VenCo

Canadian Métis novelist Dimaline’s (Empire of Wild; The Marrow Thieves) latest outing follows Lucky St. James, a Métis woman whose life hasn’t been lucky at all. The sole caretaker for her grandmother Stella, Lucky is underemployed and expecting to be evicted from their Toronto apartment at any moment. Then she finds a mysterious silver spoon that leads her to a coven of modern-day witches looking to initiate a new era of witchcraft. As the coven’s sixth member, Lucky must discover the seventh, but she has only 17 days to do so. With vicious witch-hunter Jay Christos on her trail, success looks increasingly unlikely. While listeners may be intrigued by the storyline, narrator Michelle St. John’s performance does little to enhance the text. As the audio progresses, St. John’s characterizations become more robust, but listeners may initially struggle to distinguish between characters. Additionally, the production suffers from an echoey, hollow tone and is further marred by volume changes, breathiness, and mispronunciations.