Payback's a Witch
- Narm Charm: Emmy's, and by extension Talia's, flirting with each other. It's laden with acknowledged cheesy references and awkward attempts, but is largely wholesome and passionate.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- While he did hurt her best friend and he was (and still is) a general ass in the story, Gareth Blackmoore is nearly the sole focus of why Emmy hasn't visited Thistle Grove in 10 years. The story has her best friend Linden and her mother call her out, but Emmy tries to justify it somewhat by saying that her leaving is also because of the magical town's systemic discrimination against her for being a weak magic user. She even has a poignant scene with Talia explaining that it was mainly about how she felt like nothing in the town and wanted to mean something. However, for some readers it can largely feel under-developed with central focal point being given to "Gareth is a Jerkass and I didn't want to see him again".
- Emmy and Talia's near-obsession with Gareth Blackmoore can make them this for some readers. Gareth may be a Jerkass, but the both of them have some hard-to-sell motivations. Emmy still being deeply upset at him after 10 years and Talia being mad at him for both treating as a Girl of the Week (something she used to do until recently and in fact was treating Gareth as a fuck-buddy) and using her to have an affair while dating Linden knowing full well who he is, it's difficult to support them.
- Linden in the example listed above in Moment Killer. It's really difficult to feel sympathy towards someone who somehow ignored several very large red flags.
- Talia, for some readers. While she does eventually compromise and learn, her demeaning comments about "normies", her co-dependency on magic, her resistance to any kind of opening up, and her refusing to even try leaving Thistle Grove ever again to see things from Emmy's point of view can make her out to be an obnoxious character at first.
From Bad to Cursed
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Issa can come off as an incredibly immature and juvenile person to some readers for someone who is supposed to be in their mid-to-upper 20s with the things she takes issue with and the reason she hated Rowan for 7 years.
