Wild and Wicked Things, by Francesca May, is a sapphic Great Gatsby retelling with witches. It’s set in post-World War I England, where magic has recently been banned. Annie has just moved to Crow Island, known for its wealth and magic, after her estranged father’s death left her as the only person to clean out his house there. She reconnects with an old childhood friend, Bea, and soon becomes entranced with Emmeline, her new neighbor who throws parties weekly and uses real magic.

This book is above all an atmospheric piece; I couldn’t necessarily tell you much about the world or the characters, but the aesthetic is dark and glimmering and Gothic. If you’re looking for a plot-driven or character-driven book, you’re likely to be disappointed, but if you can be satisfied with the feeling that the book gives then you’ll likely enjoy it.

Annie, Bea, and Emmeline, the three central characters (though only the first and last of those have POV chapters). all serve to sharply contrast each other. They’re all extremely different in motive and personality, almost serving as three-way foils of each other. Annie is new to this world of magic and danger, and often wishes that she was able to retreat back to her old, safer way of life, but finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the events of the story and her connection with Emmeline until she wouldn’t dream of leaving. Bea grew up with Annie in the same safe town, but escaped to find a more exciting life after experiencing various losses during the war. She has a lot of undealt-with trauma, and is mostly driven by trying to protect herself throughout the book. Emmeline is a blood witch who is slowly dying from a magical debt, She’s definitely my least favorite character, though that’s probably because she’s the least fleshed-out of the three. The sections that focus primarily on her tend to serve more for world-building and plot development than for developing her character, and I just didn’t feel connected to her.

The romance left a lot to be desired. I just didn’t ship Annie and Emmeline (I was honestly hoping that Annie and Bea would end up together, even though the endgame pair was obvious from the start of the book). The entire romance plot just felt very heavy-handed, propelled forward by a magic bond that forms between the characters when they first meet, even though there’s no actual chemistry between them. I was mostly in this book for the lesbian historical romance, so the fact that that was the most disappointing aspect of the book is definitely unfortunate.

The plot development is done very carefully and methodically, with no piece of information introduced any sooner than it needs to be. It’s very skillful, even if it does mean that there are events or plot points that are confusing for a chapter or two before being explained, and it serves to add to the mysterious and unknown aspects of the world itself.

I wish there had been more world-building; while the history of the world and such was well established, the magic system felt very ambiguous, and even a little more explanation would have made the plot and stakes clearer and everything make a bit more sense. While I recognize that this was likely part of the atmosphere that the author was attempting to create, I think that this particular category of withheld information was a poor choice on May’s part. 

Overall, I did enjoy the book; although I think that the character-building and world-building could definitely have been improved upon, the end result is an expertly-done atmospheric piece that fully conveys the aesthetic that May attempts to recreate. If anything about my description of the book sounds appealing to you, I would definitely recommend giving it a shot. I’m giving Wild and Wicked Things 3.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.