Jennie Jacques Instagram – Love, lust, hatred, murder. Bullying & control. Sprinkle some domestic abuse (& teenage angst!) into the cauldron & we’re cookin up Thread Needle 🪡 🌙 Do not forget the hefty ladle of Witchcraft! Love this book. Right up my street & set in my fave City, London! A curse hangs over Anna – protagonist – & as her 16th birthday approaches, she unravels a web of lies; spun largely by her “caretaker,” Aunt Vivienne. The deception revolves around the stabbing of her Mother, Aunts sister, & suicide of her Father. The themes are bold with oppression, deceit & dirty family secrets at the heart of it. But it’s not all doom & gloom. There’s humour, a coming-of-age vibe to it & new friendship(s) forged – just be mindful who you trust. Anna attends a standard city school where she attempts to lay low & float through year 11 as “a nobody,” but her popularity is on the cusp of great change. A charismatic young Effie & charming Attis come together as a package (or a grenade?) stirring up mischief & ultimately start a coven! Most of the students do not have any hidden powers – some girls are just Bitches not Witches 😂 – but Effie & Attis are fast to recruit the few who can cast spells. I won’t give much away because I don’t want to ruin the flight 🧹 This is the 1st book in #carithomas Language of Magic series – I’m hooked. Setting it in London provides immediate enchantment 🪄 & gets vamped up a notch (or ten!) for hidden within the boroughs are 🤫 entries to other places… Thomas introduces Anna (& the reader!) to a London “where libraries made of books breathe dusty pages beneath the city and witch clubs serve up magical cocktails and vintage shops sell memories.” As the author reinstates this is “A world where magic gleams both light and very, very dark.” Not for the faint-hearted. Although Anna has always known she’s a witch, her Aunt is a Binder & has done her utmost to curb Anna’s powers; why? An example of the level of cruelty is if Anna gets too lippy the old Aunt sews 🧵 her nieces mouth shut 🤐 Another is the slow poising of Anna’s milk… Sacrifice, hexes & manipulation drive the narrative. 4.8/5 #bookstagram #bookreview