Hexwood Hollow
The Grimoire · Witch-Lit
Hexwood Hollow
Three generations of hedge-witches, one very stubborn forest, and a family recipe worth fighting for.
Full disclosure: this is the book club pick for this month's Full Moon gathering, and also the book we are, as of this review, on our third read of. That should tell you most of what you need to know. Hexwood Hollow follows a grandmother, mother, and daughter who each inherited the same patch of stubborn, half-sentient forest, and the recipe — half cooking, half spellwork — that's supposed to keep it calm.
What Worked
Ilić structures the book in three interwoven timelines, one per generation, and somehow makes each one feel like it could stand alone while still needing the other two to land its final chapter. The forest itself is the best character in the book — genuinely eerie in the grandmother's timeline, wearily familiar in the mother's, and almost tender by the time we reach the daughter. It ages the way the women do.
The "family recipe" conceit could have been twee. It isn't, mostly because Ilić treats cooking-as-spellwork with the same seriousness as any other magic system — there are rules, there are costs, and burning the recipe (literally, at one low point) has consequences that ripple through two more generations.
"You don't tame a wood like this one. You just agree, generation to generation, on where the fence goes."
The One Gripe
The daughter's timeline — set closest to the present — is the thinnest of the three, and it's the one carrying the emotional resolution. It works, but it's working with less material than the other two threads earned it.
Our Verdict
Four moons, and the reason we picked it for book club. Come argue with us about the ending on the 25th.