5 YA Books to Read While You Angrily Await the Remake of The Craft

The Witch Hunter, by Virginia Boecker (out June 2)
In this darkly magical series starter set in an alt England, inquisitor Lord Blackwell messes with the wrong witch hunter. Though Elizabeth is in the inquisitor’s employ, and firmly on the side of the law in a world where magic is outlawed, she’s slated for death when discovered in possession of herbs. She starts to question her own anti-magic prejudices after a wizard saves her from death and asks her to be his ally, plunging her into a fascinating netherworld of magic practitioners, and life as a fugitive.

Seriously Wicked, by Tina Connolly
Life is rough when your teacher has it in for you, your crush is oblivious…and your mom is an evil witch plotting to take over the world. Camellia’s mom runs her daughter ragged with witchy errands—then summons a demon, who promptly invades the body of a cute boy at school. Though the last thing Cam wants is to be like the witch who raised her, she has to locate and embrace her own magical gifts if she’s going to save him from demon possession. Connolly delivers a clever, lighthearted take on a world where witches and other magical creatures abound.

Conversion, by Katherine Howe
This dual narrative sets an account of modern-day teens succumbing to disturbing, seemingly contagious symptoms—seizures, gagging, fits—against a story that unfolded three centuries prior, when the teens’ hometown of Danvers, Massachusetts, was known as Salem Village. One of the original accusers from the infamous Salem witch trials has stepped forward to come clean about what she’s done, while in 2012, one of the suffering Danvers girls is trying to determine whether the mystery outbreak has supernatural origins.

Half Bad, by Sally Green
Here be witches who would just as soon deck you as hex you (Fairuza Balk would approve). Green imagines a present-day England inhabited by both humans and White Witches, who’ve ruthlessly exterminated their Black Witch counterparts. Nathan is a “half code” of mixed heritage, on the run after escaping a White Witch council that hopes to use him to track down and destroy his father, the last and most violent Black Witch. This is grueling, character-driven YA that trades in herbs and candles for bureaucracy and a violent coming of age.

Half Wild, by Sally Green
Bonus sequel action! In the second installment of Green’s riveting trilogy, Nathan is caught in the middle of a power struggle between the corrupt witches Council and the growing revolt against their reign. But he’s used to living rough on the fringes of society, and that and his recently claimed magical gifts will serve him well in both his rebel activities and his attempts to save Annalise, his crush and the daughter of brutish White Witches, from a dark imprisonment.