FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile
Michelle St. John performs this witchy novel by Métis author Cherie Dimaline. Lucky lives with her ailing grandmother in Toronto. With the rent due and being short on funds, Lucky agrees to interview for a well-paying job with the mysterious organization VenCo. But instead of a company, Lucky discovers a coven of witches. St. John captures the sinister atmosphere and the mysterious entities seeking to control Lucky, who at first has little idea of what is happening. St. John moves with ease among the many characters, skillfully performing their perspectives. Her narration keeps listeners delightfully on the edge of their seats. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
10/10/2022
Dimaline (Empire of Wild) underwhelms in this clunky feminist fantasy. Half-Métis Torontonian Lucky St. James is an underemployed, burned-out caregiver to her grandmother Stella. Then she finds a magical spoon, discovers she’s a witch, and moves to Salem with Stella to join a fledgling coven. The coven will usher in a new era—but only if all seven magical spoons in existence can be found by other unknowing witches like Lucky before the Benandanti, a group of misogynist witch hunters, can find them first. Dimaline’s trans-inclusive, BIPOC cast is admirable, but she works in their perspectives in the clunkiest way possible, interrupting the narrative at odd moments to give nearly every supporting character a POV section used to convey unwieldy backstory and describe prophetic dreams. Though this aspires to be literary fantasy—and indeed Dimaline’s prose is strong—the plot feels oddly like a mid-’90s girl power YA fantasy and offers frustratingly shallow readings of both historical events and contemporary power structures. The main villain falls particularly flat: a member of the Benandanti pointedly named Jay Christos, who’s only ever shown negging, sexually assaulting, and/or murdering everyone he meets; he’s more cardboard cutout than character. All but Dimaline’s most devoted fans can skip this one. Agent: Ron Eckel, CookeMcDermid Litarary. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Crackling with magic, mystery, adventure, and intrigue, VenCo is a captivating tribute to the bonds of families we are born into and the ones that we create, and a delightful testament to the power of all womankind.” — Nikki Erlick, New York Times bestselling author of The Measure
"An absolute thrill ride of a book, a page-turner of the highest order. VenCo is a powerful and unique reading experience, threaded through with humour and peril. It’s a perfect novel for a winter’s day, because sometimes, our reading life needs a touch of magic." — Toronto Star
“Spellbinding and utterly original, VenCo shows the power women can wield when we join forces.” — Kirsten Miller, author of The Change
"A gripping, witchy romp of a novel. It's impossible not fall in love with Stella and Lucky." — Buzzfeed
"Once I opened VenCo, I was propelled through an entire night of charmed reading. Cherie Dimaline creates a world utterly fantastical, yet real. VenCo is funny, tense, and cracking with a dark, divine energy." — Louise Erdrich, New York Times bestselling author of The Sentence
"Fast, fun, full of charms...A propulsive read full of intriguing detail, this novel is well-written, engaging, and, more than anything, enjoyable. The reader will feel genuine affection for Dimaline’s irreverent, badass witches as they battle for the future of their family and the future of the world, one and the same in Dimaline’s inclusive vision." — Kirkus Reviews
“Empire of Wild is doing everything I love in a contemporary novel and more. It is tough, funny, beautiful, honest and propulsive—all the while telling a story that needs to be told by a person who needs to be telling it. The book feels like now, and we need more stories from Native communities to feel that way. Cherie Dimaline is a voice that feels both inevitable and necessary.” — Tommy Orange, author of There There
“Deftly written, gripping and informative. Empire of Wild is a rip-roaring read!” — Margaret Atwood, from Instagram
“Close, tight, stark, beautiful…Dimaline has crafted something both current and timeless, mythic but personal.” — NPR on Empire of Wild
“Inventive, passionate… Smartly written with believable characters, a tight plot, and breathtaking sentences, this is a must-read literary thriller.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review, on Empire of Wild
“Electrifying.” — Harper’s Bazaar, best books to read this year, on Empire of Wild
New York Times bestselling author Nikki Erlick
Crackling with magic, mystery, adventure, and intrigue, VenCo is a captivating tribute to the bonds of families we are born into and the ones that we create, and a delightful testament to the power of all womankind.”
NPR on Empire of Wild
Close, tight, stark, beautiful…Dimaline has crafted something both current and timeless, mythic but personal.
Tommy Orange
Empire of Wild is doing everything I love in a contemporary novel and more. It is tough, funny, beautiful, honest and propulsive—all the while telling a story that needs to be told by a person who needs to be telling it. The book feels like now, and we need more stories from Native communities to feel that way. Cherie Dimaline is a voice that feels both inevitable and necessary.
Harper’s Bazaar
Electrifying.”
Margaret Atwood
Deftly written, gripping and informative. Empire of Wild is a rip-roaring read!
Library Journal
11/01/2022
Lucky St. James is facing eviction in Toronto while caring for her grandmother, Stella, who's struggling with dementia. Her life changes when she finds a silver spoon, one of seven belonging to a coven of witches, masquerading as a company called VenCo who are destined to change the world. Lucky is the sixth to find her spoon. Now it's her job to locate the seventh spoon and the witch it's meant for before time runs out—and before she's caught by Jay, a powerful witch hunter motivated by a centuries-old grudge. As Lucky and Stella head to New Orleans in search of the spoon, they journey through an American landscape populated with wise women working against the oppressive forces of patriarchy and capitalism. The regionally based magic system values multicultural traditions, including Lucky's Métis Indigenous knowledge. The perspective shifts between a large cast, which limits the development of the secondary characters, but the strong through line of Lucky's familial relationship with Stella spurs her, and the novel, on. VERDICT Dimaline's latest adult work (after Empire of Wild) will appeal to readers looking for feminist tales of women hexing the patriarchy.—Erin Niederberger
FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile
Michelle St. John performs this witchy novel by Métis author Cherie Dimaline. Lucky lives with her ailing grandmother in Toronto. With the rent due and being short on funds, Lucky agrees to interview for a well-paying job with the mysterious organization VenCo. But instead of a company, Lucky discovers a coven of witches. St. John captures the sinister atmosphere and the mysterious entities seeking to control Lucky, who at first has little idea of what is happening. St. John moves with ease among the many characters, skillfully performing their perspectives. Her narration keeps listeners delightfully on the edge of their seats. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-12-24
A coven of diverse modern-day witches must band together to discover their seventh and final member before they're hunted down.
Lucky St. James’ life has been anything but lucky. Born to the wildly iconoclastic and troubled Arnya, a member of Canada’s Indigenous Métis people, Lucky was largely raised by her paternal grandmother, Stella, after her mother’s early death and her father's disappearance "down an opioid drain hole." Now in her late 20s, she's trying to hold a job, manage Stella’s increasing dementia, and stare down her and Stella’s impending eviction from their Toronto apartment. Lucky’s life seems impossible—and then she finds the spoon. Tiny, ornamental, adorned with a witch caricature and labeled SALEM, the spoon seems nothing more than a curio, but, unbeknownst to Lucky, it marks her as the sixth and penultimate member of a coven of contemporary witches who are about to change her life forever. Meena, the descendent of one of the original Salem witches; Wendy, an Anishinaabe woman who has outgrown reservation life; Morticia, a goth terrified of aging into suburban femininity; Lettie, a young Creole mother fleeing an abusive relationship; and Freya, a trans girl from a fundamentalist Christian family, are ready to welcome both Lucky and Stella into their unconventional family circle, but there’s a catch. There's a seventh witch who must be located before the circle can be completed—but no one knows who she is, she could be anywhere in North America, and Lucky and Stella must find her within 17 days. As if this weren’t enough pressure for the bemused but hopeful Lucky and her relentlessly sprightly grandma, there's the added wrinkle of Jay Christos, a ruthless member of the ancient witch-hunting brotherhood the Benandanti who is hot on their tail. A propulsive read full of intriguing detail, this novel is well written, engaging, and, more than anything, enjoyable. If the dichotomy between the feminine (good) and masculine (bad) is a bit stark, this is made up for by the genuine affection the reader will feel for Dimaline’s irreverent, badass witches as they battle for the future of their family and the future of the world, one and the same in Dimaline’s inclusive vision.
Fast, fun, and full of charm(s).
