if I had a nickel for every time I read/watched a media where a teenage male witch named Cal seduces the brunette female witch heroine and Cal later turns out to be evil / a dark magic user, I would have two nickels
which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice
In fact I think I picked up the first few Circle of Three and the first few Sweep on the same bookstore visit. They have the same basic plot: “Girl is drawn into witchcraft” but they approach it in different ways. Both of the series have interesting backstories, they were written for different reasons but have a lot of similarities, including similar issues.
If you liked The Secret Circle, both series will be right up your alley.
Circle of Three was written by author Isobel Bird to present real Wicca to teenage readers who have plenty of more fantasy-based books but nothing to show them what they might experience if they start studying Wicca. The story follows sporty Kate, studious Annie and rebel Cooper as they become friends and follow a year-and-a-day Wiccan study program they find at a local metaphysical shop. Each book focuses on an aspect of Wicca: tarot cards, psychic dreams, healing, dealing with Wicca's dodgy public image, and celebrating the Wheel of the Year. The series also focuses a lot on the community aspect of Wicca as the girls make friends with adult Wiccans, ask for guidance, and help others.
Sweep was written by author Cate Tiernan to sell a book series. The story follows Morgan as she falls for the hot new boy at school, finds out he’s Wicca, then finds out there aren’t just Wiccans there are also Blood Witches and she’s one too. Morgan deals with warring covens each led by a hot boy who may or may not be Morgan’s soulmate, discovering that she’s adopted since Blood Witches can’t have children with humans, and facing the evil that destroyed her birth parents. Most of the characters are teens, but Morgan also deals with the Council of Witches and a Seeker, empowered to judge witches who misuse their powers.
So they are very different series. In only one of them does someone get stabbed by an athame and fall off a cliff.
But they are also very similar series. Both describe rituals and magical tools, both have spells, both have plenty of boy-crazy from the lead characters, Kate and Morgan. Both are good. Both also tend to wobble annoyingly between magical realism and fantasy.
Sweep starts out with quite reality-based information about Wicca but veers off into Blood Witches by the end of the first book. Circle of Three starts similarly and even has one character refer to another as a “Buffy witch, they think Wicca is all about making supernatural things happen”… and then in the next book Cooper uses her psychic visions to lead the police to the body of a murder victim.
Which is… interesting. Isobel Bird meant the series to reflect her experiences in Wicca so is this the kind of thing that happened in her coven? Psychics offering help to detectives certainly happens, but whether any case has been solved based purely on their input is still very he-said she-said. Psychics claim to have done it but they might lie for fame and money, police departments generally say not but they might lie to keep their dignity or for obscure legal reasons. But psychics helping cops is definitely not a normal thing that will happen to any teenage Wiccan. And that’s only Circle of Three’s first voyage away from normality. The girls meet real fae and ghosts. Did Isobel Bird have a truly wild Wiccan life? Did she think the series would be better if she stretched things a bit? Or did the editor pressure her to spice things up? Who can say, but it does make the series read a bit strange as it tries to pick a lane between fantasy and magical realism.
And both series were written under pen names. Looking at the authors behind the names explains why the two series went the way they did.
Sweep was written by Gabrielle Charbonnet, who has written quite a lot under her own name. according to wiki, Charbonnet “participated in the editing of” the Secret Circle trilogy, which explains a lot—or would, but Tiernan credits Ann Bradshares of Traveling Pants fame for coming up with the idea for Sweep. I get the impression that a publisher thought a witch series would do well and several people contributed to ‘Cate Tiernan.’
Circle of Three was written by Michael Thomas Ford, a gay Wiccan man who mostly writes about gay topics. That’s why the pen name; the publisher didn’t think an authors name that leads to a whole lotta gay stuff would be good for selling a series for teenage girls.
Both series are 15 books long, and both were meant to be longer but had their plugs pulled when sales sank. Both series suffer from “some parts are definitely better than other parts”, as we all might expect from such long series! They also both have a certain amount of boy drama and general silliness, but they’re both great fun. Highly recommended!
After enjoying these two so much I keep my eyes open for similar series. There have been a few. Blue is for Nightmares and sequels were all right. The Daughters of the Moon series is great. Nonfiction author Silver Ravenwolf wrote a series about teenage witches and it was terrrrrible. There’s also a very obscure series called “The Circle” by Melaina Faranda, which could have been really good but the writing never quite got there and the series vanished into the mist after three maybe four volumes. Nothing ever quite matched the glorious series of 2001.
Cate Tiernan was the first YA author I think I ever read 👀 and I’m glad I found her when I did because the idea of reading a 15-book series scares the crap outta me now 😅
ok so I want to reread this series I was obsessed with as a middle schooler but tell me why the first book is $5 on thriftbook and the second is $20????
me reading the sweep series by cate tiernan for the first few times back when i was 10-11: wow! :0 morgan and hunter's romance is so mature!
me, 21, rereading sweep for like the 30th time: you are both fucking cheesy dumbasses with less braincells than i first thought but i still love u anyway <3
