Title: VenCo

Author: Cherie Dimaline

Publisher: William Morrow 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 400

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Typographic Cover

Métis millennial Lucky St. James is barely hanging on when she learns she’ll be evicted from the tiny Toronto apartment she shares with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella. But then one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. She burrows through a wall to find a tarnished silver spoon, humming with otherworldly energy, etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM.

Lucky is familiar with the magic of her indigenous ancestors, but she has no idea that the spoon connects her to a teeming network of witches across North America who have anxiously awaited her discovery.

Enter VenCo, a front company fueled by vast resources of dark money (its name is an anagram of “coven.”) VenCo’s witches hide in plain sight wherever women gather: Tupperware parties, Mommy & Me classes, suburban book clubs. Since colonial times, they have awaited the moment the seven spoons will come together and ignite a new era, returning 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.

Our retreat book selection and I’m so excited that I really enjoyed it. Last year’s choice wasn’t a huge hit and the choice the year before was terrible. I picked a good one this year! It took me a few chapters to get into the story, but once Lucky meets the rest of the coven, I was complete drawn in. I really started to connect to every single one of the witches and of course was cheering for their success the entire way through. This is the type of feminist rage book that I love! We are not beating down all men or other women. Instead, we are uplifting women and their choices. We get to see how each of the women in the coven connects to their own power and reaches out to form friendships and familial ties. The book is full of action and adventure but also some great quiet moments between characters.

Next up on the TBR pile: