“Unique and vital…Witches of America is a seeker’s memoir told through a quilted veil: a collection of strong, journalistic profiles of several fascinating American practitioners of the occult. Through these witches, priests and necromancers, Alex Mar surveys the history and modern practice of various forms of witchcraft in America, while investigating her own longing ‘to be disturbed, shaken into believing.'”
– The New York Times Book Review (Notable Book of 2015, Editors’ Pick)

“[One of] the most notable non-fiction gems of 2015.”
– Huffington Post Books

“Witches of America is brave and sharp and tenaciously researched. I would never have described myself as someone ‘interested in witchcraft’—Alex Mar’s book left me feeling the fault had been mine.”
– John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead

“Witches of America could be seen as a Gulliverian journey through various oddball sects scattered from California to New England, all of whom believe in salvation through Magick—but the book is so much more than that. This is a quest to come to terms with the Unknowable.”
– Richard Price, author of Lush Life

“Weird and wonderful…”
– Elle

“Enchanting and addictive…”
– Kirkus Review

“An expertly crafted spiritual journey…Mar pushes past vulnerability in search of guidance and conviction…Witches, priests and priestesses, and even a necromancer receive a sympathetic, humanizing treatment as Mar encourages empathy for the ‘outer edges’ of society…Whatever one’s spiritual inclinations, Mar’s search for ‘something transcendent’ is bewitching.”
– Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Witches of America provide[s] illuminating answers about what witchcraft in America means today: It’s a spiritual movement focused on nature, equality and the triumph of the self. Which is about as stereotypically American as a social practice can be.”
– The Huffington Post

“Written with a beguiling blend of heart and wit, Witches of America sustains its thrall with something that runs much deeper than intrigue or pageantry. With the depth and scope of her curiosity, Alex Mar compelled me to follow her driving questions—about meaning, faith, and longing for community and wonder—on a breathless, deepening, and constantly surprising quest.”
– Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams

“Like the best immersive subcultural reporting, Witches of America has its proper share of erotic charge (daggers, velvet, ritual nudity) and comic flair (a neurotic New Yorker meets an inedible Black Mass wafer). But what Alex Mar has actually achieved is something altogether more haunting. This is an intellectually serious and sweetly vulnerable work about connection both on and off the grid, and our common aspiration to lead lives spellbound and spellbinding.”
– Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction

“Mar’s elucidation of what it means to be a witch won’t so much haunt you as entrance you.”
– Marie Claire (A Top Book-Club Pick of 2015)

“The common caricatures of witches are much less interesting than the reality…With good humor, and prose that can take on the quality of an incantation, Witches of America is an empathetic but clear-eyed group portrait of people many might find easy to dismiss.”
– Bookforum

“What will resonate most with readers is [Mar’s] genuine and touching search for transcendence, which leads to a conviction that all of these strands of belief are ‘strategies for staying alive. Some are simply more elaborate and inexplicable than others.'”
– The Los Angeles Times

“An open-minded, fascinating journey into the world of modern American Paganism.”
– Booklist

“Avoiding the easy caricatures to which witchcraft often lends itself, Mar writes about her subject and its practitioners with empathy and genuine curiosity…Deeply compelling…”
– BuzzFeed Books