Sara and her family call them Witches. Her and her sibling Danni are huge horror movie fans – enjoying the the low budget ones the most. When they flee their apartment building one night, after hearing screams from their neighbours, they see something strange behind the rubbish bins. It’s worse than anything in any of their movies. So horrible they can’t really get their heads around what they are seeing.

There are more. Many more, and they are hungry.

Two years later, the family are hiding in a house far from the city. They have stayed other places, with other people. Each one left memories they’d like to forget, but life is now one of only survival. Looking back is pointless.

Everyone has changed. Hardened. The only light among them is their younger siblings who are fiercely protected by the older ones. The twins hardly know anything but this subsistence life, and their mother has become distant in her fight to keep her loved ones alive.

One day they find a teenage girl curled up and unconscious. Arguing on whether to leave her or take her in, Sara wins. She’s intrigued to talk to someone her own age for the first time since the Witches came. When the girl wakes, they learn her name is Parsley, but not much more.

Sara is intrigued, then soon enamoured, despite her family’s warnings. Who is Parsley, and where did she come from? Does she really know more about the Witches? Can she help protect them?

This book is sold and promoted as an adult read, but I found it would easily suit a Young Adult audience. If it was a movie, it would be an excellent ‘Creature Feature’. The ‘Witches’ are nothing like the witches we already know – even the really terrible ones.

These monsters pour fear into the characters. Trying to imagine these horrors as I read, stretched even my Horror loving brain.

We Call Them Witches also has a first-romance thread, with main character Sara (aged 17), experiencing feelings for a stranger new to their family unit. Sara is quick to defend this person, even as she knows she must be more careful in order to protect her family members. This inner struggle makes things interesting as the tension rises, and a twist is revealed.

Author – India-Rose Bower

Age – 15+

Find more Horror reads here

Publisher – Penguin Random House

Set – Contemporary England

Viewpoint – 1st person

Violence – Yes

Sex – No

Real Life – Yes / Apocalypse

Fantasy – Monsters

Blend – Survival / Horror / Monsters

(2026, Penguin Random House, Post Apocalypse, Britain, England, Horror, Family, Betrayal, Courage, Fantasy, Grief, Secret, Creatures, Pagan Rituals, Herbs, Lavender, Fear, Siblings, Responsibility, Romance, Survival)