In “Blackwick Falls: The Marked Witch,” self-published Canadian author Celina Myers combines her fascination of the supernatural with her love of writing to create her first novel. Her novel was made internet-famous on TikTok through her sleepwalking and paranormal videos she posted as @celinaspookyboo.

While it is clearly a story about witches, as is evidenced by the book’s title, “Blackwick Falls” is largely about a girl suffering from a deeply personal loss.

After 19-year-old Billie Gladstone loses her mother, Martha, her only known living relative, she struggles to come to terms with her grief — especially when she’s ambushed by a lawyer telling her that he’s in charge of her late mother’s estate.

Having grown up poor, Billie is shocked to find out that Martha had a will with a bookstore and an apartment in a small town that she never heard of, Blackwick Falls.

Though she hasn’t finished mourning her mother yet, she decides to take this opportunity to learn more about Martha’s past, which had purposely been kept hidden from her.

During her time in Blackwick Falls, Billie meets a girl who claims to be her cousin. She then introduces Billie to the rest of her family and their mansion. Later in the book, Billie learns that her and her whole family are witches.

“Blackwick Falls” is a cute, quick read. It’s not densely written and the story doesn’t get bogged down with unnecessary details.

It is, however, not as clean as it could be, being that Myers self-published the book. Because of this, the text didn’t go through the same rigorous editing and rewriting process as a book published through a big publication house would have.

If you can ignore the occasional typo, though, it’s not a big deal.

However, one shortcoming of the 240-page book is that, while the witchy theme is sold as one of the key points of the book, this facet of Billie and her family’s lives isn’t revealed  until later in the book.

It’s suspected throughout the story, but Billie herself doesn’t find out until relatively close to the end of the novel, which means that the parts about witchcraft feel somewhat rushed. Myers tries to fit in a story arc about the witchcraft in too short of a page count, which led to it not feeling fully fleshed out.

Despite that, it’s still an enjoyable read for anyone who likes witches and the supernatural or who likes young adult fiction.

Additionally, since the book is self-published by an author who only has two other books, buying a copy of the novel is a way to support a small creator who is following her passion to write, and the money goes directly to her.

Myers ended the book in a way that will allow her to write a sequel if she wants to, or to keep it as a standalone book. Only time will tell if there will be another story about the magical happenings in the heavily witch-populated town of Blackwick Falls.