Witcha Gonna Do?, written by Avery Flynn, is the first book in a romantic comedy series that follows protagonist Matilda Grace, a girl with no powers born into a family of the most powerful witches; and Gil Connolly, a character described as a “super hot jerk.” Together, they must partner up when Matilda causes her sister’s spell to glitch; fight against evil-minded forces; and save her family. They do this all while battling the evilest thing of all — love.
At first glance, this book seemed like a light-hearted young adult (YA) romance, similar to the type you would see on TikTok; but what I bought was indeed not that. Flynn tries her best to deal with adult subjects but lacks character depth, making the pacing feel off-putting. When it comes to world-building, Flynn does an excellent job of making the scenes feel realistic and helps me picture the town, as there is rich imagery and detailed description. This was part of why I was excited to read this book, since I can be a sucker for fantasy! There is so much possibility for imagination to thrive — something that often can’t be mimicked for other genres. That’s why this book felt so disappointing to me, despite the engaging descriptions such as the “magical dragon blood tree” outside the café that hilariously seems to be attracted to Matilda. Flynn includes too much detail and seems to not have enough time to explain their necessity to the plot. Again, this seems to be to the detriment of Gil and Matilda’s romance as they go from enemies to lovers almost instantaneously, completely negating the beautiful slow burn inherent to this classic romance novel trope.
The writing style, in my opinion, is also a sore point in this novel as it is often childish and riddled with the type of cringy speech you see on your Twitter feed. For example, the opening line starts off with “Hi *Waves*,” which cheapens the sentiment of the novel as a whole. Also, another stylistic choice I’m not a fan of is how many swear words Flynn incorporates. Don’t get me wrong, a few swear words here and there can make a scene more intense, lighten the mood in dark situations, or even provide emphasis to character dialogues. Flynn’s usage doesn’t actually do any of those positive things. It seems to me that she includes this aspect in the novel to give Matilda a quirk when it just came off annoying to read and hard to like her as a character.
Although I have my qualms with the structure of this book, I did quite enjoy the dual POV of Matilda and Gil. It is something that I have come to appreciate and love from reading the works of authors such as Colleen Hoover; it makes up for the lack of relationship-building Flynn (unfortunately) failed to create, as it allowed for more detail and perspective from the characters. Also, I enjoyed how Matilda talks directly to the reader as it made me feel engaged in a story I otherwise felt was hard to get through and connect to the characters/plot. Unfortunately, I feel like that comes to the end of the good things I can say about Witcha Gonna Do?, which hurts me. All in all, if you choose to look at Flynn’s novel on a surface level, it can definitely be an easy read, but I can’t say I’m excited for a follow-up to this story.
Gianna Dinwoodie is currently working towards her BA in Political Science and hopes to pursue a minor in Journalism. When she is not seen writing mountains of essays for her classes, she enjoys poetry and literature of any sort. Especially of the horror or psychological thriller genre! Don't ask her to watch a horror movie though, she'll probably cry...
