The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Chapters 25-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Sea

In Chapter 4, the narrative introduces Mika’s love for the sea. Wherever Mika goes, she ensures that every home she chooses has some view of the water: “It didn’t matter if she was looking across a garden with a tree house or through the shutters of a tiny shed or out of the window of a slightly grotty flat—the sea was the sea” (42). She’s attracted to the sea because she “would never wake up one day and find it gone. It knew all her secrets. It knew her. And it stayed” (43). The sea symbolizes Mika’s desire for consistency and companionship. She finds comfort in the sea because it’s always present, and she can rely on it to keep her company when she has no one else.

Mika visits the sea twice in the novel, both times in relation to her attempts to connect to others. The first instance is in Chapter 7, during her first afternoon at Nowhere House. Mika invites the girls to the beach with her as a way to bond with her new students, but Jamie won’t let them go. Mika visits the sea alone, as she always has. The second instance is in Chapter 23, as she walks Jamie to the beach to confront him about why he pulled away from her after their kiss. Mika leaves Nowhere House shortly after this. The two beach trips that bookend Mika’s time at Nowhere House show how she makes efforts to connect to people despite her insecurities and the rules that Primrose has placed on her.

Mika relates people to the sea and compares herself to others by using this figurative language. For example, she tells Jamie, “People are usually like the sea, a constant, unerasable part of something bigger, but I’m more like a single wave that washes over the shore, ebbs away, and doesn’t leave a trace behind” (232). Mika doesn’t see herself as part of the sea like everyone else because she has never left a mark on anyone. The sea symbolizes the connections and bonds that most people have but that Mika doesn’t. However, at the end of the novel, once she realizes that she belongs with the people of Nowhere House and has made lasting connections with her new family, Mika acknowledges that “the marks she had left were unerasable, as much a part of forever as the sea” (316). This final image of the sea symbolizes how Mika has now made connections with other people that will last, giving her the companionship and permanency she desires.

Windows

The motif of windows helps develop the theme of Letting Others In. In Chapter 5, the narrative establishes that witches don’t like being “closed in,” referring to Mika’s adoration of the large window and balcony in her new home. Mika “always had a window open. Even in winter” (65). In addition, witches are typically deprived of connection with other witches and other people in general, so the concept of leaving a window open symbolizes how, as a witch, Mika longs to let others in and build connections.

The idea of windows as a way of letting others develops primarily through Mika and Jamie’s relationship. The first time she has a private conversation with him, it’s because she hears him below her balcony, having left her windows open. In a later instance, Mika, through her open window, hears Jamie break a glass downstairs because “he must have had his window cracked open” (143). Mika takes this opportunity to connect with him, which leads to their nightly meetings, where their chemistry and connection grow.

Ken spells out the link between windows and letting others in at the end of Chapter 18, after Jamie expresses concerns about growing too close to Mika, fearing she’ll leave. Ken explains that “when someone leaves, all you can do is leave a window open for them so that one day, if they choose, they can come back” (213). This advice helps Jamie make amends with Mika in Chapter 26. When Jamie turns up at Mika’s door, he explains to her that he and the others at Nowhere House are “leaving a window open so that, if you ever want to come home, you’ll know you’ll always be wanted” (270). Jamie’s reference to a window in communicating that his heart—and everyone else’s at Nowhere House—is open to Mika’s return develops the theme of Letting Others In by providing a physical image of an opening through which people can enter a safe, protected space—much like the windows of Nowhere House.

Blooming Flowers

The out-of-season blooming flowers of Nowhere House’s gardens represent its well-guarded secrets. When Mika first arrives at the house, she notices quite a few plants that are blooming well after the end of their season. Mika asks why the lavender is still in bloom, but she already knows that “[i]t’s because there’s a lot of magic here” (22). However, Mika hasn’t yet become privy to the truth about the three young witches living on the property. The mysteriously blooming flowers represent the secrets Mika hasn’t yet uncovered about Nowhere House.

Expanding this concept are the sunflowers that mark Lillian’s burial site. In Chapter 22, on the Winter Solstice, Altamira observes that “[n]othing feels wintry or festive,” adding that “there are still sunflowers in the back garden” (241). This symbolizes the secrets about Nowhere House that Mika has yet to learn, creating a looming sense of menace on the horizon. Mika herself feels this tension and tries to explain that “it’s just difficult for us to think about anything but Edward’s visit right now” (241).

In Chapter 24, after she learns the truth about Lillian’s death, Mika uses magic and “[s]lowly, the entire patch of sunflowers lifted out of the ground, along with two feet of rich, dark soil” (255). Within the hole, Mika sees Lillian’s remains and confirms for herself that Nowhere House was hiding this from her all along. The unearthing of the sunflowers represents the unearthing of the final secrets. Overall, the unseasonably blooming flowers of Nowhere House represent how the things that the people of the house wanted to keep hidden are finally revealed.