House of Ivy and Sorrow is set in Willow’s End, Iowa, a town with a lot of rumors of witchcraft floating around. Josephine Hemlock has heard many of these rumors, after all, those rumors are about her and her family. Well, the rumors are mostly about her grandma. Josephine’s mother died awhile back from a mysterious Curse. This Curse was like getting a magic-sucking tick stuck to your body that you can’t get off.  The curse would cause you to slowly lose your magic until you were sucked sick and dry. Your blood would turn black, and you would grow sicker and weaker, until even lifting your head was a chore. Then you would die. Josephine thought that only her mother was cursed and that she was safe. However, the Curse has returned and is ready to take her life the very same way it took her mother’s. Since Josephine is the last of the Hemlocks falling victim to the curse will mean the end of her bloodline.

House of Ivy and Sorrow is great because there are secrets at every corner! Right when you think the story’s over, the book says, ”BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!” At every turn you’re questioning who’s good? Who’s bad? The beauty is you’ll never really know until the end. It entices you by giving you subtle hints that a person is good, or normal, when in fact they might be evil, or a witch. Or maybe they’re not. You’ll just never know.

House of Ivy and Sorrow shows a struggle between life and death, as well as good and evil. It’s a book that I honestly couldn’t put down. It shows the struggle of a high school girl trying to balance her home life with another unexpected supernatural life, all the while trying to avoid Death in the process. It’s a beautifully written book with a heart wrenching story that will keep you guessing until the very end!