Coven by Taous Merakchi and Da Coffee Time is a graphic novel about a group of teenagers who decide to try some magic to protect an Elm tree in their local park, but in the course of their ritual they bite off a little more than they can chew and accidentally summon a demon . This Chaos demon soon starts to sow discord between them, causing the good friends to argue over the most minor things , and they realise their only chance is to banish the demon back to wherever it came from by working together again.
This book was fine, the story and art were both okay, but not without flaws. On the positive side, I liked the character designs and colour palette , and I enjoyed the friendship between the girls. The design of the demon and the spookier aspects of the story was also pretty interesting, On the downside, the artwork was somewhat simple, and I thought it looked like some drawings had been reused in various places throughout the book, I also thought that there were some weaknesses when it came to portraying emotions on the character faces.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this.
I did feel familiar. Like I knight have read it'll watched something similar, but it's still a good read.
I'm not usually one for graphic novels, but I can see the appeal.
I liked the different personalities in the friendship group.
The reveal at the end wasn't entirely a surprise but didn't detract from what I'd read.
A definite recommend for anyone who likes strong female friendships, witchcraft and graphic novels.
I received a copy via NetGalley and all opinions are my own.

Overall I'll say this was ok, definitely not for me but if you're into teen witch stories this will probably be a lot of fun. There's some twists and the friendship between the main group is nice, and the main plot is pretty engaging. My only complaint with the story was there was some romance plot line that was purely filler that sort of pulled me away from the main story and broke all the tension that was building up. There was also a lot of really cringey panels, but again that's teen fiction for you.

The art was a mixed bag sadly. Some of it was fantastic, mainly the monsters and the environment. The majority of it wasn't great though, looks very flat and there's a lot of reused pieces even multiple times on the same page. I also felt like a lot of the facial expressions were so off, characters would look angry when talking about sad event, things like that.

Overall this would probably be great for some people, but could have done with an overall polish to really hit the mark.

Great female friendship energy. Very diverse characters and a believable premise for the story. Loved the cartoon style and would definitely read more from the author.

Disclaimer!
Netgalley provided me with an ARC of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Summary:
Coven is a graphic novel about a group of 4 teens who accidentally awaken a demon of chaos after trying their hand at witchcraft for the first time when trying to protect their local park from becoming one giant slab of concrete. What follows is chaos, anger, fear, creepy demon encounters, terrifying visions, and a group of girls slowly coming together in friendship to take down this demon of chaos.

Review:
I really don't have too much to say about this because the book was just okay in my opinion, and it could be really loved in the hands of the right people. It was a fun and enjoyable story, but definitely not my favourite thing. The relationships of the friends were nice to see, and so was the little romance going on in the background too I guess, but it felt disconnected from the actual story and kind of like filler. I also liked the illustrations and the demon was drawn in a way that was actually unnerving and it's actions were genuinely creepy.

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for giving me this graphic novel.

While it was a good idea for a plot, I honestly think it would be better if it was a movie or a tv series. It’s just the amount of speech bubbles made my reading experience confusing (I know it sounds silly but just saying…)

This was such a cute graphic novel!
I loved the characters and was very happy to see that at least one of them was queer (though they all gave me queer vibes). The characters were all very different and unique, which was great to read. I really liked how they bonded over social justice, too. I also really enjoyed their friendship, but they should have confronted all the stuff they were fighting about, even if it was the magic that made them fight.
The entire book was very funny and the art style was very fitting and beautiful.
All in all a great graphic novel.

What a cute little book. I loved the 90’s/naughties references! I do however wanna know why the friends were fighting to begin with. That was mentioned a couple of times. Overall I enjoyed this!

This was a very cute graphic novel! The art style was full color, beautiful, and matched the story perfectly. The tiny details in the witch rooms of Collette was so much fun to zoom in and look at, and shows how much thought went into this. The story itself was a bit confusing at times and hard to follow, but the characters made up for it. I want Lily to be my best friend. She had a lot of depth as a character, and seeing the side plot of her romance and becoming comfortable with herself was so cute to read. I would read a whole graphic novel, or novel even, of her.

Coven is a graphic novel about four teenagers that turn to witchcraft to protect a treasured tree in their local park. What starts out as a first spell with great success is quickly turned on it's head when they discover they bit off more than they could chew.

I'm weak for any story containing witches, and doubly so if it's a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. The title grabbed my attention, and the blurb really set the scene. I had to read this!

My first impression of this novel held true, this is a beautifully illustrated piece of witchy literature that truly delivers what the blurb promises. I enjoyed the portrayals of the main characters, they are well written and realistic teenagers, which is refreshing to see. I hope there'll be a continuation of this soon, I desperately want to know what happens after I've turned the last page!

Thank you to NetGalley and Europe Comics for the ARC and the opportunity to review this graphic novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Coven was very much a graphic novel that made me think "Eh, it's okay" when I finished it. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just okay. The flavor of "witchy" that this novel is is very much, "TikTok witchcraft girlie whose only point of reference for paganism is social media, pop culture, and The Craft". The way witchcraft is written in this would make most actual pagans raise their eyebrows at it. This feels like it's been somewhat proven to be true by the fact that one of the girl's bedrooms has a huge The Craft poster and they even watch The Craft during one scene. The entire thing actually had the exact same vibe as The Craft: Legacy. Which is another piece of media that made me think "Eh, it's okay, I guess." The overall plot itself was mostly fine, but the pacing was very odd. The middle of it really dragged on and left me wishing that it would just go faster. The ending of it, while full of action, honestly felt droll. The main group of girls as characters are mostly made up of generic tropes, and also you barely get to know anything about them, so there's no connection to them. Though I did not realize that the main characters are meant to be high schoolers until one of them actually mentions that they're sixteen. I honestly thought they were college students in their early twenties! The art style I was okay with, but slowly started to dislike the more I read. As someone who has read a lot of graphic novels and manga over the years, it's painfully obvious that the artist is not someone experienced with creating comics. The art feels like the artist is an illustrator or that they did fashion design. I haven't looked into them, so I truly do not know. There is no page flow, backgrounds are messy and hard to parse or they were so bare bones it looked like they just traced over a real photo and used the color bucket on it. Expressions on the character's faces are mind-numbingly simple, and the artist seemed locked into only a precise limited set of them. I also noticed that panels would be copy-pasted to be used in different sections of the book, with literally no changes. Multiple times they would just appear in other scenes, with not a single detail changed. Many times characters' facial expressions would be copied from previous panels onto completely different ones. Sometimes the panel would be copy pasted, but only the expression would be different. This is NOT me saying the artist's art, in general, is horrible, however! I'm just trying to point out that comics are clearly not their strong point, though I'm sure they excel in other types of art.

This was such a fun read I absolutely loved it. We follow a group of teen friends who take a risk and try to save a local tree by using magic, when things go right for them the temptation to keep using magic to aid them is too much.

A really interesting storyline, engaging characters and stunning visuals.

Thoroughly enjoyed this!

A gorgeous graphic novel surrounding a group of four teen witches who perform their first ritual in years. Follow their story as things start to go a bit awry and they band together to overcome it. Hopefully there will be a sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher & the author for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I loved this graphic novel!
The art style was amazing and characters very relatable! All about teen witches 🖤
Such a cute story! Would defo recommend.

Coven is a young adult graphic novel about witchcraft and friendship. Love, love, love the references to The Craft (one of the best witchcraft movies of all time), The Faculty, Stranger Things and Buffy. There are some other head nods to other horror characters. The detention teacher that looks like Fred from Scooby Doo was pretty funny. The demon was frightening. Art and storyline are great. Fun, inclusive and feminist. Highly recommend!

I enjoyed the premise of this book and the witchy vibes but overall it wasn't for me. I felt like the main characters were a bit hard to connect with and the pacing could have been better. Some sections felt added in for no reason and then other sections I wanted a little more time and build up on. The art work was cool and I always love me a friendship story but overall this was an okay read for me.

This would probably definitely read better as a physical book versus e-book!

3 out of 5 Stars

It was cute but I think I probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it physically.

I enjoyed the story between the girls. How despite how different they are, they are still really close. I also liked how it showed them having disagreements and working through them. The twist at the end was good. I hope that there are more books coming out. I want to see more of these girls as they find their way.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The four friends, Eve, Diane, Lily & Morgane are on a mission. The elm tree in the local park is going to get cut down, and nobody in their town seems to care. The girls decide to try out witchcraft to find a way to get the tree to stay, and to their own surprise, the spell actually works! But soon after, strange things start happening to the girls and their surroundings. It seems like they've woken a Demon of Chaos - and the demon is planning on destroying them.

I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot! I love witch stories, and this was no different. This story was fun, but also scary at some points. I really enjoyed following the four friends and enjoyed their friendship dynamic. The story touches on some important current topics, such as feminism and caring about the planet.

The illustrations were very pretty. This graphic novel would do really well if it would get made into a movie. Overall a fun & easy read.

I can see people really enjoying this book, but it just wasn’t for me. I did like the friendship dynamic throughout, but I really wasn’t a fan of the art style and colour pallette. I did want to love this, and I can tell that this book definintely has the right audience somewhere, but the right audience unfortunately wasn’t me.