Hilarie Burton Morgan was drawn to the idea of creating a grimoire since childhood. She loves all things magical, and has a passion for words, books, and storytelling. After her second child was born, Hilarie was compelled to start a grimoire containing quotes, book excerpts and knowledge to pass down to her children. The idea of inheritance was important to her, and she wanted share joy, secrets, curiosity, and mischief.
“A Grimoire was a guide to keep you alive. It held knowledge about plants. Which ones would save your life and which ones would kill you. It contained ceremonies and rituals believed to honor God or gods and goddesses. It was the tangible collection of a lifetime of learning. A woman would record what she had been taught as a child and add to it throughout her lifetime.”
Grimoire Girl takes place during a time when Hilarie was facing tragedy and grief, having lost several significant people in her life. She realizes that it was important to not just create a grimoire for her children, but “to remind ourselves of what is light and good and powerful when the going gets tough.”
Grimoire Girl touches on both, mystical and more mundane topics. It is both memoir and instructional. One chapter is devoted to the magic in naming your home. Just think how tragic it would have been if Green Gables had been called by just a house number! Chapters conclude with ideas for “Simple Spells” to inspire the reader, like writing down every single detail that you can remember about the home of your childhood or the “home of your heart.” In another chapter, Hilarie delights in the sending and receiving of handwritten notes and letters, and details how you can make a habit of it. Other chapters are more mystical, like the story of her Wilmington, North Carolina home and a ghost that inhabited it, or the story of her Appalachian grandmother who was a gifted healer of burns. She delves into Roman and Greek mythology, the symbolism and witchy properties of flowers, and the magic of home cooking.
At its’ heart, Grimoire Girl is about storytelling and a passion for living. Hilarie Burton Morgan is an actress, best known for the early 2000s teen drama One Tree Hill, but she is storyteller at heart. Her love of poetry, literature, and her father’s wild tall tales, vividly come through in her writing. I recommend the audio book, which is narrated by the author. You can find Grimoire Girl in Nebraska Overdrive.
Morgan, Hilarie Burton. Grimoire Girl.Harper Collins, 2024.
