Witches have never really gone out of fashion. They’ve simply changed their clothes.

Once upon a time, the witch was the mysterious woman at the edge of the village—the one who knew too much about herbs, births, deaths, and things that happened beneath a full moon. Later, she became the terrifying old woman in fairy tales. Then came the glamorous sorceress, the rebellious feminist, the misunderstood outsider, the cosy small-town witch running a café, and the morally complicated woman who may or may not be capable of turning you into a toad.

Frankly, literature is much more interesting with witches in it.

The best books about witches tap into something deeper than spells, broomsticks, and bubbling cauldrons. Witch stories often explore power, persecution, womanhood, nature, sexuality, family, religion, prejudice, and what happens when someone refuses to behave as society expects.

And there’s a witch book for practically every mood.

Want something dark and gothic? Absolutely. Historical witch trials? Plenty. A little romance with your magic? Done. Feminist fantasy? Take your pick. Cosy witches who spend more time making tea than summoning demons? They’re here too.

So light a candle, make yourself something warm to drink, and prepare your TBR pile. Here are some of the best books about witches worth falling under a spell for.

Why Are Books About Witches So Popular?

There’s something remarkably durable about the witch.

Vampires rise and fall in popularity. Zombies periodically invade everything. Werewolves emerge whenever the moon—and publishing industry—is right. But witches remain.

Part of their appeal comes from their flexibility.

A witch can be terrifying or comforting. Young or ancient. Beautiful or monstrous. She can live in medieval Europe, modern London, mythical Greece, rural Nigeria, or a cosy cottage filled with herbs.

More importantly, witches frequently represent forbidden power.

Historically, the accusation of witchcraft was often connected to anxieties about religion, gender, social behavior, medicine, sexuality, and authority. Modern writers can therefore use the witch as a remarkably versatile metaphor.

Who gets to possess knowledge?

Who decides which knowledge is legitimate?

What happens when women acquire power outside established institutions?

Suddenly, that bubbling cauldron looks rather political.

20 Spellbinding Books About Witches for Every Kind of Reader

1. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Few modern novels are as closely associated with witchy fiction as Practical Magic.

Alice Hoffman’s beloved novel follows sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, members of a family whose women have been regarded with suspicion for generations. Growing up under the care of their unusual aunts, the sisters desperately want ordinary lives—but ordinary isn’t exactly something the Owens women do particularly well.

Magic in Practical Magic doesn’t feel like a collection of fantasy rules. It feels inherited. Domestic. Almost instinctive. It lives alongside heartbreak, family arguments, attraction, grief, and the complicated relationships between women.

That’s precisely what makes the book so enchanting.

If you’re searching for books about witches that combine romance, family drama, magical realism, and a touch of darkness, this is one of the obvious places to begin.

2. Circe by Madeline Miller

Technically a goddess. Definitely a witch. Completely unforgettable.

Madeline Miller takes Circe—the enchantress best known from Homer’s Odyssey—and moves her from the margins of mythology to the centre of her own story.

Born into the household of the sun god Helios, Circe never quite belongs among the gods. When she discovers that she possesses the power of witchcraft, she is eventually exiled to the island of Aiaia.

And that’s where things get interesting.

Rather than presenting Circe simply as the dangerous sorceress who transforms men into pigs, Miller explores loneliness, independence, motherhood, desire, mortality, and power.

The result is both mythological fantasy and character study.

If you enjoy witch books with literary depth, Circe should be near the top of your list.

3. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Imagine discovering an ancient magical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

Now imagine that practically every witch, vampire, and supernatural creature in existence wants to know what you’ve found.

That’s roughly the problem facing historian Diana Bishop in A Discovery of Witches.

Diana comes from a distinguished line of witches but has spent much of her life rejecting magic. Everything changes when she encounters a mysterious enchanted manuscript—and the equally mysterious vampire Matthew Clairmont.

What follows is a mixture of academia, history, romance, fantasy, alchemy, and supernatural politics.

It’s a particularly good choice for readers who want their witchcraft served with ancient libraries and intellectual intrigue.

4. The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

What if the women’s suffrage movement had witches?

That’s the irresistible premise behind Alix E. Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches.

Set in an alternate version of 1893, the novel follows the Eastwood sisters—James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna—as they reconnect with one another and become involved in the fight for women’s rights.

Except their rebellion involves more than votes.

It involves bringing witchcraft back into the world.

Magic, folklore, sisterhood, political resistance, and women’s history intertwine throughout the story. Harrow essentially asks what happens when knowledge that has been suppressed for generations begins finding its way back into women’s hands.

The answer? Things get wonderfully dangerous.

5. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

If your ideal witch book involves sprawling mansions, generations of family secrets, ghosts, seduction, madness, and approximately enough gothic atmosphere to fill New Orleans with fog, meet the Mayfair family.

The Witching Hour is the first novel in Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches series.

At its centre is Rowan Mayfair, a brilliant neurosurgeon who gradually discovers the disturbing history of the family she comes from. For centuries, the Mayfair women have possessed unusual powers—and they’ve also been connected to a mysterious supernatural entity called Lasher.

This isn’t a quick little witch story.

It’s enormous, decadent and deeply gothic.

Rice constructs generations of Mayfair history until the family itself feels almost like another character.

Readers who love complicated supernatural sagas can happily disappear inside this one for days.

RELATED:

Why You Should Read Anne Rice: Her Best Novels

6. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Not every witch book needs blood dripping down the walls.

Sometimes you want magic, romance, found family, and a house you’d happily move into tomorrow.

Enter The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

Mika Moon is one of the few witches in Britain. Because witches are expected to remain isolated from one another, she has grown accustomed to keeping people at a distance.

Then she receives an unusual invitation.

Three young witches need someone to teach them how to control their magic.

Soon Mika finds herself becoming part of a wonderfully unconventional household—and getting rather close to its grumpy librarian, Jamie.

Warm, funny and charming, this is an excellent introduction to cosy witch fantasy.

7. The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Now let’s walk away from cosy cottages and directly into the dark woods.

In The Year of the Witching, Immanuelle Moore lives in Bethel, a deeply oppressive religious society where conformity is demanded and women’s behaviour is tightly controlled.

Then Immanuelle enters the forbidden Darkwood surrounding the community.

There she encounters witches connected to her mother’s mysterious past.

Dark fantasy and religious horror combine in a novel filled with forbidden knowledge, patriarchal power, blood, magic, and rebellion.

If you’re looking for dark books about witches rather than whimsical witchy comfort reads, start here.

8. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

There is something wonderfully wintry about this book.

You can practically hear snow crunching beneath your feet.

Inspired by Russian folklore, The Bear and the Nightingale follows Vasya, a young girl capable of seeing the spirits and creatures that inhabit the world around her.

As Christianity increasingly clashes with older beliefs and traditions, Vasya finds herself caught between worlds.

Katherine Arden creates a fairy-tale atmosphere where forests feel genuinely ancient and the supernatural always seems to be standing just beyond the candlelight.

While it isn’t a conventional “witch novel,” it belongs comfortably on any witchy reading list thanks to its magic, folklore, powerful heroine, and exploration of women who refuse to fit society’s expectations.

9. The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

If Circe left you craving more mythology told from the perspective of powerful magical women, try The Witch’s Heart.

This time we’re heading north.

The novel reimagines the story of Angrboda, a witch from Norse mythology whose relationship with Loki eventually produces three rather famous children: Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel.

Yes. Those children.

Angrboda knows prophecy, magic, love, motherhood—and eventually the terrible future awaiting the gods.

Gornichec transforms a relatively obscure mythological figure into a deeply human protagonist.

It’s beautiful, melancholy and ideal for readers who like their witches ancient.

10. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Sunny Nwazue was born in New York but lives in Nigeria. She also has albinism, making her stand out wherever she goes.

Then she discovers something extraordinary.

Sunny is a Leopard Person—someone possessing magical abilities.

Suddenly, she enters a hidden magical world filled with knowledge, danger and strange possibilities.

Nnedi Okorafor draws heavily from Nigerian culture and folklore, giving Akata Witch a magical identity very different from the European traditions that dominate much fantasy literature.

For younger readers—and adults who enjoy imaginative YA fantasy—it’s an excellent choice.

11. The Near Witch by V. E. Schwab

“The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.”

Naturally, whenever a novel tells you something is “only an old story,” you should immediately become suspicious.

In the isolated town of Near, strangers don’t really exist.

Then one appears.

Soon afterward, children begin disappearing.

Lexi Harris starts wondering whether the old stories about the Near Witch might contain more truth than anyone wants to admit.

Atmospheric and fairy-tale-like, this is witch fiction for readers who enjoy misty moors, whispered legends, mysterious strangers, and things moving outside after dark.

12. White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

This isn’t your friendly neighbourhood witch novel.

Helen Oyeyemi’s White Is for Witching is strange, literary, gothic, and deliberately unsettling.

The story centres around the Silver family and their mysterious house in Dover, particularly Miranda Silver, whose connection to the building becomes increasingly disturbing.

The house has opinions.

That should probably tell you enough.

Oyeyemi mixes haunted-house fiction, family trauma, identity, race, inheritance, and supernatural horror into something difficult to categorise.

Readers looking for literary witch fiction rather than straightforward fantasy will find plenty to unpack here.

13. The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox

In 1821, the Montrose family leaves Boston after a scandal and relocates to Willow Hall.

Excellent idea.

Nothing ominous ever happens when disgraced families move into isolated historical estates.

Lydia Montrose soon discovers that something unusual runs through her family—and that Willow Hall contains secrets of its own.

Hester Fox blends historical fiction, gothic romance, ghosts, family drama, and witchcraft into an atmospheric story perfect for autumn evenings.

If you like haunted mansions almost as much as witches, put this one on your list.

14. Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper

What happens when you combine witchcraft, romance, revenge, and magical competition?

You get Payback’s a Witch.

Emmy Harlow returns to the magical town of Thistle Grove after years away and quickly becomes involved in a scheme against Gareth Blackmoore, the man who once broke her heart.

Fortunately, Emmy isn’t the only woman Gareth has wronged.

Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—one of those women is the extremely attractive Talia Avramov.

This is lighter, sexier witch fiction with plenty of romance and magical small-town charm.

15. The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

Baba Yaga has suffered from a serious public-relations problem for centuries.

She’s often portrayed as a terrifying old witch living in a hut standing on chicken legs.

The Witch and the Tsar gives her another story.

Set during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the novel reimagines Yaga as an immortal woman caught between the human world and the realm of ancient gods.

Russian history and Slavic mythology blend together in a story filled with political danger and supernatural intrigue.

It’s particularly appealing if you enjoy historical fantasy based on folklore.

16. Witches by Brenda Lozano

For readers looking for something more literary and structurally adventurous, Brenda Lozano’s Witches, translated into English by Heather Cleary, offers a very different approach to witchcraft.

The novel brings together the stories of women connected through violence, healing, language, and knowledge.

Rather than giving readers the familiar European fantasy witch, Lozano explores traditional healing and cultural ideas surrounding people whose knowledge exists outside conventional institutions.

It’s powerful, unusual, and far removed from broomsticks and pointed hats.

17. VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

Imagine discovering a mysterious silver spoon bearing the word “VenCo.”

Congratulations.

You may have just been recruited by a centuries-old network of witches.

Lucky St. James discovers exactly that in Cherie Dimaline’s imaginative contemporary fantasy.

The story turns into a magical journey involving witches, hidden histories, female power, and an ancient adversary determined to stop them.

It’s witty, feminist, and refreshingly modern.

18. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

Forget secret witches hiding in forests.

What if Britain’s witches were working for the government?

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven follows a group of childhood friends who once joined a secret government organisation of witches. Years later, their lives have taken different directions—but a dangerous prophecy pulls them back toward the magical world.

The book mixes friendship, politics, identity, bureaucracy, magical warfare, and plenty of witchcraft.

Think coven meets government agency.

Yes, it’s as entertaining as that sounds.

19. A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley

Sometimes summoning a demon is an accident.

Mariel Spark discovers this when a spell goes spectacularly wrong and she accidentally summons Ozroth the Ruthless. Ozroth needs a soul.

Mariel would rather keep hers.

Naturally, they decide pretending to date each other will somehow improve the situation.

Because fantasy characters apparently haven’t learned that fake dating almost never remains fake.

This paranormal romance doesn’t take itself too seriously, making it a great palate cleanser after some of the darker books on this list.

20. The Penguin Book of Witches edited by Katherine Howe

Want to step outside fiction?

Then things become considerably more disturbing.

The Penguin Book of Witches collects historical material concerning witchcraft accusations and witch trials, drawing on documents spanning centuries of witch-hunting history.

And that’s an important addition to any witch-themed reading list.

The fictional witch may be powerful, glamorous, dangerous, or magical. Historically, however, people accused of witchcraft were real human beings caught within systems of fear, religion, misogyny, superstition, and social conflict.

Reading historical accounts alongside fictional witches creates a fascinating contrast between the witch as cultural symbol and the devastating consequences of believing witches actually walked among us.

Conclusion

The best books about witches understand that magic is rarely the most interesting thing about being a witch. Power is.

From Circe standing alone on her mythical island to the Owens women inheriting generations of magic in Practical Magic, literary witches continually challenge the boundaries placed around them. Sometimes they’re healers. Sometimes they’re rebels. Sometimes they’re lovers, mothers, monsters, scholars, outsiders, or survivors.

And occasionally they really do turn people into pigs.

Whether you prefer cosy witch romances, gothic horror, feminist fantasy, mythology, historical fiction, or darker tales of forbidden magic, there’s a coven waiting somewhere on the bookshelf.

You only have to decide which spell to open first.

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