Friday Rec: The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman has been a favorite in this shop for a long time. When a new book of hers lands in early September, it feels less like a release date and more like the season turning. The Witches of Cambridge is the start of a brand-new series from the author of Practical Magic, and it is a perfect Friday pick if you want something witchy, literary, and a little haunted without going full horror.

The story opens in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, far enough from the old colony that people like to pretend the witch trials are only a plaque on a wall. Ava arrives at Radcliffe from a small town in Maine, bright and out of place. Lauren is already there: money, nerve, and a family that has always belonged to Cambridge. They should not fit together. They do. Both are recruited into the Lilith Society, a secret circle of witches at Radcliffe that has been meeting in Lilith’s name since women were still being blamed for the shape of the world.

Hoffman is very good at the moment when an ordinary room stops being ordinary. Friendship deepens. Power arrives before anyone is ready for it. Love complicates everything. Outside the college gates, McCarthyism is doing its own kind of hunting. Inside, girls from the Society begin to go missing. Ava and Lauren have to decide what their inheritance actually costs — and whether the trials of the past ever ended, or only changed their clothes.

This is not a jump-scare book. It is Hoffman: roses and river water, loyalty, girls who refuse to be told what they are for. If you loved the Owens sisters, or you want a September read that feels like candlelight and old brick, this is the one.