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 Witchlore by Emma Hinds!
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Nonbinary (genderfluid?) MC
Published on: 14th October 2025
Goodreads
Holly Black meets Lex Croucher in this contemporary fantasy about a love story to raise the dead.
At Demdike College of Witchcraft, Orlando is an outcast. Not just for being the only shapeshifter in a college of witches. Not just for being a really bad shapeshifter, with no control over their magic or when their body switches between male and female forms. But because their girlfriend Elizabeth died - and it was Lando's fault.
Then charming new boy Bastian arrives with a proposition: he knows a spell that can raise Elizabeth from the dead. It's dangerous but Lando will try anything. But as Lando's attraction to Bastian grows, questions start to arise. Who is Bastian? What does he really want? And who will survive the resurrection spell?
For fans of V.E. Schwab and Rainbow Rowell, Emma Hinds' Witchlore is a spellbinding contemporary fantasy where the passion is as real as the magic.
This one’s been on my radar for a while – a nonbinary MC is enough to catch my attention, but a magic college, a shapeshifter MC (I adore shapeshifters to a frankly unreasonable degree), and a Holly Black comp will certainly help you keep my attention!
There seems to be an implication that shapeshifters and witches don’t get along well, or at least don’t mix much – see, Lando being the only shapeshifter at their otherwise all-witch school. Or is it just that shapeshifters don’t have the casting spells type of magic, usually, but Lando does – albeit is very bad at it – and thus has to go to witch school? Would the general witch population be mad about that? Or freaked out? Or something else?
I thought at first that all shapeshifters could switch sex, and that Lando’s magic was a separate ability from that, but after thinking about it I’m not so sure. Usually when someone uses the word ‘shapeshifter’ in a fantasy book, they mean someone who can turn into an animal. So it’s possible that that’s what other shapeshifters do, and Lando is the only one switching sexes.
Alternatively, all shapeshifters can swap sex and therefore they’re all very casual about gender. That would be cool!
I’m now wondering if Bastian is ALSO a shapeshifter who can do witch-magic, but is living as a witch? That would be interesting!
We’ve got quite a few months before I’ll get any of my questions answered, but I’m looking forward to finding out! In the meantime, I think I’ll curl up with On the Wings of la Noche, which has a similar premise but is probably going to be pretty different!
You can read an excerpt of Witchlore here!
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