![]() And yet she still manages to ground the supernatural in the realism of a fleshed-out, messy Canadian setting. Sambury’s eerie and evocative prose makes Voya’s world burst with emotion, science, magic, and gore. Voya will feel especially real to Black readers who know what it’s like to need coconut oil for your hair. Voya’s identities as a Black girl and as a witch saturate every page, in details from the social commentary to the food (you will be hungry reading this book). The problem? She’s never been in love and she doesn’t have long to find, fall for, and kill her perfect match. Fail it and your entire family’s reputation and ability to use magic fall to ruin. ![]() Pass it and you receive your unique powers. The trial is relatively simple but the stakes are high: the witch-in-training is visited by an honoured ancestor who assigns her a test. On the day she has her first period, she gains access to her powers through a coming-of-age trial. ![]() Set in futuristic Toronto, Blood Like Magic centres on Voya Thomas, a 16-year-old with a family heritage of witchcraft. In Sambury’s story world, blood is a matriarchal inheritance: a girl’s transition into her own selfhood and power. In Toronto author Liselle Sambury’s Blood Like Magic, blood signifies other things, too – notably our link to our ancestry and community, living and non-living alike. We’re taught to fear blood, maybe because it’s so often tied to death and gore. ![]()
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