortunately the book left much to be desired but I would defiantly try and read another book for Leslye Walton.

Rating: 2.5/5









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