"Thoughts are dangerous, he told himself, and thoughts against all science, all sanity, all civilized intelligence, are the most dangerous of all. He felt their presence here and there in his brain, like pockets of poison, harmless as long as you left them encysted and did not prick them."

When I had my vintage horror shopping spree a couple of months ago, the cover made me believe this would be Gothic horror set in the 19th or early 20th century (did I even bother reading the blurb?). I was a bit surprised to find that it's set in the 40s in a small college town.

Luckily, that didn't turn out to be an issue, because I absolutely loved Leiber's writing. I did kind of zone out a little whenever the philosophical/psychological lectures came up, but mostly Conjure Wife is a real page-turner with a dash of literary fiction thrown in the mix. I particularly enjoyed the twists towards the end.

As witchcraft is suggested as being an open secret among women, you can tell something is about to brew, when Norman finds out in the early chapters that his wife, Tansy, is a witch and he destroys all her witchy things. None of what happens feels implausible, because Leiber weaves modern world and witchcraft so skillfully together.

There are a couple of movie adaptations as well, but I finally joined Letterboxd, so I'm probably going to share the full reviews in my bookstagram stories at some point. Witchy movies during the holidays actually sounds pretty fun!