Magick in the West End - Stories of the Occult

By Stefan Isaksson

Magick in the West End - Stories of the Occult
Kala Trobe
Llewellyn
177 pages
ISBN: 0738707791

Magick in the West End is a book centred on the esoteric store Malynowsky’s in London. Kala is the store’s own Tarot reader, and she spends her days helping people, who seek her guidance in different matters, and the stories in the book all deal with Kala and her different experiences.

That might sound interesting to you, and it sure did when I saw the beautiful cover of the book and read on its back what other people had thought about it before me. It’s a short book, 177 pages, which makes it a quick read. And I’m sad to say that I found that to be a great thing, because I never managed to find the book very entertaining.

Well, that’s not really true. Some of the stories were quite good, for instance the once about Sam, a fellow worker at Malynowsky’s who had a extremely traumatic experience at Highgate Cemetery as a child. Or for instance the story about Kala’s journey to New Orleans where she spends some time with her best girlfriend.

But that’s pretty much it. This will be a short review, and that’s only because I don’t really have a whole lot more to say about this book. It’s true that all stories have some sort of occult reasoning and discussion, but since I don’t practise Tarot or any of the other magickal techniques mentioned in the book I never really got very interested, and unfortunately I can only assume that people who do practice the same things Kala practices still won’t necessarily find the book to be a must.

If all stories had been of the same quality as the Highgate story or the New Orleans story, then things would be different, because Kala Trobe really does know how to write well. But since none of the other stories managed to get me the least interested I still must say the book as a whole was quite disappointing. Sorry.