The Witches of Bellinas is a dreamy California Gothic about a woman who moves to the mysterious town of Bellinas to save her marriage, only to be swept up in a hedonistic cult that isn’t what it seems.
In This Spotlight On The Witches of Bellinas
About The Witches of Bellinas
Tansy and her husband Guy are the newest arrivals in Bellinas, a lush oasis tucked into the coast of northern California where a reclusive, creative community is beginning to take shape. Helmed by Guy’s cousin Mia, a famous model -turned -wellness -luminary, and her tech mogul husband, the group renounces the outside world in pursuit of purity, fashioning their own rules about what to eat and how to live.
Everything seems perfect in Bellinas: food is abundant, flowers are always in bloom, and nearby wildfires leave the town remarkably unscathed. While Guy is happy in their new lives, Tansy becomes more and more suspicious of the community and increasingly desperate to save her already-fragile marriage. And as lonely women have throughout the ages, she wants to believe in what may only be a beautiful lie.
The Witches of Bellinas unfolds as a confession from Tansy, filled with anguish over the life, and sense of self, she’s surrendered in her desperation to belong. In J. Nicole Jones’s clever reimagining of cult power and groupthink, the question isn’t why join, but rather, what happens when you understand the danger, but can’t conceive of a way out?
Source: Publisher
ISBN-13: 9781646221806
Publisher: Catapult
Publication date: 05/14/2024
Praise for The Witches of Bellinas
Bookshop, A Most Anticipated Title of the Year
“[A] brilliant writer.”—Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
“Jones’s lyrical yet ominous prose affects a bewitching vibe of its own (‘Don’t believe those who say that the fog is just fog . . . that the thunderheads worn by nearby mountain peaks are merely weather’). Readers will find this haunting tale is tough to shake.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Witches of Bellinas is like the eerie technicolor lovechild of Midsommar and Rebecca. I loved being inside Tansy’s mind as she learns to decode the sun-soaked, menacing world of Bellinas—and as she learns to decode herself, too. Myth and magic, gender and power, desire and death all swirl together in this novel to make a heady brew.”—Clare Beams, author of The Illness Lesson
“A sinister and sparkling modern myth about the seductiveness of sisterhood, The Witches of Bellinas questions what we are willing to sacrifice for belonging and serves as a poignant reminder that there is no sorcery more powerful than selfhood. Tansy Green’s journey will stay with me for years to come.”—Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty
“Twisty and luscious, J. Nicole Jones’s The Witches of Bellinas is like Alice’s Wonderland: uncanny, at times frightening, and incredibly pleasurable to wander even as the darkness looms. You’ll be swept up in its winds.”—Julia Fine, author of Maddalena and the Dark
About J. Nicole Jones, Author of The Witches of Bellinas
J. Nicole Jones received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University, and has since held editorial positions at VICE magazine and Vanity Fair. Her viral essay defending the art of memoir, “Why’s Everyone So Down on the Memoir?” was published by the Los Angeles Review of Books and Salon, and her reviews and other writings have appeared in magazines including Harper’s. She grew up in South Carolina, and now lives in Brooklyn and Tennessee.
You can find and follow J. Nicole Jones on her website, on Instagram, and on X (formerly Twitter).
Titles by J. Nicole Jones
Other LitStack Resources
Be sure and check out other LitStack Spotlights that shine a light on books we think you should read.
As a Bookshop, BAM, Barnes & Noble, Audiobooks.com, Amazon, and Envato affiliate, LitStack may earn a commission at no cost to you when you purchase products through our affiliate links.
You can find and buy the books we recommend at the LitStack Bookshop on our list of LitStack Recs.
