The Witchwood Boys Are Trending Summary, Characters and Themes
The Witchwood Boys Are Trending by CM Stunich is a dark, surreal, and deeply psychological fantasy novel that explores themes of control, power, trauma, and reluctant transformation. The narrative is structured around two hauntingly distinct worlds—the eerie Witchwoods and the more familiar setting of Eureka, California—brought together by a cursed coven of witches and one young woman’s reluctant initiation into their world.
This is not a tale of romance or adventure in any traditional sense; instead, it pulls the reader into a nightmarish, lust-infused dimension filled with ancient spells, raw violence, and unsettling intimacy. With visceral imagery and unflinching depictions of trauma, the story confronts the ways in which people survive, adapt, and reclaim agency in the face of overwhelming magical coercion.
Summary
Kate, a restoration artist from Eureka, California, has always been fascinated by local legends surrounding the Witch’s Tree, an ancient, charred redwood rumored to be a portal to another realm. Her curiosity, sparked by her grandmother’s cryptic stories and a deep yearning for something unexplainable, leads her to perform a ritual at the tree during her birthday under a new moon.
She crosses into the Witchwoods—a spectral forest filled with impossible creatures, screaming flora, and ominous magic. There, she encounters three men—Tanner, Marlowe, and Brooks—who have been trapped in this supernatural realm for decades.
Each of them had vanished from the human world in different eras and now embody a cardinal direction in a coven awaiting completion.
The three men believe Kate is their “North,” the final component of a magical quadrangle that can potentially break their curse and allow escape. But their methods of welcoming her are far from benign.
Marlowe assaults Kate, stealing her voice through the dark spellwork that binds her to the Witchwoods. She is forcefully integrated into the coven through rituals that combine magic, sex, and blood—an experience as disorienting as it is traumatic.
Despite the horror and violation, Kate maintains a powerful sense of inner resolve. She recognizes that her survival—and eventual escape—will require learning the rules of this strange forest and finding a way to twist them to her advantage.
Each man presents a distinct danger. Brooks is cold and commanding, obsessed with returning to the real world.
Tanner is wildly possessive, almost childlike in his obsession with Kate, and driven by instincts that mask an inner longing. Marlowe is emotionally fractured, sarcastic, and volatile, hiding pain and guilt behind his cruel exterior.
Though all three are morally ambiguous at best and deeply damaged, they form a magical tether with Kate that neither she nor they can escape.
As the group attempts the first major ritual to escape the Witchwoods, Kate undergoes several transformations. Her appearance changes—her eyes and hair shift color, her skin is tattooed with arcane symbols—and she begins to feel the pull of the forest’s power inside her.
Though initially coerced into the binding spells, she begins to navigate the dynamics between the men more assertively, using the power they so desperately need from her as leverage. The ritual ends with them narrowly avoiding capture by the Hag Wytch, a monstrous entity that hunts speech and stalks the forest by daylight.
When Kate awakens, her new identity as “North” is both physically apparent and emotionally consuming. She argues with the coven over the next steps, clashing especially with Brooks, who prioritizes magical efficiency over Kate’s safety.
Tension builds between the trio as they debate whether to revisit “the Pit,” a place of dangerous power. Meanwhile, Kate learns about Marlowe’s past and breaks the news that his former girlfriend Miriam moved on and married someone else.
This revelation shatters Marlowe, who begins to spiral emotionally, highlighting the devastating cost of their prolonged absence from the real world.
Despite their shared trauma, the coven moves forward with the plan to collect ingredients for the final ritual—particularly a rare magical item called the corpse pumpkin. The mission is fraught with emotional and physical peril.
Kate’s growing magical presence is both a burden and a key to control. Although she did not choose her role, she embraces a proactive stance in shaping her future.
The group eventually crosses back into the real world, bringing with them the baggage—both literal and magical—of their time in the Witchwoods. Kate attempts to regain control of her life, setting boundaries and trying to reestablish a sense of normalcy.
But the men, deeply bonded to her and transformed by the forest, resist separation. They crowd her space, assert magical and emotional dominance, and provoke complex feelings of resentment, affection, and fear.
Despite her protests, Kate cannot deny the connection that has formed, nor the responsibility it brings.
Reality refuses to remain ordinary. Their reappearance triggers public curiosity, with online attention mounting.
When they attempt to work a job restoring a Victorian house, they encounter spectral phenomena linked to the Witchwoods. Mrs.
Madsen, the homeowner, recognizes Tanner, deepening the mystery of their pasts and their continued entanglement with magic. As they work, Kate’s complicated relationships with each man deepen.
Moments of intimacy are peppered with confusion, miscommunication, and flashes of violence. After an emotionally charged encounter involving both Tanner and Marlowe, Kate finds herself overwhelmed and physically injured, further blurring the line between magical bonding and psychological captivity.
Despite the chaos, Kate begins to step into a leadership role within the coven. She confronts Marlowe after a disturbing self-harm incident, urging him to reconcile with his guilt rather than use it as a weapon.
Her strength, tested by constant intrusion and manipulation, gradually transforms into something that resembles command. She insists on transparency, on choosing the path forward, and on wielding the power she has acquired—not because she desires control, but because she demands survival on her own terms.
The final stretch of the story reveals that the portal to the Witchwoods has not closed. A local detective disappears into the tree, confirming their fears that the boundary between realms is still active.
Brooks and Marlowe determine that another ritual is needed—one even more intense than the last—to close the gate permanently. Kate, still wary, agrees to participate, understanding the stakes are no longer just personal but cosmic.
In the story’s closing arcs, Kate becomes both a force and a fulcrum. Her magic is tied to each of the men, but her will is increasingly her own.
As the group prepares for another spell under the cover of night, Kate no longer views herself as a passive victim or a tool for escape. She is their North, yes—but more importantly, she is the anchor that decides how this story ends.
Whether through blood, magic, or raw resolve, Kate intends to finish what was started. Not to serve the coven.
Not to fulfill prophecy. But to reclaim her own fate, one spell—and one choice—at a time.
Characters
Katelynn Poppy (Kate / North)
Katelynn Poppy stands as the central figure in The Witchwood Boys Are Trending, a woman whose journey from mundane normalcy to otherworldly terror becomes the spine of the narrative. A pragmatic, resilient historical restoration artist, Kate is drawn to the mysterious Witch’s Tree by both ancestral whispers and an insatiable curiosity about the arcane.
Her initial crossing into the Witchwoods is marked by horrific trauma—a brutal encounter with Marlowe that leaves her emotionally shattered and magically bound. Yet from this devastation rises a powerful portrait of female endurance.
Kate’s strength lies not in stoic denial but in her ability to acknowledge pain and push forward. Her emotional landscape is complex: anger, fear, and revulsion are met with curiosity, desire, and moments of reluctant trust.
Throughout the story, Kate resists becoming a mere pawn in the witches’ rituals. Despite the magical ties that bind her to the coven, she constantly asserts her agency, refusing to let trauma define her fate.
Her relationships with the three men are tangled with resentment and need, desire and disgust, but she maintains a sharp awareness of the cost of their bond. As the story evolves, Kate emerges not only as a survivor but as a nascent leader—haunted, changed, but unyielding in her pursuit of autonomy and justice.
By the end, she is no longer simply the North they were waiting for—she is the true heart of the coven, steering its chaotic magic on her own terms.
Brooks (South)
Brooks is the eldest and most authoritative of the three witches trapped in the Witchwoods, and he embodies the direction of South. Having vanished from the real world decades ago, Brooks has endured the longest exposure to the forest’s corrupting magic, emerging as a man both disciplined and domineering.
His sense of purpose is rooted in survival and escape, and this grim practicality bleeds into every interaction he has with Kate. From the beginning, Brooks views her as a tool to achieve freedom—a vessel necessary to complete their coven and leave the forest behind.
However, his attitude is laced with contradiction. While he wields power with confidence and frequently asserts dominance, he also displays flickers of protectiveness and even affection toward Kate.
His flirtation is subtle but intense, often cloaked in command, and the chemistry between them is crackling and unresolved. Brooks struggles with vulnerability, often choosing control over connection, yet the depth of his feelings for Kate threatens to destabilize that calculated exterior.
Even as he works to seal the gate and neutralize the Hag’s threat, Brooks grapples with the cost of their escape—not just in magic, but in moral terms. His complicated moral compass, shaped by decades of suffering and transformation, marks him as both protector and antagonist—a man for whom leadership has become a burden, and love, a dangerous gamble.
Tanner (East)
Tanner, the witch of the East, presents himself as the most outwardly affectionate and emotionally expressive of the trio. Brash, physical, and driven by an almost childlike desire for connection, Tanner quickly forms a deep, obsessive attachment to Kate.
Unlike Brooks or Marlowe, who vacillate between cruelty and coldness, Tanner’s attention is immediate and tactile, sometimes overwhelming in its intensity. His yearning for normalcy is palpable—he dreams of love, of being seen, of family dinners and shared laughter, which he often voices in surreal contrast to the horror of their reality.
However, this longing makes him dangerously possessive. He cannot easily distinguish between affection and ownership, and his protectiveness borders on domination.
Yet there’s a vulnerable core to Tanner that renders him more human than monster. His emotional openness allows Kate glimpses of sincerity, and he frequently positions himself as her guardian even when she doesn’t ask for it.
Tanner’s romantic idealism clashes with the dark magic that saturates his world, resulting in moments of painful dissonance, especially when he participates in rituals that hurt the very person he wants to cherish. Through it all, Tanner emerges as a tragic figure: a man corrupted by the forest, desperate for salvation, clinging to love like it’s the only lifeline left.
Marlowe (Lo / West)
Marlowe, also known as Lo, is the most volatile and enigmatic of the coven, representing the direction West. He is introduced as the primary perpetrator of Kate’s initial trauma—dragging her across the veil and violating her to anchor her in the Witchwoods.
This brutal beginning casts a long shadow over his character, but as the story progresses, Marlowe unfolds in layers of torment and guilt. Sarcastic, withdrawn, and frequently self-loathing, he is a man hollowed out by loss and isolation.
His heartbreak over Miriam—his girlfriend who moved on and married his best friend—cracks his defensive shell, revealing a soul that has been silently unraveling for decades. Marlowe’s relationship with Kate is charged with tension, shifting unpredictably from hostility to sorrow to desire.
His body language, silences, and bursts of emotion all point to a man battling demons far greater than any visible threat. At times, he appears to resent Kate for representing hope, while also aching for the connection she might bring.
His emotional breakdowns and moments of self-harm—culminating in the accidental breaking of Kate’s hand—highlight his dangerous instability, but also the depth of his inner torment. Ultimately, Marlowe is a paradox: a man defined by the harm he’s caused, yet also yearning for forgiveness and love he doesn’t believe he deserves.
The Hag Wytch
Though not one of the coven, the Hag Wytch looms over the narrative as a symbol of primal terror and silenced speech. A monstrous being awakened by sunrise, the Hag consumes not just flesh but voice, representing a supernatural threat rooted in the themes of control, silencing, and fear.
Her presence enforces urgency upon the coven and casts a lingering dread over their movements, especially after their supposed escape from the Witchwoods. When her reflection is spotted outside of the forest, it signals that the boundary between worlds is not as secure as they hoped.
The Hag is more than a creature—she is an embodiment of the story’s darkest forces, feeding off stolen agency and forbidden power. Her shadow stalks both the literal and emotional landscapes of the novel, reinforcing the ever-present threat that trauma, once born, may never fully recede.
Flick
Flick, Kate’s loyal dog, plays a small but emotionally significant role in The Witchwood Boys Are Trending. As Kate’s companion during her first crossing into the Witchwoods, Flick represents the last vestige of her old life—an anchor of innocence and love in a world twisted by dark magic.
His presence provides brief moments of comfort and normalcy, reminding both Kate and the reader of what she is fighting to return to. Flick also serves as a narrative contrast to the coven’s invasive behavior, embodying unconditional affection and trust.
Though not central to the magical plot, his inclusion enriches Kate’s emotional arc and underscores the human stakes of her supernatural ordeal.
Themes
Power and Control
Power in The Witchwood Boys Are Trending operates through physical domination, magical rituals, and emotional manipulation, often intertwined in disturbing ways. The witches’ magical abilities are fundamentally tied to bodily acts—especially those involving blood and sex—placing the protagonist, Kate, in a position where her very body becomes a battleground.
From the moment she is forced into the ritual by Marlowe, her autonomy is challenged not just through the overt sexual assault but through a structure of magic that reifies submission and transforms it into necessity. The coven’s claim that she is “North” binds her not just symbolically but materially to them, with magical tattoos and bodily changes reinforcing this connection.
Even as Kate resists them, their proximity becomes both a literal and metaphysical tether, where magic feeds on closeness, rendering distance dangerous. The control they exert also shifts from purely arcane to domestic: occupying her space, asserting possessiveness over her body, and demanding her participation in spells that always seem to cost her more than the others.
This lopsided distribution of agency is sharpened by the male witches’ differing personalities—Brooks’ authoritarianism, Tanner’s obsessive desire, and Marlowe’s volatile pain all demand submission in contrasting yet equally violating ways. Despite this, Kate does not remain powerless.
Her struggle becomes one of reclaiming control through negotiation, defiance, and eventually, leadership. She repositions herself not as the object of ritual, but its orchestrator.
Yet even as she gains influence, the lines between empowerment and co-optation blur, reflecting the difficulty of reclaiming autonomy in a structure rigged from the outset.
Trauma and Survival
Kate’s experience in the Witchwoods unfolds as a prolonged confrontation with trauma in its physical, emotional, and magical forms. Her entry into the forest begins with a violent violation that strips her of voice and consent.
The sexual assault is not presented as a singular event but as the catalyst for a long-term psychological and magical bondage, where survival necessitates enduring further invasions into her body and mind. Her trauma reverberates across the story—not just in flashbacks or emotional breakdowns, but in the altered dynamics of her relationships with the men, each of whom represents a different facet of her ongoing distress.
Marlowe’s guilt-laden volatility, Tanner’s overwhelming physicality, and Brooks’ cold pragmatism each re-trigger Kate’s past and present pain in unique ways. The house she returns to, meant to symbolize normalcy, becomes another stage for intrusion, where her trauma is both ignored by the outside world and exacerbated by the witches’ constant presence.
Survival, for Kate, is never passive. Her endurance manifests in subtle strategies: calculated compliance, moments of subversion, and emotional compartmentalization.
As she gradually assumes leadership within the coven, her trauma does not vanish but transforms. Rather than being consumed by it, she integrates it into her strength.
Her determination to reclaim her narrative, to protect her body and control her destiny—even when that involves submitting to further rituals—is the heart of her survival. The story refuses easy catharsis, underscoring that survival in the aftermath of trauma is messy, contradictory, and requires constant recalibration of self.
Desire and Consent
The narrative interrogates the fragile, often corrupted boundary between desire and consent. Kate’s initial experiences in the Witchwoods are defined by absolute non-consent: her crossing into the forest, her silencing, and her sexual assault mark a horrifying beginning.
However, as the coven bond strengthens, desire surfaces in complicated, often disorienting ways. The sexual tension between Kate and the men—especially Tanner and Brooks—emerges not as a healing force but as a haunting echo of earlier violations.
The rituals they enact require her participation, and yet, these moments are laden with ambiguity: is her consent ever truly given, or merely the illusion of choice under magical duress? This tension intensifies as Kate begins to feel attraction, even affection, for her captors.
The story refuses to simplify this into Stockholm Syndrome or romantic redemption. Instead, it portrays desire as something born of proximity, shared suffering, and emotional enmeshment—elements that muddy the waters of informed consent.
The coven’s own longing for connection, distorted by years of isolation and trauma, feeds into this cycle, making their expressions of love or lust deeply suspect. The magic enforces a bond that mimics romance but is rooted in coercion, and Kate’s attempts to reclaim her sexual agency are constantly mediated by this magical structure.
Even in moments where she initiates contact or embraces intimacy, the backdrop of compulsion looms large. The theme explores the impossibility of pure desire in contaminated circumstances, and how real agency can only emerge when choice is unbound from fear, ritual, and manipulation.
Identity and Transformation
Kate’s journey is marked by an ongoing transformation that affects not only her physical body but her sense of self. Her crossing into the Witchwoods begins as a literal passage through a supernatural threshold, but it simultaneously initiates a metamorphosis that is psychological, emotional, and metaphysical.
Her eyes and hair change, her body is marked with tattoos that bind her to the forest and the coven, and her voice is stolen—each shift symbolizing a fracturing of her original identity. At first, these changes are imposed upon her, mirroring the violation of her agency.
But as the narrative progresses, she begins to assert ownership over her altered self. Her transformation becomes a source of strength, not because she embraces what the forest has made her, but because she reclaims the right to define what those changes mean.
The men she’s bound to are also caught in cycles of transformation, though theirs are defined by deterioration and loss. Each has forgotten parts of themselves, warped by time and magic into distorted versions of who they once were.
Kate, in contrast, builds herself anew. Her return to the real world, instead of marking a return to a former self, becomes the starting point for a new identity—one that encompasses both victimhood and power, fury and compassion.
Her role within the coven shifts from passive participant to reluctant leader, reflecting a transformation grounded not in magical rituals alone, but in resilience and choice. The story uses transformation not as a device of wonder, but as a crucible for identity forged through pain and resistance.
Isolation and Time
Time in The Witchwood Boys Are Trending is not just a backdrop—it is a trap. The Witchwoods distort time so that a day within its bounds stretches into a month in the real world, creating a dissonance that isolates its victims from the lives they once knew.
This temporal warping intensifies the characters’ sense of loss and alienation. Brooks, Marlowe, and Tanner have each been pulled from different decades, their understanding of the outside world fragmented by the decades they’ve missed.
They no longer belong anywhere, their roots in reality severed by the forest’s grasp. Kate, though new to this temporal distortion, quickly becomes ensnared in its consequences.
Her return home does not mean true reintegration—she is alienated from her friends, her reality skewed by events they cannot understand or believe. The outside world dismisses the magical truth as fantasy, further deepening her isolation.
Even the digital age cannot bridge this gap: the coven becomes a trending sensation online, a viral oddity that further distances Kate from genuine connection. Time has become unreliable, and in its place grows a void—one filled by the coven, the forest, and the rituals that substitute for community.
The emotional toll of this isolation is profound. Marlowe’s breakdown upon learning of his girlfriend’s life after his disappearance encapsulates the grief of lost time, the realization that the world moved on without him.
The story forces its characters to confront not just where they are, but when—and how that when has erased the people they once were.