ARC Review: Southern Fried Wiccan

Southern Fried Wiccan by S.P. Sipal

Publisher: BookFish Books, 2015

173 page, kindle edition

Source: Netgalley

Release Date: March 24th 2015

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

Links: Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon AU | Amazon UK

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Cilla Swaney is thrilled to return stateside, where she can hang up her military-brat boots for good. Finally, she’ll be free to explore her own interests—magick and Wicca. But when she arrives at her grandma’s farm, Cilla discovers that life in the South isn’t quite what she expected. At least while country hopping, she never had to drink G-ma’s crazy fermented concoctions, attend church youth group, make co-op deliveries...or share her locker with a snake-loving, fire-lighting, grimoire-stealing Goth girl…

…Who later invites her to a coven that Cilla’s not sure she has the guts to attend. But then Emilio, the dark-haired hottie from her charter school, shows up and awakens her inner goddess. Finally, Cilla starts believing in her ability to conjure magick. Until…

…All Hades breaks loose. A prank goes wrong during their high school production of Macbeth, and although it seems Emilio is to blame, Cilla and Goth pay the price. Will Cilla be able to keep the boy, her coven, and the trust of her family? Or will this Southern Wiccan get battered and fried?

My Review:

I was a little unsure of what to expect when I started Sipal's Southern Fried Wiccan. The premise sounded cute and I thought the title was clever. What I got was a coming-of-age tale of a military brat who is trying to find her place in the world. The addition of religion was not over-bearing or meant to sway the reader one way or another. This is simply about a girl who is on the path to self-discovery and she uses wicca to find herself. I loved the incorporation of MacBeth, it really added a lot of depth and flair to the story. I also adored Cilla. She was easy to relate to. If I were still in high school, I could easily see myself becoming friends with her. I also cherished Cilla's family, particarly her grandmother. I would love to have a "G-ma" like Cilla, who is into making her own tea, and grows and sells organic vegetables. Overall, this is a sweet southern tale. I will definitely make a note to read more from Sipal in the future!

My Rating:

Author Bio:

Susan Sipal had to travel halfway across the world and return home to embrace her father and grandfather's penchant for telling a tall tale. After having lived with her husband in his homeland of Turkey for many years, she suddenly saw the world with new eyes and had to write about it. Perhaps it was the emptiness of the Library of Celsus at Ephesus that cried out to be refilled, or the myths surrounding the ancient Temple of Artemis, but she's been writing stories filled with myth and mystery ever since.

When not writing--wait, scratch that--she's always writing. Actually, she does have one other interest besides making sense of the voices constantly yabbering in her head (and her family, of course). She's heavily into nutrition and traditional foods. Her kitchen is usually filled with fermenting, bubbling concoctions of yesteryear.

Her small farm, however, is filled with kids and animals. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, two kids, one dog, two rabbits (though that's about to soon multiply), three cats, six goldfish, a dozen chickens, and too many frogs to count.

She is best known as an analyst of the Harry Potter series, with essays published both in the US and the UK discussing the alchemical and Egyptian metaphors. Along with multiple writing-craft workshops, Susan has spoken on the mythological underpinnings of Harry Potter at several fan-based and academic conferences in the US and England.

Author Link: Website | Twitter  | Goodreads