I bought this from a local BC author at an artisan market in the summer, and she even signed it for me. Finally got around to reading it now.

Read: Feb. 5 – Feb. 6, 2025

Genre: Fantasy, Coming of Age
Audience: Teen, Young Adult
Book contains: racism, mild gore, stalking

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

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Wasn’t Expecting the Twist!

Kira Montgomery has a hard enough life in the small town of Hope. Her father has just died of cancer, she’s bullied at school for being a violin prodigy and a “nerd”, and to top it all off, a mysterious new fiddler has arrived in town catching the attention of everyone with her Celtic tunes. When dead birds and threatening graffiti starts showing up, Kira thinks she knows exactly who’s behind it. Can she convince anyone?

This book was a decent enough read, though my enjoyment was soured by the author’s rudeness to me on social media. Nonetheless, I finished the novel and have much to say.

The book is told in first person present tense, which is a switch-up from my latest reads. Quite refreshing. The mystery is strung throughout, since the main character is only fourteen-years-old and doesn’t know much, so the reader is learning new details just as she does. The only major problem I found with it is that my book designer brain was annoyed by the sloppiness of the design. To the average reader, it’s okay, but I kept getting hung up on such details; I even initially thought it was self-published, as some self-published authors don’t know what to look for and therefore their books look less professional.

Since there’s no audiobook (yet?) I read this book the old-fashioned way, cuddled up on my armchair in my favourite fuzzy blankets. I could easily sit and read this book for a few hours at a time; nothing too overwhelming that meant I’d need to put it down to digest.

Fourteen-year-old Kira and her best friend Charlotte are both violin students, but after the death of her father, Kira puts down her violin. She’s slipping in school, getting into fights with the bullies who make fun of her friend for being Chinese. She starts getting into trouble, all because she feels alone and misunderstood as the rest of the town seems bewitched by Kate McDonough, a red-haired fiddler who’s taking over the town with her music.

Montigny explored quite a few relationships within this novel, especially revolving around death/hardship and how it affects people and their behaviour. Kira is struggling with the death of her father, the bullies at school are misunderstood, and Kira’s best friend Charlotte is dealing with racism for being the only Asian kid in the small-town school. The rivalry between Kira and her younger brother was very relatable, and the distance she’s putting between herself and her loved ones is understandable as she tries to distract herself by solving the mystery in the town.

That said, it wasn’t a life-changing book. There were quite a few cliches. Kira wasn’t the most likable main character, and I didn’t really find myself rooting for her. I found myself groaning at some of the things she did, wishing the story would follow a different character. I still got through to the end, and I enjoyed reading it, I guess.

The book started off strong, but it took a while to get to the good bits, and the mystery revolving around Kate McDonough felt like it dragged on forever. Nonetheless, the overall pacing was good.

I’d recommend this book to young teens (12 to 16 years old) living in small towns—especially BC, since it’s fun to have stories told in towns/cities you know. It’s a pretty good mystery story.

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A Town Bewitched by Suazanne de Montigny
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