Double, Double Toil and Trouble: Fall Under the Spell of These 13 Bewitching Books

Having lived most of their lives with their eccentric and magically gifted aunts, orphaned sisters Sally and Gillian want nothing more than to ignore their own burgeoning powers and blend into normal society. But when a ghost begins to menace their hometown, can this misfit family embrace their magical gifts to save their community?

Let yourself be enchanted by this international phenomenon of a series about an orphaned boy wizard who holds the fate of the magical world in his hands. Whether you’re revisiting the world of witchcraft and wizardry or diving in for the first time, Harry’s story lives up to the hype.

Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendent of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript deep in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld that kicks off this riveting and magical trilogy.

In modern day Salem, Harvard graduate student Connie discovers an ancient key labeled “Deliverance Dane” in her grandmother’s abandoned home. As she gets caught up in a quest to discover Deliverance’s identity, Connie finds herself haunted by visions of the Salem witch trials, leading her to fear that she may be tied to Salem’s dark past in mysterious and unexpected ways.

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . . Naughty, funny, wacky and irreverent, this is a wonderful new side of Gaiman.

For centuries, one woman in each generation of the dynasty of Mayfair witches has been haunted by a dangerous apparition, and now that her mother’s dead, Rowan Mayfair finds herself the newest target. Complex and hypnotic, this Anne Rice classic charts the history of an all-powerful magical coven and the forces that conspire against it.

With influences ranging from The Chronicles of Narnia to Harry Potter to A Game of Thrones, Lev Grossman’s Magicians trilogy is an enthralling, diabolically crafted coming-of-age tale about magic practiced in the real world—where good and evil aren’t black and white and power comes at a terrible price. Dig into this series now before the Syfy adaptation hits the small screen next year.

Amidst the opulence of Edwardian London, Lilith and her coven must protect the powerful Elixir they guard from a group of dark-magic practicing sorcerers. As head witch of her coven, Lilith knows their creed all too well: secrecy and silence. But when she falls in love with a man who is neither a witch nor a member of her class, how long can she maintain her double life?

Three small-town divorcées’ lives are forever changed when they are suddenly granted mysterious powers. But this blessing takes a turn for the scandalous when an enigmatic and wealthy stranger moves to town and invites the trio to his derelict mansion. What follows is a dark, clever, and bewitching romp through one town’s collective psyche.

A dying boy is pulled from the river with an odd mark tattooed on his shoulder. Is witchcraft involved? That’s what hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to find out. Set in seventeenth-century Germany, this chilling and fast-paced historical thriller is penned by a descendent of the Kuisls, an infamous real-life executioner clan.

The Whitney women have an unusual talent: they can read the future in a piece of lace. This bewitching gothic novel is a haunting and remarkable tale.

The horror of the 1612 Pendle witch trials is brought vividly to life through this wrenching and well-researched novel about a family’s struggle to survive the hysteria of a witch hunt.

Why did the Salem witch trials take place? How did the panic spread so rapidly? Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Stacy Schiff tackles these question and more in this thrilling and psychologically complex exploration of a dark and baffling American mystery.