The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a sweet, cosy fantasy story about letting people in, building community, and making a home for oneself.
Kiela has lived and worked in the Great Library in the city of Alyssium for many years. She’s sequestered in the stacks with the previous volumes that she is responsible for and rarely seeing or speaking to anyone but Caz, her assistant, who is a sentient spider plant. Then one night her world is turned upside down when there is a revolution to overthrow the Emperor, who has for years been restricting the use of magic to an elite few.
As Alyssium and the Great Fire are burning, Kiela and Caz escape the chaos in a small boat with several crates of books that they could not leave behind to be destroyed. In need of sanctuary, Kiela takes them to the outer island of Caltrey, where she was born and lived with her parents until the family moved to city when she was a child.
On Caltrey, Kiela and Caz reclaim her parent’s old cottage and garden, which is abandoned and overgrown but still standing. After the shock of having to flee Alyssium, and with the anxiety of protecting stolen spellbooks that could see her horribly punished, Kiela must find a way to support herself and Caz in their new home.
At first she determines that she must find a way to live entirely independent of any other person. Because, people are difficult and complicated and she has too many dangerous secrets to hide. But of course she cannot live that for long, and she quickly gains a cast of kind, quirky friends and neighbours. They help her to understand that no one needs to do everything alone, and that life is much better when it is shared with others.
The Spellshop is a very sweet book with solid and detailed world-building, filled with moments of cottagecore comfort and friends being kind to each other. The often high stakes somewhat pull it out of the genre of cosy fiction, which is by its very definition… low stakes. But, the author works hard to keep a level of cosiness and gentleness to counter the often stressful instances of life-or-death that befall Kiela and her friends.
The first third of the book – as Kiela is establishing herself and working out how to be on her own, is very slow going and the story takes a while to really progress. But, the remainder has a much more engaging pace, with large events and action keeping the story moving forward.
This is a good book for anyone who whose heart is warmed by communities coming together to help each other, and anyone who likes a story set in a magical fantasy world where mermaids and centaurs and sentient plants can be your friends and neighbours.
This review was first published on AU Review.
