The Book Witch
Shaffer, Meg. The Book Witch. New York, NY : Ballantine Books, 2026.
Content Warnings: Grief, Death of Parent
“The fictional characters we love stamp their names on our hearts. They show us how to fight our battles, how to change, how to make it to page three hundred a different person than we were on page one.”
Think of your favorite fiction book (or one of your favorites, if it’s too hard to narrow it down). Who was your favorite character? How did encountering their story make you a better person, or at least a different person? The relationships we form with our favorite books and the characters within them can feel larger than life, just as real as those with our friends or family. What if you discovered that you meant just as much to your favorite book character as they did to you – and that maybe the distinction between real and fictional wasn’t as clear cut as you once thought?
Rainy March, third-generation Book Witch, is very good at her job. Well, parts of it. She’s incredibly good at a Book Witch’s main mission: protecting works of fiction from harm, whether that comes in the form of tracking down errant heroines who have wandered from Jane Austen’s pages in search of a more modern scene, or valiantly facing off against Burners, those who attempt to use whatever means necessary to censor and rid the world of books they deem dangerous or unfit. With her cat familiar by her side and magical umbrella in hand, Rainy magically and skillfully jumps into and out of stories, working in both the real world and fictional ones to fulfill her missions. She’s not quite as good, however, at following Book Witch rules about real people belonging in the real world and fictional characters belonging in their fictional worlds – particularly when it comes to a certain fictional character, the Duke of Chicago. The pair have been forbidden from seeing each other after falling in love two years ago. But when Rainy’s grandfather disappears while on a secret mission, Duke is the only person Rainy trusts enough to turn to for help. As they follow an ever-increasingly confusing web of clues, Rainy and Duke begin to uncover long-buried secrets and to discover that the boundary between their worlds may be thinner than they ever dared dream.
This is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year and possibly ever. I picked it up because the grown-up library kid in me would jump at the chance to go through the wardrobe to Narnia or to join Jack and Annie in their magic tree house. There are countless books from various points in my life that I’d love to hop into and spend an afternoon. Once I started reading, I found that beyond being an enjoyable read and an intriguing mystery, both of which it is, this book feels very timely. Now more than ever, many feel the need for a hero like Rainy March, Book Witch to swoop in and save the day amid the ever-present threat of book bans and censorship of all kinds. Yet Shaffer’s message of hope goes beyond merely wishing for a caped crusader, or one with a magical umbrella, as it may be. At its heart, this book is a love letter to books and reading, to the shared yet individual experience of connecting with a story so deeply that it feels like magic. It leaves you changed, more empathetic. More human. And isn’t that worth protecting?
Joan H.-C. is a Library Assistant in Children’s Services at May Memorial Library