Alfie decided to join his dad after a break-up from his girlfriend on a work trip to a small village - Woodplumpton. Alfie happens across a ‘witches’ gravestone and learns of a superstitious story of how to summon the witch - Meg. In an attempt to impress Mia (who he met in the graveyard) he decides to attempt to summon the witch with the firm belief that it wouldn’t work - he was wrong! Shortly after - strange happenings start to occur, muddy footprints appear in his bathroom, milk begins to go sour and Meg appears to him. Meg gives him the job of helping her find peace, but it comes with consequences and a time limit.

An immensely enjoyable read - very fast paced and relatable characters. This has reignited my love of witchcraft folklore. My first book from the author and I look forward to reading more.

I wanted to live this book, but sadly I just couldn't.

From the synopsis this sounded like exactly my kind of read, a small village, a mystery and some fantasy twists. I loved the concept of this book, and couldn't wait to race through it.

However, for me it just didn't live up to my expectations. The writing styles very basic and bkand, I feel like it could have been developed a lot more to give the same story a lot more of an impact.

The story itself ended up being a bit bland as well. The isolated events could have been combined so well, yet it just felt a bit too simple and clunky.

The characters are good but again could have been developed better.

Overall an excellent concept but not executed as well as it could have been.

The Witching Stone tells the story of Alfie, a teenager who's in a bit of a slump and doesn't know what to do with himself. He's recently broken up with a long term girlfriend after she left him for one of his friends and needs to get away from home. So when his father is commissioned to travel to the village of Woodplumpton for several weeks to update the offices of a local business Alfie jumps at the chance to go with him.

When exploring the village Alfie comes across a strange grave in the local churchyard, a huge boulder with a plaque saying that a witch is buried beneath it. Not sure what to think, Alfie is told the local legend of Meg the witch by one of the local girls, Mia, along with the story that you can summon her spirit if you walk around her grave three times saying 'I don't believe in witches'. Being something of a non-believer, and wanting to show off a bit to the pretty girl, Alfie does what he's warned not to do. And of course, it works.

Alfie begins to suspect that the spirit of Meg is following him, leaving muddy footprints in his hotel bathroom, and leaving bruises on his skin where she's grabbing him in his dreams. Desperate and unsure what to do, he turns to Mia for help, and the two of them set out to find a way to break the curse that seems to be hanging over Alfie, and solve a three hundred year old murder.

I was expecting this book to be a scary story, the set-up seemed like this was going to be a very tense and creeping horror of a boy being haunted by a ghostly witch; and to be fair, it does do this for a little while, giving readers some very creepy moments. But then things change. This becomes less a horror story and more of a mystery when Alfie just straight up confronts the witch and asks her what she wants. And this was such a good choice.

This story could have very easily been about a malevolent spirit that needed to be stopped, but instead Meg is presented as a victim, a woman who was unjustly killed hundreds of years ago, and now needs Alfie's help. Not only did this change the expected horror formula, but it also broke with tradition of having witches being evil figures. So many innocent women were murdered for being witches when they'd done nothing wrong, over the centuries since people have come to understand that the victims of witch trials were ordinary, innocent people; but horror seems slow to adopt this view. Danny Weston's decision to present a more realistic view on witches, that they were unfairly victimised, is so refreshing.

That's not to say that Meg isn't completely toothless, however, and over the course of the book she proves to be a being with a lot of power, and the willingness to use it against others. Her ability to appear and disappear at a whim, to cause destruction and chaos around Alfie, prove to make her threats of worse feel real, and justifies Alfie trying so hard to get her what she wants. Whilst I wouldn't call her a villain by any means, she certainly makes for an interesting and engaging foe for our protagonist.

The other characters are equally as engaging, and Alfie proves to be an interesting protagonist. He's going through some tough stuff at the beginning of the book, and these issues are only compounded over the course of the narrative, but he always seems to try and do the right thing. There are moments where he loses his cool in situations where he should probably have stayed a bit calmer, but when the ghost of a witch is threatening people you love you can't really blame him. His reactions make sense, and are relatable, and this makes him one of the better YA protagonists I've read in a while.

Weston also manages to make the central mystery play out at a great pace, and doesn't spoil things by giving away too much too early. He knows to draw the reader in with the slow horror before turning things on their head and setting Alfie and the reader out on this mission. And there's enough clues given along the way that things don't just come out of nowhere. There was a small mention of something earlier in the book that proved to be the answer that Alfie needed, and it was obvious enough to pick out for me, but made sense that Alfie could have skipped over it in his panic. Some writers have great ideas for a mystery story, but stumble a little in the execution, but that certainly wasn't the case here.

The Witching Stone wasn't what I was expecting when I went into it, but I think I enjoyed it more when it broke away from horror and became a mystery. It had some engaging and interesting characters, all of whom had moments to shine and stand out, and the story moved at a well crafted pace. Definitely a book worth picking up, and I'm going to be looking through more of Weston's work because of it.

I picked this up wanting to read more horror, but this book is pretty basic. The MC suddenly becomes the anchor for a witch while she wreaks havoc on the town. The writing was clunky and bland, also the plot has an unnecessary twist at the end of the book that serves no purpose. It just feels like trying to reach too high and not at all hitting any goals along the way.

Well, start by explaining that well, wait for the story that the synopsis promised but uh ... it wasn't like that, the way of writing should improve a lot, as someone who recommends books for those who learn English made it very difficult for me, I don't know, I think there was something in the beginning, development, and end of the book that did not make the reading very pleasant, the book promised a lot but it was not like that, it was a shame. If you improve the structure of the development of the story and its writing it would be very promising.

I couldn’t get past the first chapter unfortunately, the synopsis had so much potential but the writing style ruined it. The layout of the electronic arc was shockingly bad as well. It made it very difficult to read. Such a shame. I was looking forward to this as my first autumn read!

I really didn’t enjoy this story, for some reason it didn’t pull me in and keep me hooked but maybe that’s because it isn’t a book for me. I really wanted to enjoy this but couldn’t connect with the characters or the plot.

Alfie doesn’t believe in witches. That much is certain. So, when he tags along on a work trip with his dad and is told that walking three times around an old gravestone and saying “I don’t believe in witches” will summon one, he decides to issue a challenge to the universe. Confidently, Alfie walks around the gravestone and repeats his mantra, confident in his belief that witches are not real. But when he circles round the final time, something grabs hold of his ankle and he suddenly isn’t so sure anymore.

Suddenly Alife has become the living anchor for the spirit of a woman from the 1700s named Meg Shelton, who was believed to be a witch. Now Meg is back and is seeking revenge on the town that once shunned and persecuted her. Alfie is the only one who can see Meg, so it’s up to him to find out what she wants and stop her from wreaking havoc on a small North England village.

Before I jump into my review of the book, I must put a disclaimer in place: the electronic copy of this book that I received as an ARC was a bit of a mess. Every time a word or phrase was italicised (and this happened a lot – much more than I think was necessary), it seemed to be moved up a couple of lines and pasted in the middle of a random earlier sentence. This made the book more difficult to read, but after I got used to how to rehouse the misplaced italic words, I tried to ignore this quirk and focus on the book itself. I mention this only because I want to be transparent with my review, and I have tried my best to not let this technical glitch influence my overall feeling of the book. I also had to ignore the fact that Selina’s name changed spelling partway through the book, which I think speaks to sloppy editing, which I have tried to remove from my opinion of the book as whole.

Okay – onto the book itself. Well, to start, I found the writing clunky and awkward. On page one where Alfie’s father is introduced simply as “Dad”, even though the book is written in the third person, and this bugged me more than I can rationally explain. I also felt as if the book was in a bit of a no-mans-land in terms of target audience: the whole book is written pretty simply, which gave me the impression that the book is aimed at young teens, but then there were some scenes that were definitely pitched as if they were part of a horror story, which then made me think that the book was aimed at slightly older teens. The kicker for me was the (completely unnecessary and frankly irritating) plot twist that occurs about 80% of the way into the book but doesn’t resolve itself by the end of the novel. This felt shoe-horned into place for the sake of padding out the book to reach 280 pages, while at the same time trying to (very transparently) eschew some kind of moral values to the reader and educate teenagers on the importance of their decisions and respecting one another. It was, to say the least, odd.

Then, as far as the plot goes: there was promise, but I didn’t feel it was realised. I thought that Danny Weston had created a rather feasibly spooky plot with the resurrection of a witch from the 1700s, and her demands for vengeance, but I was left wanting in the execution. Yes, this book is aimed at young adults, and I understand it can’t quite go to the level that a Stephen King or Dean Koontz book may go, but it barely got off the starting blocks for me. Meg’s motive for revenge was tenuous at best and the characters were flat and one-dimensional. I also felt that about 70% of the book was set at a dining table, whether at a hotel, café, or diner. There was a lot of potential to make Meg a more complex character, with a penchant for causing true chaos, but because the book was mostly set around coffee cups, she mostly ended up turning a lot of milk sour and that’s it.

Overall, I was disappointed in "The Witching Stone". The book had promise, and the premise of the story was good. There was a lot of potential to develop this book into something really great, but it just didn’t fell at the final hurdle. I would have liked to perhaps see a dual timeline in the book, reading about Meg’s and Alfie’s stories in tandem, eventually tying them together at the end of the book. Or perhaps a more sinister escalation of Meg’s tricks as the novel went on. Unfortunately, the final result is a rather flat young adult book that struggled to find its niche.

Thanks to NetGalley and UCLan Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The witching stone is an eerie and good book, a very enjoyable reading.
Alfie and Mia are two teenagers, who found themselves caught up with witches, spells and historical research, while trying to set Meg, and them, free. After being wronged in the past, Meg is determined to do anything to get what she wants, using Alfie as a physical conduit in the physical world and threatening him and his loved ones if he won't help her. With sour milk, threatened businesses, tiny frogs, nightmaresand witching magic, nightmares, funny and scary moments, Alfie and Mia are forced to do a run against time finding answers for Meg.

After a complicated break-up with his girlfriend, Alfie follows his self-employed father on his latest project to the tiny village of Woodplumpton in Lancashire. Although the village itself is tiny, its history is anything but, boasting its very own witch grave, that of Meg Shelton buried upside down in 1705. After hearing about the local legends, and trying to impress a girl, Alfie walks three times around the gravestone proclaiming, “I don’t believe in witches.” Which, of course, he doesn’t. At least until nightfall, then the vengeful spirit of Meg Shelton demands that Alfie helps her take her revenge on the ancestors of those who killed her.
We all know the myth, that if you say something like Candyman or Bloody Mary three times in a mirror, then something bad will happen. Logically, we know it won’t, but there’s a part of us that is still thrilled, and a little bit scared that it might. That is the fun part about The Witching Stone. The set up is familiar, a new person in a village tries to show they’re not afraid of the local legends but ends up falling foul of them. A valuable lesson to the rest of us that local legends are actually life lessons that have survived so long because they are true, so not to be taken lightly.
As The Witching Stone is aimed at young adults, it has a good pace with things going wrong for Alfie from the moment he arrives in Woodplumpton, not least because he and his father are staying at the worst guest house in the area. There is a touch of humour to some of Alfie’s misfortunes, mostly around the fact that he is sixteen-year-old boy, so when Meg appears to him at night, people jump to the wrong conclusions about why they can hear a woman’s voice coming from his room.
Covering the subject of witches and mistreatment women faced at the hands of spiteful or scared names sensitively and realistic, The Witching Stone is an interesting read, pitched right for its intended audience.

I enjoyed this book as a YA novel and would definitely recommend it. The main protagonists Alfie and Mia were a delight to read about. However I did feel the mystery a little far fetched but as a mild horror story for ya I think it made its mark.

What a fun book. The story is great and enjoyable. The characters are interesting. The writing is great. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I would definitely recommend it to people. Have to keep an eye for this author in the future.

This book follows the character Alfie after he slightly recklessly walks three times around a witches grave saying ‘I don’t believe in witches’ with each circle. He was warned a couple of times by Mia not to do it, but wanting to impress her, Alfie does it anyway. He has to live with the consequences of messing with a witch.

I really enjoyed the storyline. At first it started off quite creepy and even though I was reading it in broad daylight I got creeped out, however, as the story unfolded I steadily got less scared.
I really enjoyed how the story started with Alfie, who is the main protagonist, and his Dad moving to Lancashire from Bristol for his dad’s contracting job working in IT. The thing is we don’t find out Alfie’s dads name until quite far into the book.

I found Alfie’s character to be a little annoying though because of how much he would shout at the people who were trying to help him. I do understand why he was getting frustrated but there was no reason for him to get so angry so quickly.
My favourite characrter was Meg because she had such an interesting and difficult backstory which gives her a lot of depth. I did, however, find the conversations a bit difficult because of the dramatic emotional changes.

Mia was the other protagonist in the book. I liked Mia’s character becuase she seemed very down to earth and level headed about everything that was going on, and she was very grown up and resourceful for her age.

Together Mia and Alfie have to discover what Meg wants.

I would give this book a solid 3/5 because the storyline was really good and the concept was excellent, however, I found the execusion a bit lacking.

I knew instantly i wanted to read this book as i was browsing on Netgalley and from the off I was not disappointed.
I loved how this was an easy read to follow and i actually became quite obsessed with Meg Shelton and her history. As the story unfolded i actually felt quite sorry for her at times. She is definitely one not to be messed with though!!!!
I became quite fond of the main character Alfie and urged him to see this struggle through.
This story really did have me gripped and i am so glad i downloaded this little beauty.
I look forward to reading more from the author.

THE WITCHING STONE is a charming YA perfect for fans of Victoria Schwab or Maggie Steifvater. I was intrigued by the premise, but I can honestly say that this book was very different to what I imagined (in the best possible way!)

The book follows Alfie, a teenager dealing with a bad breakup as he moves to the small Lancastrian village of Woodplumpton with his dad for the summer. There, he gets more than he bargained for when he tries to impress a girl, and ends up summoning a long-dead witch with a hunger for vengeance against the village that buried her. Whether it was the northern English setting (which made me very happy as a Yorkshire lass), or the quirky witchcraft, there was something very charming about THE WITCHING STONE.

I also loved how undeniably British the book was, and every detail—from the setting and slang to the food and locals—felt very familiar. Maybe it’s because a lot of British YA is set in London and the south, or maybe it’s because some books try to tone down their Britishness to appeal to a wider international audience, but it was very refreshing to see these bold northern accents represented on the page.

I deeply appreciated the fact that this book was a YA that actually felt like a YA. The characters felt like real teens, their relationships and issues were completely age-appropriate (I mean, what teen hasn’t resurrected a witch from the 1700s?), and it felt very much targeted at real teens rather than adults who enjoy YA. Granted, at times it did feel a bit young for me (not a problem—just not what I was expecting), until a shocking revelation towards the end of the book. I won’t spoil it, but it led to some really necessary conversations about women’s bodies and ownership that you rarely see in YA, least of all YA with a male protagonist. The tone was always age-appropriate, and yet the topics touched upon were crucial for young readers to hear.

The reason THE WITCHING STONE didn’t get a higher review from me is simply because the plot (while not the most original premise) didn’t quite meet my expectations, and I didn’t feel very gripped by it. However, I think this book would be perfect for a younger audience—especially those who enjoy spooky and fantasy elements in a book very much rooted in the real world—and is certainly an important read for anyone within a 12 to 16 age range.

I've read a couple of other Danny Weston books so I knew what I was expecting with The witching Stone.

This book is great. It's contemporary and scary and reminds me a bit of the point horror books I used to read as a teen. It's scary enough to entice you in but not believable enough to play on your mind. When you put the book down.

I liked that characters in The Witching Stone, Alfie and Mia are both great. Meg was a bit muddled, she says she's not a witch but admits having powers and quite happily uses them against the child that's trying to help her. She can only use him as a conduit but was able to change her clothes herself and spoke in a very modern way/grasped modern concepts very quickly for someone from the 1700s. Things like this took from the story.

The pregnancy/possible abortion/underage sex thing didn't bother me like it has other reviewers, modern teenagers have a lot going on and Alfie dealt with his problems in a very grown up manner.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

After a painful breakup Alfie decides to spend his summer holidays with his father in a small village in the North of England. While wandering in the local church he sees a peculiar boulder with a strange inscription about an alleged witch who lived there in 1705 and he meets Mia, who tells him about a local superstition. If you walk around the stone three times, saying "I don't believe in witches" Meg Shelton will come after you.
Trying to impress the girl, Alfie accept the challenge, not realizing he's gonna regret it, finding himself involved in a complex plot.

The witching stone is an eerie and good book, a very enjoyable reading.
Alfie and Mia are two teenagers, who found themselves caught up with witches, spells and historical research, while trying to set Meg, and them, free. After being wronged in the past, Meg is determined to do anything to get what she wants, using Alfie as a physical conduit in the physical world and threatening him and his loved ones if he won't help her. With sour milk, threatened businesses, tiny frogs, nightmaresand witching magic, nightmares, funny and scary moments, Alfie and Mia are forced to do a run against time finding answers for Meg.

I liked reading this book, I enjoyed the researches, the pieces of the puzzles, Meg's story, Alfie and Mia's friendship and more. The characters are stubborn, determined and enjoyable, above all Meg with her being "evil" and her "pranks". I liked Hannah and her fierceness and her being so protective and smart.
In her story it's clear how women were badly treated and hurt in the past, how they were subjects to men's whims and attitude and how it was easy to label them "witches" if they didn't want to comply to men's and society's rules.
Meg is a cruel but determined character, evil because desperate, eager to find answers and peace.

The witching stone deals with themes like relationship, bad and hurtful, new ones, between father and son, mother and son and the complexity of being a teenager. Above all if involved in magic and witches.

The Witching Stone had a brilliant premise. Following Alfie who’s joined his dad on a work trip to get over his break up, he soon finds all thoughts of his ex girlfriend gone as he summons a infamous witch from her tourist hotspot grave. From there he has to be her eyes and ears in a search to find her son and bring them peace.

I loved the premise of this book, it sounded as if it would be a perfect read in the build up to Halloween but unfortunately fell just short of being amazing in my eyes. The plot, the characters, the setting, all were well thought out and written but this book seemed too fast paced. The clues, the solutions all found too quickly for my liking which made this a very quick but somewhat disappointing read for me

Disclaimer- I was given the e-ARC to read and review. This does not influence my opinion or review of the book.

Overall, 4.5* - this was such an enjoyable read.

Writing:
While being a YA, this certainly doesn't read like it. It is written with the grace of maturity, and Alfie and Mia are so likeable as a result. The writing is enticing, with the necessary suspense that you'd expect from being haunted by a witch. If Danny Weston wrote his shopping lists like this, I'm sure they would still be enjoyable!

Plot:
The plot of this book follows sixteen year old Alfie who accidentally wakes the ghost of a witch. Accompanied with all sorts of witchy shenanigans, Alfie is left to deal with the witch, Meg, while no one believes his stories about her. Meg's story is profound and heartbreaking, and was captivating from her first word. Similarly, the journeys Alfie and Mia go on, both physically and metaphorically, are sweet and exciting, and I loved every moment.

Characters:
There is a certain air of maturity about Alfie that I didn't expect. Initially he seemed to be the typical teenage boy- angsty and uncaring. However, Weston expertly captures the sophistication of being a teenager that we all inevitably believed we had, and somewhat did. He is honest and sweet, and just in touch enough with his emotions to be self-aware, but not so much that he becomes whiny. He was characterised really well and I loved him as a character.
Meg's characterisation was also fantastic. She appears to be the stereotype of an evil, cackling witch, until her story gently unfolds. Her anger becomes understandable, her desperation expected. She maintains a complex character with complex background, while simultaneous keeping the antics of a witch, summoning toads and sending milk sour. Meg is undoubtedly one of the best witch characters I have ever read and I applaud Weston for capturing such complexity while maintaining accessibility.

Themes:
This book took me a little by surprise when themes of kidnapping, murder, and mental illness snuck in. What made this book so relatable was the very real experiences of many teenagers captured, such as overly nosy and very awkward parents, that awful first breakup, broken families... I instantly felt I could relate to Alfie more because the 'normality' of the book really captured the ups and downs of real life. Because of this, the story with Meg was all the more exciting, because I already believed in and was investing Alfie right from the start.

Overall, I'm so happy I got to read this book. I was going to buy this in October when it is due to be released (and still will!) so was excited to be given the opportunity to read the ARC. I was certainly not left disappointed.

I love Alfie. He is kind, well-meaning and a little reckless, and his girlfriend has just dumped him for his best friend. I warmed to him very quickly, and it's refreshing to meet him in a Lancashire village rather than Somewhere Near London. I really appreciated the setting, and massively enjoyed the dialogue. Alfie brings snappy humour to all the conversations - which is the reason the whole story starts, his unwillingness to take things seriously.

The story begins when Alfie accidentally summons a 16th century witch. Cue a traditional quest narrative, which although compelling, is by no means new (can you write new stories in this day and age?). The plot has a tendency to hang on character's speculations, and unfolds somewhat predictably at times. It wasn't off-putting- the horror-style scenes have a unique drama of their own, and Alfie-the-amateur-witch-detective is kept consistently on his toes for one reason or another - but I found it was more the magic and general witchiness that kept me reading in parts.

My favourite thing about 'The Witching Stone' is that it doesn't shy away from issues of women's bodies and ownership, despite being told through the eyes of a teenage boy. Themes were touched on tastefully and honestly - whether in the context of the 16th century or 2020 - and in a tone appropriate for readers as young as twelve or thirteen. It is crucial to represent young men discussing women's experiences in MG/YA, which this book does excellently, without the themes eating into the main thread of the novel. More books that do this, please!!

I would recommend Alfie's adventure for fans of The Graveyard Book, Patrick Ness, Maggie Steifvater, or Victoria Schwab.. I will not hesitate to throw it at any young teens who express interest in horror or fantasy. A tale of witchcraft and mishap, with a little sprinkling of romance. What's not to like?