Even now, witches often get a bad rap. But in Misty Bell Stiers’s Witch, Please: Finding Magic in Modern Times, you won’t find any warts, unfashionable hats, or deals with certain fellas sporting hoofed feet and horns. Instead, she details her exploration of world religions until she landed on what works best for her, dispelling myths and sharing Wicca wisdom along the way. Many thanks to Apollo Publishers for the advanced copy to review.
For readers who aren’t in the know, Wicca is a religion based on pre-Christian traditions of western Europe that embraces the power of nature and the preternatural. Similar to her other book—Light, Fire & Abundance, a cookbook based on the magic of mindful culinary skills—Stiers dives into Witch, Please with both the overarching principles as well as the day-to-day ins and outs of this lifestyle after an honest discussion of the other schools of thought she studied before embracing it. Her prose is conversational, inviting her audience to open their minds to her points but also allowing room for readers to come to their own conclusions and to embark on their own quests for knowledge.
Just like any conversation, though, one’s train of thought doesn’t always follow a linear pattern. Readers who pick this book up and expect a typical memoir format may be put off by the inclusion of asides like recipes that break up the author’s personal anecdotes about family life and personal evolution. This kind of organization can make it harder to keep track of the multiple narratives at play, even if they do ultimately contribute to them by underscoring the ways in which Stiers’s life changed and how these practices continue to be so important to her daily routine. It may not be every reader’s cup of tea, but for those who are actively seeking to make adjustments of their own, Witch, Please might just be the ideal guidebook.
That’s not to say that this book has to be a life-altering read for everyone. History buffs, foodies, philosophers—anyone can walk away with some fresh ideas through Stiers’s take on life and the pursuit of knowledge, or read all about it just for the fun of it. That’s the beauty of approaching a question and considering all sides of it; there will be a lot of information to swallow, but that creates an inclusive environment, even if it only exists on the page.
For fans of the knowledgeable but entertaining style of Lights, Camera, Witchcraft: A Critical History of Witches in American Film and Television, or for those who are simply looking to try something new and aren’t sure where to begin, the witticisms and insights in Witch, Please are welcoming, authentic, and proof that there could indeed be a little witch in all of us.
K. Watkins 