You know I like stories about witches, and Cherie Dimaline’s VenCo is a fun story about witches working together to take down the patriarchy. This novel is a real treat to read.

VenCo is about present-day witches who run a company called VenCo. VenCo is all about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for women and operates to place women in influential jobs, because contrary to what Zuckerberg thinks, the world does not need more “masculine energy” (In fact, the world has too much masculine energy, so maybe it is time we gave “feminine” energy the opportunity to run things for once). Some of the witches who work for VenCo are part of a special coven where each member has located one of seven silver spoons, and once all seven spoons have been located, they will form a magic circle that will restore women to their rightful power.

Lucky St. James is a Métis woman living in Toronto with her grandmother, Stella. Lucky and Stella are about to be evicted from their apartment when Lucky finds the sixth silver spoon. Lucky and Stella are brought into the VenCo fold and tasked with finding the seventh spoon while the rest of the coven try to locate the seventh witch. There are two problems though: One, they only have nine days to find the seventh spoon and the seventh witch before their chance to restore women to their rightful power is lost forever. Two, Lucky and Stella have a man named Jay Christos on their tail.

Jay Christos is a centuries old witch hunter who at one point worked for the Inquisition, back in the day when witches were burned at the stake. He is not a very exciting villain. He’s super hot, but smarmy, murderous and hates women. Jay is representative of the patriarchy, and he is a simplistic character, which I guess makes senses because toxic men are simplistic in nature. Jay’s purpose is to stop witches from getting their power back, because heaven forbid women have any power, amirite?

I really liked the character of Lucky St. James. She is responsible, clever and brave, and did not have any qualities that I find annoying. Stella, on the other hand, was really trying my patience by the end of the novel. Lucky has the patience of a saint because I would have left Stella with someone and bounced until the seventh spoon was located, and considering Stella’s condition, that is what Lucky should have done. Stella has dementia and experiences sundowning everyday, so I can empathize with the frustration of knowing you have dementia and not being able to do anything about it, but in her lucid moments Stella is a selfish character driven by her own pleasures who cannot even take a moment to be mindful of the situation they are in with Jay Christos breathing down their necks, and when she messes things up for Lucky, she does not even apologize.

I was a little bit annoyed with the result of the search for the seventh spoon and witch, but overall, the ending of VenCo is satisfying. I feel like Dimaline left things open enough that there could be a sequel, so if there ends up being a sequel to VenCo, I will definitely read it.