“This expertly crafted story thrums with magic, love, and tense action…”
— Booklist, starred review
"A bighearted adventure. — Kirkus
“Sure to captivate young readers for years to come.”
— B&N Reads
“… will speak to anyone who's ever found comfort in a book.”
— BCCB
“In this novel of ghosts, memory, and story, Anderson weaves components of children’s literature mainstays into a dreamlike first-person narrative.”—Publisher’s Weekly
A New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Quebec Booksellers Award
A Publishers Weekly Bestseller
An Indie Next 2021 Spring Selection
A Barnes and Noble April Pick
A Lone Star Reading List Selection
Perfect for fans of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, this fantastical and heartfelt first book in a new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson follows a girl who must defeat thirteen evil witches.
Twelve-year-old Rosie Singer’s mom is missing whatever it is that makes mothers love their daughters. All her life, Rosie has known this...and turned to stories for comfort. Then, on the night Rosie decides to throw her stories away forever, an invisible ally helps her discover the Witch Hunter’s Guide to the Universe, a book that claims that all of the evil in the world stems from thirteen witches who are unseen...but also unstoppable. One of these witches—the Memory Thief—holds an insidious power to steal our most precious treasures: our memories. And it is this witch who has cursed Rosie’s mother.
In her quest to save her mom—and with her wild, loyal friend “Germ” by her side—Rosie will find the layers hidden under the reality she only thought she knew: where ghosts linger as shades of the past, where clouds witness the world, and a ladder dangles from the moon leading to something bigger and more. Here, words are weapons against the darkness, and witch hunters are those brave enough to wield their imaginations in the face of the unthinkable.
At the core of this stunning novel—the first of the Thirteen Witches trilogy from critically acclaimed author Jodi Lynn Anderson—is a passionate argument that stories have the power to create meaningful change...and a reason to hope even when the world feels crushing.