The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review.

What a beautiful beautiful book. I was so excited to read this because the words 'queer witches' are instant attention-grabbers for me, and thankfully The Lost Coast did not disappoint. This is the story of a close-knit group of witches who live in a town surrounded by redwoods. One of their group has recently 'changed' so while she is physically present, she is no longer herself mentally. They cast a spell to call someone to them to help find her and the spell brings Danny, a girl who does not know she is a witch but has strong finding magic. When Danny arrives, a boy is found dead and the mystery behind what happened to their friend becomes a little more complicated.

I think the first thing I have to discuss about this book is the writing style. I am normally not a fan of overly poetic books and this certainly counts as one. Usually extended metaphors and dreamy prose yank me out of the story and distract me from the plot. However, Capetta's writing is beautiful and I found the story so compelling that it was only occasionally that the flowery language distracted me. It still did happen but there were also some powerful and/or beautiful sentences which I really did love. This writing style definitely won't be for everyone though and it's something to bear in mind. The book also switched between third and first person between chapters which bothered me at first but I soon got used to. Again, I can see this bothering some people.

The characters are perhaps this book's biggest strength. I didn't quite fall in love with everyone in the admittedly-large cast but I almost did. Hawthorne was definitely the weakest and I kept getting her mixed up with Haven due to their similar names. Everyone else had fairly distinct personalities and I found myself missing them in the second half where there seems to be less focus on the side characters. There is a lot of queer content in this which was great and it was incorporated well into the plot. The plot itself is actually stronger than I expected from this kind of story and I found the ending satisfying which almost never happens with books where plot isn't the main focus.

Overall, this is a gorgeously-written and compelling book about queer witches and the complexities of close-knit groups. If you like the sound of this book, you're almost certain to enjoy it as the blurb gives a perfect sense of what you're going to get. This is a standalone as far as I'm aware and I'm not sure a sequel would work but I almost wish I had more from this world and I would certainly love more about these characters. I will definitely be keeping an eye on Capetta's future work.

Overall Rating:

.5