T5W: Books Featuring Witches

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly thing hosted by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes. This week’s topic is, as the title indicates, books featuring witches. I had a hard time figuring out which books I wanted to include. After looking through GoodReads and my own shelves, I realized that I haven’t read as many books with witches as I thought I had, and of the ones I did read, I only really liked a few of them. I’ve always been fascinated with magic, but, much to my dismay, I’ve mostly seen tv shows with witches in them rather than reading books about witches. I’ll have to change that in the future. But until then, here are my top five books featuring witches.

5 — The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken.

It’s filled with great characters, one of which happens to be a very cool young witch. There are a lot of great elements within the pages of this dreadful tale. It’s basically my 13-year-old self’s biggest dream come true. It made me so nostalgic for simpler times. A time when magic was the only thing on my mind. If you’re looking for a great October read that’s creepy in a good way, then look no further and go get this book.

4 — Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling.

I know, this is an obvious choice. I wasn’t going to include it, but I had to because it’s one of those books that never gets old. It’s familiar and comforting. I’ve read it a couple of times, but I must admit that I’ve watched the movie more times than I can count (which I should do with the book too). When you grew up with the world of Harry Potter, it’s almost a given that it’s going to be a favorite. Whenever I wanted to really relax, I’d put on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. And before that my dad read it aloud to me twice. I have so many great memories attached to this book and the world of Harry Potter.

3 — The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell.

This book sucked me in right away and it didn’t disappoint. It’s without a doubt one of my favorite books of the year. It has magic that has limits, which I find very appealing. I get annoyed when there are no consequences. It features time travel, the majority of the book takes place in the beginning of the 1900’s in New York. I loved experiencing both the amazing setting, the engaging plot and interesting characters. It’s definitely worth the read and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.

2 — The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

I feel like The Raven Boys is one of those books where you love it, but it’s hard to remember what happened when you’re done reading it. Rather than remembering a plot or different scenes, I remember a range of emotions and a magical, dark atmosphere. Which in my opinion is the best. The witches in this series are strange and wonderful. They are powerful women, who take care of their own.

1 — The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

Where do I even begin with this book and what this series means to me. There were so many times where I could see myself in words, sentences and characters, between the lines and right there in front of me. At times it hit so close to home that tears obscured my vision. Quintin Coldwater is one of my favorite characters in literature. I’ve previously written a blog post about some of my favorite quotes, and most of them are from this amazing book. It’s dark and the characters are unlikable, the magic is weird, but everything just makes sense to me. Some people think it’s utterly pretentious, but to me it’s flawed perfection, just like humanity.

Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed reading my first attempt at a T5W post, and let me know what your favorite witchy books are!