Adrienne Young's novels have always been a love-hate relationship for me. I've fallen quickly in love with her lyrical sentences, dynamic characters, and interesting synopses, but the endings always lack resolution and a satisfying end. Spells for Forgetting was my last ditch effort for Adrienne's work because it's her first step into adult, which requires a different writing style, especially within the techniques of storytelling. For basically 95% of this story, I believed wholeheartedly that Spells for Forgetting finally broke the trend when it comes to my relationships with Adrienne's books... And with only 2% left in the story... The climax ends abruptly, and we are thrown into a six years time jump that gives us zero answers or clues about what happens post-climax. I'm planning to write a full spoiler review probably after the publication date because I REALLY want to get into the details via this book.

But let's backtrack because I do want to talk about the elements I initially was in love with. Spells for Forgetting made me think of Stars Hollow meets We Were Liars with a splash of island magic. It was a wonderful blend of interesting plot elements, and I was DYING to read this. I've been drawn to contemporary fantasy for all of 2022, so it was no surprise to me that this book fit the bill perfectly.

Anyway, there's multiple POVs, but the two main ones are August Salt and Emery Blackwood. The two were high school sweethearts before the fateful night where their friend Lily was murdered and August's family orchard burned, leading the people of Saoirse to believe August as the prime subject. Spells for Forgetting starts with August returning to Saoirse after nearly a decade and a half away from the island (his mom and him vanished shortly after he was not charged), and he's returned to bury his mother's ashes and sell what's left of his family's orchard and belongings. With romantic tension, unsolved mysteries, and cunning citizens of Saoirse, the story has loads of details and side plots to unpack as well as the overarching one.

First up in terms of characters—August. He was my favorite part of this story because he is in such a unique position. He's been away from the island and the manipulative/ toxic tendencies embedded within the people who live there for over a decade. But he's also felt the island calling out to him. What is this and what does it mean—is a driving question for the book. His mother wanted to be buried back on Saoirse for a reason, so what power does this island hold over its inhabitants? Now in a separate vein, August hates his family history and connection to the orchard. He has a lot of bad memories connected to it, so his feelings in returning to the island are not only complicated because Emery, the love of his life, is there but also his twisted family memories too. Cue the cruel, horrific grandpa! Basically, August's honestly just along for the ride because he's done very little wrongs to Saoirse (that was know of hehe), yet everyone claims he's the biggest monster.

Switching to Emery, I wholly enjoyed her character because she's also been through a lot, but in a different lens since she decided to stay on Saoirse. I could never imagine losing a friend at such a young age, not to mention my boyfriend disappearing shortly after, and then being forced to move on with my life. Her mini detective skills were amateurish but endearing to watch unfold too. My one gripe is that Emery makes a lot of stupid decisions. She's not careful when it comes to her clues, and she trusts the absolute wrong people. Obviously, that's a main factor to the people of Saoirse and the plot, but I was not excited to see it happen. Adrienne really leans into character mistakes, which I typically love, but at a certain point you have to cool it or you risk your character looking dumb. Better yet make August look more dumb so its equally distributed haha and not just the woman lead.

In terms of the island Saoirse— I have way too many questions and issues. I touched on it a bit earlier with my question surrounding the island, but I thought the ending would give me plenty of closure about the particular details to the island's magic. At times it seems as if the island is sentient. It gives magic to certain individuals and can take it away. It knows and feels what is happening. Yet there is never a moment where this is truly addressed, and granted, not all stories need their magic systems to be addressed but the fact that Saoirse seems to surpass the normal parameters of an island makes me want more information. A main quote sprinkled throughout the entire book is "if you left the island, it would always call you back." Why is that? It's certainly not the people, so again, what specifically is calling August and his mother back? What is making their bodies feel drawn to this piece of rock floating on water? I thought the climax would address this, but it didn't.

Now I'm jumping into the deep end that is this ending. There is simply too many open ended questions and parts to this story during both the climax and epilogue. Honestly, the epilogue upset me even more than the climax because it doesn't even address the consequences of the final scene. What happened to the bad guys? The information? The island?! We are left dangling over a cliff, and instead of helping guide us down the rocky terrain, we're pushed off with no hope of a safe landing. It's essentially just the two surviving characters running and then nothing. I don't know if Adrienne is trying to purposefully leave the island and everything open to interpretation, but that decision was not good. ALSO—complete side note—Lily was done SO dirty. I can't really go into more detail at this point, but my mouth was gaping like a fish as I read her chapter. I'm all for complicated female friendships, but this one was just... Not good.

I think what hurts the most is that the set up and first 90% of Spells for Forgetting were absolutely phenomenal. I was so excited to unravel the secrets of Saoirse and its people, and for those secrets to be underwhelming and lacking detail just sent me off the rails. My disappointment hasn't been this strong in a long time. I'm leaving my ranking at a two because I want to acknowledge the lyrical writing and great start to my reading experience, but I cannot give this higher after what the ending did to me.

Thank you to Delacorte and NetGalley for the allowing me to review an eARC.

9/3/22: RTC but that ending has waaaay too many issues and open ended questions. We jump from the climactic scene to an epilogue 6+ years in the future? Is Saoirse (the island) sentient or not? And if it is—why is there never a clear scene depicting this revelation? I’m so confused. Make that make sense.

I’ve always had a mixed feelings relationship with Adrienne’s books, but this one takes the cake because I actually REALLY enjoyed it. It is her top novel in my book because of her dynamic plot, alluring setting/ tension, and even the complicated characters. You can see her growth as a writer, and I was hyped during like 95% of this book. BUT this ending made me mad, kinda enraged to be honest because I was enjoying it so much. I was glancing nonstop between my 98% completed and the text itself because where was the rest? There. Had. To. Be. More. And there wasn’t. I had no satisfaction with this ending, and it dropped this book from a ★ 3.75 or 4 to a ★ 3.25. Maybe that’s too harsh but I’m truly so upset with this ending, essentially dropping me off into the ocean without a life jacket and drowning with the lack of closure and answers.