The Invocations

A wonderfully written story of desperation, the depths love will drive someone to, magic, and female power.

“She’s deeply disinterested in men, not only on a sexual level, but also on an intellectual one.”

Jude is a great character.

Picked up this book right after the House of Hollow, and finished in two days. This was equally incredible as the prior book!! Of course I expected there would be plot twist, but still it didn't fail to amaze me.

Always loved how Sutherland weaved everything together, and how beautifully it made up the story. This would be a great adaptation for a movie! Cross fingers.

p/s: This book is creepier than the HoH, so please don't read before sleep if you're not looking to get nightmares. Cause I did!

3.5 stars
I have a lot of questions.

The body horror is exquisite. The three female characters are unique and I loved seeing them work together. The ending felt a little cliche, but the strength of the characters and their relationships to each other overcame a lot of my reticence about the ending.

I really enjoy Krystal Sutherland's writing and this book proved that. It was rather slower paced than House of Hollow but I had a good time.

God I love me a good creepy saphic found family ish type book
Must say that I saw the ‘twist' comming from a mile away tho

After reading House of Hollow last year with Destiny and enjoying it I was interested in reading this one however I wasn't in any hurry to get to it. I did end up preordering it though because at the time I really wanted the preorder incentive. Destiny and I decided to buddy read this one together as well. This book was just as gruesome and detailed as House of Hollow. I will say the who done it reveal in the end kind of got me. Definitely didn't see that coming. Also I couldn't really stand one of the main characters which really dampened my enjoyment of the book overall.

I read a hefty chunk of this during a three-day migraine. Day one I could barely read at all, day two I was just so desperate for something to do that wasn't a screen. ???? So that was a new experience for me (I've only been having migraines for a couple years, if that). 

I enjoyed The Invocations a lot. At first I worried the purple prose was going to fall on the wrong side for me but quickly fell in love with the way Sutherland describes everything and paints pictures with words. And the three girls: Jude, Emer, and Zara, felt pretty 3-dimensional to me, to the point that Jude in my mind looked quite different to the Jude on the cover art, the other 2 as well, actually - I struggle to visualise characters at all, usually. I also just adore dark witchy stories. This one has gore, and demons, and dark power, and women who are angry. It really really hit the spot. 

There were a few points that bothered me, however, though they were small niggles rather than outright problems. For one... quite a few typos. I maybe noticed 7 or 8 throughout the book? Which isn't great for a traditionally published book. Not the end of the world though, they don't make it unreadable. Also without spoilers, one character has a magical injury, you learn about it right away when they are introduced, and the extent of the injury and the pain it causes... it really bothered me that they could walk around and do things. Like, yes there were times if they were running or doing manual labour they'd be visibly struggled or just bow out completely, but it's never made into much. I experience some minor pain at times and can't walk when it gets really bad, and there are others who need to constantly use crutches or a wheelchair. Pain like that isn't something that you grin and bear, get used to, magical or not. It wipes you out. I would have at least liked for them to have a walking stick, you know? Would have felt more real. Also: disabled representation, we could always use more.

Aside from that, the rest really are just small things here and there. Perhaps a person feels too much like a walking clich??, something feels a little too convenient, that kind of thing. These are generally things I notice when I read young adult fiction, however, and I tend to just brush them off. The instances in this book where they came up just didn't affect what I was reading. The overall writing and excitement of the story and what was happening to these characters was solid enough that it more than made up for any issues I had. 

If you don't mind a little gore and enjoy dark stories about witches and the occult, with queer leading ladies, nonetheless, you might really get a kick out of The Invocations. And if you do, I definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings, as it is horror. 

Not quite as dark academia as I was originally expecting but Sutherland killed it again with the dark atmospherics that she is well known for. Loved the magic system between demons and witches that she used. All 3 of the main girls were entertaining to read about, they were all well thought out and each brought something to the plot. I even loved Bael who was barely in the book, that's how well she wrote the characters. The mystery was well planned and I did guess the villain but it was still fun to read. I'd honestly love to get a Phoenix House sequel to revisit the girls.