The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

Title: The Invocations

Author: Krystal Sutherland

Genre: Crime/Mystery

Publisher: Penguin Australia

Published: 30^th January 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 400

Price: $24.99

Synopsis:  From the author of New York Times bestseller House of Hollow comes a darkly seductive witchy thriller where, though both men and demons lurk in shadows, girls refuse to go quietly into the night.

Three girls, one supernatural killer on the loose . . .
Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to consider—that her murdered sister is gone forever and there is nothing she can do about it. Rather than grieving and moving on, Zara decides she will do whatever it takes to claw her sister back from the grave—even trading in the occult.

Jude Wolf may be the daughter of a billionaire, but she is also undeniably cursed. After a deal with a demon went horribly wrong, her soul has been slowly turning necrotic. It’s a miserable existence marred by pain, sickness, and monstrous things that taunt her in the night. Now that she’s glimpsed what’s beyond the veil, Jude’s desperate to find someone to undo the damage she’s done to herself.

Enter Emer Byrne, an orphaned witch with a dark past and a deadly power, a.k.a. the solution to both Zara’s and Jude’s problems. Though Emer lives a hardscrabble life, she gives away her most valuable asset—her invocations—to women in desperate situations who are willing to sacrifice a piece of their soul in exchange for a scrap of power. Zara and Jude are willing, but they first have to find Emer.

When Emer’s clients start turning up dead all over London, a vital clue leads Zara and Jude right to her. If a serial killer is targeting her clients, Emer wants to know why—and to stop them. She strikes a tenuous alliance with Zara and Jude to hunt a killer before they are next on his list, even if she can’t give them in return what Zara and Jude want most: a sister and a soul.

~*~

Crime, mystery, the occult and self-sought justice meet in the 2024 novel from Krystal Sutherland. Meet Zara Jones, Jude Wolf and Emer Byrne. Three girls, with three very different experiences of death, magic, and darkness. They live in London, and their paths cross in an interesting way. Each girl is looking for answers to what they have experienced in their lives.

Zara’s sister has been murdered, and everyone has grieved and moved on – except for Zara. Because Zara believes there is a way to bring her sister back to life. Neglected and ignored by everyone in her life, Zara is determined to bring her sister back to life at any cost. Even if it means dabbling in the occult and things she doesn’t understand. Then we have Jude, the daughter of a billionaire who made a deal with a demon. Literally. Now her soul is dying, becoming necrotic. She sick, distanced from her family, and taunted by monsters. She needs a way out, and someone to help her undo the damage. Emer is a witch and an orphan whose coven was wiped out by a dark force, by people who have connections to the past.

Emer’s life is hard, and she gets by selling her invocations to women to help them. She sounds like the solution to Jude and Zara’s problems, but there’s always a price with magic. And to start, that price are the constant deaths of Emer’s clients. The question is, why? Why are these women being killed? Why are these men killing her clients? Misogyny and sexism are rife as the trio seek to find out what is going on amidst wanting to solve their problems. The serial killer knows what they’re doing, and this tenuous alliance is going to find dark and macabre ways to find out what is going on. They can give each other companionship, but can Emer give Zara a sister and give Jude a soul? It’s hard to tell, but there are discussions about the ethics or magic and the occult, the rules that need to be followed and how the magical world works within this story. It’s got many layers, and it’s young adult, for older YA readers because of the intensity of the story and themes, and the constant goriness that appears on the page.

It is crime and mystery, but these elements come in and out, so I felt that it was more of a justice-seeking novel. Because it is about women seeking justice for things that the traditional crime solving routes can’t seem to resolve or fix. These girls are, for most of the novel, working on this alone with a detective popping up as she is needed. It’s a very female-led novel, showing the power of female friendship and the role of women in our lives. It was interesting to see how it dropped clues in and hinted at things, and then worked to resolve things satisfyingly. Yet also, like many crime novels these days, does allow there to be some ambiguity about how things are resolved, and what this means for the characters and the consequences they face. Consequences are hinted at throughout, as is the topic of vigilante justice, and what this might look like for different people.

It was interesting and intriguing to see how Krystal merged the contemporary world and issues with magic and the occult as the characters navigate grief and desperation, and the haunting, almost irreversible consequences of their decisions. They’re very flawed – to the point where you’re not always sure whether they’re going to make the right decisions. It is at times mesmerising, and feeds the story through to readers slowly without making things happen too fast. It’s deliberately done this way to draw the mystery out, and bring things to their awful and inevitable conclusions. It’s gritty and doesn’t shy away from the realities of what Zara, Jude and Emer are feeling. Or what women go through and how men in positions of power and privilege think they can treat people – in this case, women. It’s an intriguing novel that I did feel was heavy-going at times, and needed to take a few breaks to process things. Nonetheless, I think it has an important message for our times about women reclaiming power and working to stop violence against women.