Finding Fright in Books : Michelle Krys' Favorite Witches

Hexed

Michelle Krys

Series: The Witch Hunter, #1

Released: June 10th, 2014

Publisher: Delacorte Press

If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.

In honor of Halloween and my debut novel HEXED (which, spoiler alert, is about witches), I’ve compiled a list of *some of my favorite pop culture witches.

*The list originally included movie, TV, and book witches, but it ended up being 15 + pages long, so now it’s just movie and TV show witches. Even though I’m an author—don’t judge.

*I haven’t included Hermione on this list. I mean, she’s everyone’s favorite witch, right? No one needs me to explain why.

*Ok I’ll start the list now.

Willow Rosenberg

Honestly, if I even have to tell you who Willow Rosenberg is then I’m not sure we can be friends. But anyway, Willow is a character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer—one of the best, if not the best, TV shows of all time. 

In the first couple of seasons we see Willow as the brainy, awkward, eager-to-help-save-the-world best friend of the heroine, Buffy. But over the course of the show, as Willow discovers her magic, she transforms from computer geek into one seriously badass witch. What I really love about Willow’s story arc, though, isn’t so much her transformation, but the later discovery that she was never really as confident as she outwardly appeared. Remember the episode where Willow has the nightmare that she’s reading a paper in front of the class and all of her friends are either ignoring her or laughing at her? Her deeply rooted insecurities and fear of being once-again labeled as a geek are some of the reasons Willow is so loveable—she’s relatable. Her struggles with being who she is versus being who others will like represent what a lot of young people go through while trying to find themselves. 

The Sanderson Sisters

For those of you who have never turned on a TV during the month of October, Hocus Pocus is about a teenager who inadvertently resurrects three child-eating witches, and now must stop them from wreaking havoc on Salem, Massachusetts. All three of the Sanderson sisters are so completely amazing it’s impossible to choose a favorite, so they all get a spot on this list. Sarah’s delightfully ditzy antics, Mary’s perpetually downturned mouth, Winifred’s . . . everything about Winifred—what’s not to love about these witches? If you haven’t seen Hocus Pocus, drop everything and do it now. Actually, that’s good advice for everyone. 

Sabrina Spellman

I feel bad for kids who have to grow up in a world without TGIF on Friday nights. If you weren’t lucky enough to have watched Sabrina during your formative years, then allow me to summarize the show for you: There’s a teenager. Her name is Sabrina. And she’s a witch.

There’s so much to love about Sabrina—her infectious charm, her quirky sense of humor, the way she’s always getting into trouble with her magic and then turning to her aunts to bail her out, how she gets ready in the morning by standing in front of the mirror and pointing down at herself until she finds an outfit she likes. Oh, how Sabrina made me wish I was a witch!

Which leads me to my favorite witch of all:

Nancy Downs

For those of you not already rabid fanatics of The Craft, this movie follows a group of four misfit girls who get involved with witchcraft and use their newfound powers to exact revenge on their high school nemeses. Things start looking up for the girls until their spells begin to backfire in some very disturbing ways (Dun dun dunnn).

It hurts how much I love this movie. I loved it so much that after it first came out, me, my sister and a friend took books out from the library and started a witchcraft club. We ‘levitated’ each other in our bedroom (Honestly, who didn’t try “Light as a feather, stiff as a board” after watching this movie?), and I can’t tell you how many times I tried blowing at streetlights to change them from red to green and then was infinitely disappointed when it didn’t work.

But can we talk about Fairuza Balk? Girl is brilliant as power-crazy, unhinged Nancy. The scene where she loses her shit on Sarah’s stalker? (Don’t watch if you haven’t seen the movie!)

*shudders* Is that not some seriously freaky stuff?

Okay, that’s it, folks! *Some of my favorite pop culture witches. Feel free to sound off on your favorite witches in the comments section!

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Michelle Krys is the author of HEXED, coming from Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books June 2014. Michelle is a shameless lover of bad reality television, celebrity gossip, dancing badly to good music, and queso by the spoonful. She lives in Northwestern Ontario with her husband and son. You can learn more about her at michellekrys.com or by following @MichelleKrys on Twitter.