VenCo

A Novel

By: Cherie Dimaline

Narrated by: Michelle St. John

"Once I opened VenCo, I was propelled through an entire night of charmed reading. Cherie Dimaline creates a world utterly fantastical, yet real. VenCo is funny, tense, and cracking with a dark, divine energy."—Louise Erdrich, New York Times bestselling author of The Sentence

For fans of The Once and Future Witches and Practical Magic, comes an incredibly imaginative, highly anticipated new novel featuring witches, magic, and a road trip across America—from Cherie Dimaline, the critically acclaimed author of Empire of Wild.

Métis millennial Lucky St. James is barely hanging on when she learns she’ll be evicted from the tiny Toronto apartment she shares with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella. But then one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. She burrows through a wall to find a tarnished silver spoon, humming with otherworldly energy, etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM.

Lucky is familiar with the magic of her indigenous ancestors, but she has no idea that the spoon connects her to a teeming network of witches across North America who have anxiously awaited her discovery.

Enter VenCo, a front company fueled by vast resources of dark money (its name is an anagram of “coven.”) VenCo’s witches hide in plain sight wherever women gather: Tupperware parties, Mommy & Me classes, suburban book clubs. Since colonial times, they have awaited the moment the seven spoons will come together and ignite a new era, returning women to their rightful power.

But as reckoning approaches, a very powerful adversary is stalking their every move. He’s Jay Christos, a roguish and deadly witch-hunter as old as witchcraft itself.

To find the last spoon, Lucky and Stella embark on a rollicking and dangerous road trip to the darkly magical city of New Orleans, where the final showdown will determine whether VenCo will usher in a new beginning…or remain underground forever.

A wildly imaginative and compulsively enjoyable fantasia of adventure, history, Americana, feminism, and magic, VenCo is a novel only the supremely gifted Cherie Dimaline could write.

“Crackling with magic, mystery, adventure, and intrigue, VenCo is a captivating tribute to the bonds of families we are born into and the ones that we create, and a delightful testament to the power of all womankind.”—Nikki Erlick, New York Times bestselling author of The Measure

©2023 Cherie Dimaline (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Bewitching!!!

I bought this book because I loved Cherie's other books! I started it without knowing what it was about, and couldn't stop listening! It made me feel everything: love, heartbreak, stress, anxiety, fantasy, family, and friendship. Grandma Stella is a hoot! I hope the story continues...❤️

Unnecessary foul language

The underlying story was ok. However, the redeemable qualifies were obscured by the unnecessary and flagrant swearing. It reminded me of a movie that includes violence for the sake of violence and not to advance the plot.

Very cute and low fantasy or the urban type

Very cute and fun low fantasy story.
Interested to see if they go further but if not it had a nice end.

Mispronunciations a bummer

A book about witches with Hecate pronounced Heck-ate? Come on, now. The narrator is well selected, but there are multiple wild mispronunciations that caused me to cringe. Not on her: that stuff should get caught. The story takes a minute to get rolling, but gets better as it goes. I will say I was stunned to see “42 minutes remaining” when it felt like the plot was only starting to come into focus. This feels like the first in a series. I hope there are more, because I really liked the energy and the characters once the book found its stride.

Loved this book

I loved the modern take on a coven and all the interwoven stories of the women types of magic. The pace was quick, there was plenty of suspense, and the imagery was engrossing. Definitely would recommend it.

Can I please live in this book?

This was an absolutely delightful book, down to the last sentence. It’s one of the most truly feminist stories I have ever read, or I guess heard in this case. It’s darkly hilarious, effortlessly inclusive, and even utopian in a queer and witchy kind of way. All the characters were beautifully messy and uniquely themselves, even the villain. A must read, especially for anyone who wants to “hex the patriarchy.” I want to live in this book. Hopefully I’ll be finding my little spoon soon..

Wish it could be so.

I enjoyed the story and the character development. If I felt lost when a new character popped up, things were cleared up quickly.

Some study of New Orleans pronunciations would have been great. Maringy and Chartres are not pronounced as in French. They are Marinee (long e like in knee) and Charters. Lafitte is pronounced Lafeet. Good job on Prytania though!

couldn't put down

It's one of the best books I've listened to. Cherish Demaline is my new favorite author.

What an exciting adventure!

I loved this book, the storyline was so sweet and fun and spellbinding!

The relationship between the main character and her grandmother was so real, and represented the love and frustrations that come with caring for an aged family member, but so sweet and touching!

The plot line of women finding themselves and each other is a world so many long for. The arc and storyline were captivating and fun! I loved the witch and magic, but loved that is was so much more than that.

The narrator was lovely! Would 100% recommend!

Fun, but ended so quickly!

I liked the story, and found it very fun! It ended climaxed rather rapidly, and it felt like there would be more when it was suddenly ending. The narrator brought down my enjoyment a bit.

She was an okay narrator, not great at differentiating between voices much, but what really got on my nerves were the gasps of breath between each phrase. It was as if the whole thing was read during an action sequence, which most of the book was not. Since the gasping sound was so consistent, I wish some sound editors could have edited it out! The narrator also didn’t pronounce some words correctly (Hecate as “heck-eight” was an egregious one that should have been caught.