A Victorian Grimoire: Enchantment, Romance, Magic

• Author: Patricia Telesco
• Genre: Paranormal/New Age
• Publication Date: October 24, 2023
• Publisher: Crossed Crow Books

Thank you to NetGalley and Crossed Crow Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The magic and romances of the past are brought back to life in Patricia Telesco’s A Victorian Grimoire . Take an inspiring look at the Victorian era and let your magic be inspired by the beautiful yet simple ways of conjuring magic that could very well have been practiced in yesteryear. Whether you are looking to explore Victorian herbal magic or learn some Victorian era-inspired love charms, this book will prove to be a treasured keepsake for years to come.

I was really intrigued by the sound of this book. The chance to see what a grimoire from the Victoria era might have looked like, and learning more about everyday magic from that era was something I couldn’t resist. I still have fond memories of the books my mom gave me about the Victorian language of flowers, and they had such a wonderful scent to them. I wonder where those books are …

This isn’t the kind of book that I’d recommend you read cover to cover, yet when reviewing a book, that’s exactly what I do. It was a tough job, and took me a ridiculously long time. Part of that was my fault, but I’m going to insist on sharing the blame with the book itself. It’s exceptionally dense. I was expecting a lighter read, and was surprised to see how much information is packed into this book. 

I was surprised to see how much of the material was focused on America, since I automatically associate the Victorian era with England, and didn’t even realize that there was a Victorian era in America. I love when I learn new things from books, and when they motivate me to look things up independently to learn more after getting curious. The author also encourages readers to find ways to incorporate magic into their lives in so many tiny ways, and lists many ways that readers can do exactly this. And she inserts plenty of her own real-life experiences, which I love seeing in a book like this. I always like when I get a feel for how the author finds ways to make their everyday life magical.

If you’re a beginning practitioner, or someone just starting in the craft, this isn’t the book for you. While each of the rituals or spells seems simple, they are deceptively so. They each involve a number of items for preparation, setting up the circle, doing the ritual, and closing it out.  There are some factual inaccuracies in there, and it honestly felt as though the book wasn’t edited beforehand. I was shocked to see the author suggest that readers put garlic powder in their dog’s food, or feed their dogs fresh garlic, since that’s toxic to dogs. The book needs to be thoroughly edited. I also got a little uncomfortable about the mixing and matching of deities in the earlier spells, since it felt too culturally appropriative for my liking. It played out a bit later, when “Cabala” [sic] was discussed as playing a role in magic and tarot, yet the Jewish roots of Kabbalah, a closed practice that requires intensive and devoted levels of study, was completely erased from the discussion, only the Christian references to it were mentioned. 

Overall, this was a hit or miss book for me. It kind of fell right in the middle, with many of the spells being very involved, involving a lot of items and complex steps that wouldn’t necessarily be reasonable to follow. I did enjoy seeing more about the language of flowers and how the people of those times also assigned certain meanings to various classes of items around them, but this isn’t going to be one of the first books I turn to in a pinch.