Book Review: The Trouble With Becoming a Witch

By Sara Steven

Veronica thinks she’s happy. But with fight after fight, night after night, she knows that something isn’t right anymore. Then her husband busts her researching witchcraft―and her picturesque suburban life is turned upside down. As her marriage falls apart, she knows that for her own sake and for the sake of her small daughter, something has to change.



The Trouble With Becoming A Witch is about what happens when a woman decides to stop living the life everyone has told her she is supposed to lead and starts living a life true to her desires. But seizing your own magic isn’t easy―and as Veronica’s marriage spirals downward, she’s forced to look deeply into who she wants to be-come. Is risking the security of life as she knows it worth becoming the witch―and woman―she knows she truly is? (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads)

It’s mentioned a few times within The Trouble with Becoming a Witch, but it’s worth mentioning here that Veronica and her experiences remind me of the experiences the actresses had in The Craft. I always enjoyed that movie during my teen years, so reading about Veronica and how she’s branching out into witchcraft brought me back to those days. The excitement, the hesitancy, her visit to a metaphysical shop that begins to awaken something that has lied dormant in Veronica for so long. In her search for trying to better her life by use of witchcraft, the reader discovers that there is much more beneath the surface.

In the moments shared with her husband, I could feel the frustration and hurt. Many times I wanted to become a third character in the scene, wishing for an opportunity to interject and stand ground against him. Just when Veronica gains the strength to do that for herself is when he deflates her power, leaving her second guessing on the choices she’s made in her life, and what the future holds for her and for this marriage. One particular scene that really represented their dynamic is when he tells her she is no longer allowed to answer the door when someone rings the door bell, or knocks. When she questions it, he tells her yet again that she is not allowed to be a grown-up within their home, but instead of standing her ground, she throws out catty remarks, much like a child would.

While this book mentions Veronica’s renewed interest in witchcraft and focuses from time to time on that, what it is really about is a woman’s need to regain her power. It’s a means to helping her find her way, while also attempting to be the type of role model she would like to be for their child, a young daughter. In order to stop the borderline abusive patterns, she has to rise up. It reminds me of one of the final scenes in The Craft, where one of the witches has to hit bottom, on the cusp of death, before she finds her way. While Veronica isn’t brought to anything that resembles the severity of death, in some respects it could be a death of her own former ideals and opinions, of the shackles she’s allowed to be placed on her psyche, in order to find a way towards the light. In order to essentially do what is right for her and for her daughter.

Thanks to Wildbound PR for the book in exchange for an honest review.