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Skulking near the bottom of West High's social pyramid, Sideways Pike lurks under the bleachers doing magic tricks for Coke bottles. As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider, she's had a hard time making friends. But when the three most popular girls pay her $40 to cast a spell at their Halloween party, Sideways gets swept into a new clique. The unholy trinity are dangerous angels, sugar-coated rattlesnakes, and now - unbelievably - Sideways' best friends.
Together, the four bond to form a ferocious and powerful coven. They plan parties, cast curses on dudebros, try to find Sideways a girlfriend, and elude the fundamentalist witch hunters hellbent on stealing their magic. But for Sideways, the hardest part is the whole 'having friends' thing. Who knew that balancing human interaction with supernatural peril could be so complicated?
Rich with the urgency of feral youth, The Scapegracers explores growing up and complex female friendship with all the rage of a teenage girl. It subverts the trope of competitive mean girls and instead portrays a mercilessly supportive clique of diverse and vivid characters. It is an atmospheric, voice-driven novel of the occult, and the first of a three-book series.
The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781645660194
Publisher: Erewhon Books
'The Scapegracers wallops you with all the raw, thrilling vertigo of young love and new friendship, alongside a deeply-plotted mythology that will delight any magic fan. It's a jewel-studded book, with an unearthly glow. You will definitely want to join this coven,' – Jess Zimmerman, author of Basic Witches.
'This is the dark, twisty, witchy book I've always wanted. Hannah's writing is brilliant and gorgeous and firework bright,' – Kat Howard, author of An Unkindness of Magicians.
'A fierce and magnificent debut, raw and wet as bloody scratches from manicured nails…. Clarke tells a violently beautiful story of the magic girls make together, whom it threatens and whom it attracts…. I loved everything about this book, from the hot, suturing needle of Clarke’s prose to the broken-glass grind of Sideways’s voice. Clarke’s girls are glittering and terrifying, in love with one another and in opposition to the world that disdains and desires them…. As tender and intimate as it is ferocious and volatile, Scapegracers deserves to be this generation’s go-to grimoire. May it launch a thousand covens of angry, loving, brilliant girls,' – Amal El-Mohtar, co-author of This Is How You Lose The Time War.