“Preppy witches with underdeveloped interpersonal relationships solve a mystery.” If I had known that’s what this was I would have been much less likely to pick it up.
The setting of “witch highschool” felt unoriginal, and the pleated mini skirts and blazers that were paired with comically large pointed hats read more like people dressing up like witches than any sort of actual magician. Considering the mystery(which is that the main character's friend goes missing in the woods) I think it might have been more interesting to set the story in a realistic contemporary setting and lean into the horror aspect of the mystery, thus heightening the fear of the main characters who would be dealing with things not of their world.
I have several other issues with the book, a rather significant one being that I thought the mystery was confusing, but in addition to that, I found the characters boring and was annoyed by the fact that two of them ended up together with less than adequate foreshadowing.
I’m disappointed because this had potential and I would love to read a similar novel with better characters and some more originality.