*Thank you to Little Brown Books for the advanced copy for review*

I went into this expecting a sweet little story about a young girl becoming a witch and becoming more herself, which is what I got.

To be honest, this isn't anything groundbreaking, plot-wise or artistically (Beetle and the Hollowbones is a similar [...and better...] book, off the top of my head). Lilla being a witch seems really incidental to the plot, as well. If she wasn't (and even if Streggamamma wasn't a threat), the core wouldn't have changed. ( )

Eleanor Crewes' children's fantasy goes down a little more smoothly for me than her graphic memoir, The Times I Knew I Was Gay. It's a pretty standard tale about a 13-year-old discovering a family secret regarding witchcraft, but the Italian setting is refreshing, the seduction of evil is effectively creepy, and Lilla's adolescent turmoil is handled well.

I look forward to seeing what Crews does next. ( )