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imstephtacular's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Toxic relationship, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Gore
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, Dysphoria, Grief, Misogyny, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
Minor: Sexism and Vomit
froggydanny's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Abandonment, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders
sarahmreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Katrell, for as long as she has lived, has had the power to bring ghosts back to talk with loved ones. One day, her power twists into the ability to bring back the dead to life. Katrell sees it as a chance to finally help her family thrive. However, what happens when this new power twists for the worse?
I warn you, please look at these trigger warnings before reading this book. I didn't research it ahead of time nor was it included in the document of the story itself. Therefore, when I read it and one of my biggest triggers happened in the first 10% of the story, it kind of threw off my whole experience. That being said, the topics covered are EXTREMELY heavy. Jessica Lewis doesn't hold back with how brutal and tragic Katrell's home life is, especially when it comes to her mom's boyfriend and her mom's lack of action and defending her boyfriend. It unfortunately is something that does occur in daily life, but everyone chooses to ignore it.
On top of that, we see its heavy repercussions on Katrell herself. She tends to be violent and even though she has her family's best interest in heart, she still gets betrayed by them every single time. And at the very end when everything hits the fan, she still feels like she has to defend her mother. As Lewis mentions in the beginning of the story, she has dealt with something extremely similar to what Katrell deals with, including homelessness at one point. I personally have never dealt with these things beside for the emotional abuse, so I can't speak to its accuracy in this context.
The plot was good. Typical case of new powers gone wrong. I wasn't a fan of how we immediately start the story with her using her original powers and then 2 chapters later her power twists into something else entirely. A part of me wishes that we got to see more of what her power was and slowly see it shift into something bad. Then when Katrell used her power more and more to bring people back, I liked that we saw her change with it. However, I can't say much else about the people she brought back. You could kind of tell from the beginning that something wasn't right and stayed that way for a bit until like a decent way through. As a result, the pacing felt off and the mystery not as developed as I would have liked it, since some other things are kind of just brought up and never fully explained.
In terms of characters, I had an extremely love hate relationship with Katrell. She was so oblivious to what was going on half the time, temperament issues, and greedy. But also caring to the core. I know that most of these traits come from living in her toxic household, but still causes for some unease reading from her perspective. I loved Will though, and her family. I kind of wish we saw more than just a friendship blossom between Will and Katrell, but with the ending it makes me feel weird thinking that.
Bad Witch Burning is a fast-paced story that you can finish in a day, but felt just a tad underdeveloped.
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Violence, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Death, and Child abuse
Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury