Wild and Wicked Things: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller and Tiktok Sensation

Product Information

A beautiful setting, wonderful prose, and a magical world with a lot of darkness surrounding it. It's The Great Gatsby meets Practical Magic with some great witchy vibes, some dark atmosphere, and a little bit of romance. Thanks Orbit Books for the gifted read! WAWT had so much potential with its subject matter but it basically just ended up being a forced mash up of Practical Magic and Great Gatsby mixed with the randomness of the film Shutter Island. And both of these characters together, their romance, their attraction was so palatable throughout the story. I wouldn't say that there were strong romantic elements to the story, but the way they see each other, the way they felt was so prevalent and really engaging. May seamlessly transports readers to the shores of Crow Island, straight into the shoes of Annie and de facto coven leader Emmeline Delacroix. Annie is whisked away by the island’s enchantment, and May’s prose echoes F. Scott Fitzgerald to capture the finery and wild parties of the era. And while Annie originally thinks she’s being bewitched by the coven’s magic or the island, she comes to realize that she is simply following her innermost desires. The supposedly cursed island gives her time and space to come to terms with grief over lost loved ones and her internalized shunning of her sapphic sexuality. Emmeline’s inexplicable and undeniable magnetism is a clever plot complication but also the perfect setup for a passionate, slow-burning queer romance that feels forged in destiny.

I also was given no information on what kazam was, aside from a magical drink. What did it do aside from get people both high and drunk? Was it just like a different, enchanted form of alcohol? When Annie arrives there, she immediately sees the eponymous, eerie crows --- mythologized to be the ghosts of real witches --- but settles quietly into a remote cabin while she waits for her meeting with her father’s lawyer. However, during her first night there, she learns that her “remote” cabin is next door to the most extravagant mansion on the island: the home of Emmeline Delacroix, Crow Island’s most mysterious and most public witch. Emmeline and her housemates host glittering, luxurious parties every weekend, and all of the island’s wealthiest citizens are always in attendance…at least in part to pay for Emmeline’s gifts of fortune-telling, wish-granting and secret-keeping. I read this during a readalong and it was literally the only reason that i persevered and got through such a horrendous mash up of words ive recently come across. As I’ve mentioned the characters were all deeply flawed but so compelling that I adored reading about them. I related a lot to Annie, our main character, who has always felt meek and timid, and been written off for that. Seeing her come into herself in this book was a delight. Emmeline was another interesting character: the definition of morally grey, alluring and with a dark past. I loved the complex relationships between them all too: the sibling bond between the witches of the Delacroix house, the old friendship between Bea and Annie and the new blossoming relationship between Annie and Emmeline. Though I would have liked to see a bit more development on the romance and that’s what stopped this book from getting five stars.How can a book be both hopeful and dark? In many ways, this book was definitely one of the darker stories I've read. There's a large number of trigger warnings plus the magic in it gets pretty dark with the usage of blood, zombies, and power grabs, but this book is also about finding yourself, finding your people, and finding the strength to let go.

The world-building was really cool, incorporating witchcraft and magic into WWI-era history. Historical fantasies are generally interesting, and this followed the pattern. But the magic wasn’t explained to me very well. The book focuses more on the characters than the plot, but the plot was something interesting to behold. I loved getting to know these characters. Annie is my favorite and her precociousness, her innocence, and her strength were greatly admired while I read. The book is written in dual perspectives, but I couldn't wait to read Annie's parts. I also loved watching Annie come to terms with her sexuality and by the end, owning it like it made sense the entire time. I loved that! Their romance was mostly summed up by the magical tether that inexplicably bound them, which bugged me a bit. Why do they have this mystical connection, what does it do and why is their only reason to be attracted to each other? The romance also was not the best. I was expecting some tension and intrigue and just…attraction? I don’t ship couples very much, but I was waiting to start rooting for Emmeline and Annie, and I never got around to doing that. Magic is often presented in the society of the novel as a frowned-upon practice, functioning as a smart metaphor for homosexuality. Indeed, Emmeline herself is often portrayed as a mysterious and malevolent force, her predation upon young women playing into age-old, harmful tropes that many will be familiar with.

Annie specifically wasn’t my favorite protagonist. I loved that she started out as this naïve, clueless woman, because it was both realistic and something that I don’t see often, but I think a lot of the plot was devoted to what should have been her “development” that for me just wasn’t there. She was supposed to be growing and sort of waking up to the reality of how things are, and I just got a lot of indecision. TLDR: While this is a historic fantasy, and has a Gatsby feel, the witch story also reminded me of a more depressing Practical Magic (movie version). If you are a fan of either of those, this book might be for you. As a very character driven reader, I had trouble connecting to this story because of not liking the characters but this author definitely has talent and the book was well written. On Crow Island, people whispered, real magic lurked just below the surface. But Annie Mason never expected her enigmatic new neighbour to be a witch.

I wish there had been more world-building; while the history of the world and such was well established, the magic system felt very ambiguous, and even a little more explanation would have made the plot and stakes clearer and everything make a bit more sense. While I recognize that this was likely part of the atmosphere that the author was attempting to create, I think that this particular category of withheld information was a poor choice on May’s part. Which, honestly, was a mood, because I am both of those things. But it didn’t give me a lot of the storyline that I’d been waiting for.

It had a lot of great things going for it. The atmosphere was incredible: I could really get the feel of a spooky, small island shrouded in fog and all the mysterious goings-on that make the protagonist fear for her life and sanity. And I adored Annie and Bea as characters - they frustrated me a lot, but I really appreciated their struggles and how they were portrayed in general. The characters were all great and I loved how distinct everyone was, but I also felt like they could have been developed a lot more. I kept expecting more layering and depth from each character, and I couldn’t find it as I read. Drawn to Crow Island to settle some routine legal affairs following the death of her father, Annie Mason walks the shore of her holiday cottage, drawn along the beach to the revelries of the manor next door.