*ARC provided by TBR and Beyond Tours*
Publication Date: August 10th 2021
Magic always leaves its mark.
All her life, Matilda has been told one thing about her magic: You use only when necessary. But Matilda isn’t interested in being a good witch. She wants revenge and popularity, and to live her life free of consequences, free of the scars that dark magic leaves on her face as a reminder of her misdeeds.
When a spell goes awry and the new boy at school catches her in the act, Matilda thinks her secret might be out. But far from being afraid, Oliver already knows about her magic – and he wants to learn more. As Oliver and Matilda grow closer, bizarre things begin to happen: Animals show up with their throats slashed and odd markings carved into their bodies, a young girl dies mysteriously, and everyone blames Matilda. But she isn’t responsible — at least, not that she can remember. As her magic begins to spin out of control, Matilda must decide for herself what makes a good witch, and discover the truth…before anyone else turns up dead.
About the Author …
Georgia Bowers lives in Bedford, a small market town in England. When it was time to decide what to do with her life, she was obsessed with two things: books and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It seemed sensible to follow in the brogued footsteps of Rupert Giles, so she became a librarian, though sadly not the demon fighting kind. But there’s still time.
Ever since her mum told her that witches used to meet in the woods near their village, she’s been obsessed with witchcraft and the paranormal. When she was a teenager, a weekly habit of Point Horrors satisfied her thirst for chilling tales before she moved on to reading Stephen King. These days she likes to give her nerves a break every now and then with a good YA romance.
After completing a course in writing YA fiction she was a winner in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Undiscovered Voices. Since then she has dabbled with stories of chosen ones and ghostly best friends until she conjured up the magical ingredients for her debut novel, Mark Of The Wicked.
✨Top 5 reasons you should read Mark of the Wicked✨
Reading about an anti-hero
The main character, Matilda, is a bad person. The whole premise of the book is that she has the names of people she’s hurt with her magic marked on her face via bloody scars.
It was kind of hard to root for Matilda at times because, hearing of how she’d hurt other people I couldn’t help but think “well … you kind of deserved this” but at the same time I thought it was a really different and refreshing thing to read about a character like this.
Victor the Goat🐐
I’m two for two on the goat being my favourite character in books. We’ve got Otis from the Magnus Chase series, and now Victor.
Murder Mystery but with Magic
What’s better then a murder mystery? A murder mystery WITH MAGIC!! Not only are people and animals showing up dead, but they have Matilda’s name carved into them as she’s being framed for using dark magic … or well, darker magic then she already uses.
The imagery
Without going too much into spoilers, there’s this whole thing where Matilda is having weird ass dreams and visions and I really liked those paragraphs. I felt like they were really well written and described.
It’s giving me Halloween Town vibes.
Yeah I don’t know why my brain is comparing this to Halloween Town. Last time I checked there’s no gruesome depictions of human or animal murder in any of those four movies. There’s also no creature’s besides witches in this book. Where am I getting these comparisons from?
I’m thinking it comes from Nanna May and the very aesthetically pleasing cottage where Matilda lives. Either way I do think this is one to keep an eye on and add to your upcoming Halloween TBR
Overall I thought this book was okay, I don’t think it’ll be one I rave about in the future but I had fun with certain elements. I did find this book to be pretty predictable but thankfully after the 60% mark things amped up a little.
Like I said, the all around vibes of this book are very much perfect for Halloween so, if this sounds like something you’re interested in, I’d recommend checking it out for spooky season.
AceReader 
ooh the mark of the wicked is on my radar but i’m even more intrigued by your post! an antihero and a goat definitely sounds incredible to read about haha, thanks for sharing ❤
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