Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Haunting of a Witch by J.J. Clapton!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Chronically ill sapphic MC
Published on: 1st October 2026
Goodreads
A chronically ill witch living in a haunted house.
A magical English seaside town.
A deadly warlock who wants to control it all.
How do you save your town when you’re too sick to leave your house?Emily, a chronically ill witch, wants a place to curl up and rest her aching body, away from a world that doesn’t care. She's found it by squatting in the basement of a haunted house. Nobody else dares get close to its volatile, dangerous magic. But the ghosts and aura of fear don’t bother her; she knows what it means to be trapped in a house she can never leave. Instead, she uses the extra magic swirling through the air to supply potions to a shady businessman in exchange for the care she needs to survive.
That is, until a cute girl collapses at her back door in the middle of the night, smelling of smoke and magic, with tales of witches dying across the country.
The deaths all lead to Runestowe, her small English seaside town, and Emily realises the people looking after her are involved in the murders - with her potions in their hands and a front door key to come and go as they please.
When they turn up in her kitchen insisting she join their deadly schemes, Emily knows she has to stop them. But what can Emily do when she’s housebound and they know where she lives?
I do wonder if I’ll be able to read this in one go, or if I’ll need to take breaks, because – a chronically ill MC has the potential to be REALLY intense for me. (My fibro means I’m also basically housebound.)
But I do adore this premise. She’s squatting in a haunted house!!! That’s so cool! And her chronic illness – makes her sympathetic towards the haunting/s??? THAT IS ALSO FABULOUS! And even if it gets Very Intense, I really like the idea of a protagonist who faces some of the same problems I do. How DO you get away when you’re housebound and the bad guys know where you live??? That’s not something most Fantasy protagonists have to deal with, and to be honest I never expected to see a main character with that kind of problem. It’s a really awesome feeling to see one!
That the girl who shows up at Emily’s backdoor is described as ‘cute’ pinged my gaydar, so I checked out the author’s blog and yep, this is also sapphic! Which I did not know until just a minute ago. NOW I’M EVEN MORE EXCITED.
This looks so fun! Reading the sample, though, oof. I felt every bit of Emily’s discomfort. While not nearly as intense as hers, I do have similar aches and pains and a lack of energy to do things. But I’m still eager to read it, so into the wishlist it goes.