Reviews

Hex Wives by Ben Blacker

beckysbookshelf's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

kelecoo's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed this weird story! I'd definitely read the sequel if they get greenlit for one!

TW: Cat dies via beheading and is shown in multiple comic panes. Not what i'd call hyper-realistic art, so might not be too triggering.

squidbag's review against another edition

4.0

The first 10 pages of this are *amazing,* this coven of witches, traveling through time (by reincarnating), flying in the face of cultural mores and using magic to subvert social order. It's a straight up witch comic of old, and correctly evokes the Vertigo of the 1990s. After this, you could be forgiven for seeing the tonal change into the present day as a "downshift," but if anything, it's five issues of nerve-wracking consistently ratcheted tension that begins to break, and really gets good at the end, like all roller coasters ought. Really hoping for a volume two of this, but...

sunsoar25's review against another edition

2.0

This sounded so cool just based on the premise and cover art. Wasn't much of a fan of the actual execution of the story though... and it had so much potential.

bookishpriest's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted fast-paced

3.75

mildmay's review against another edition

3.0

I originally rated this a four-star read because I liked the concept and had a fun time reading it, but after sleeping on it I realized that this is... actually kind of bad!! The story starts off strong, setting up witches that reincarnate in different time periods and their never-ending war against men who try to kill and control them. (Women with agency against the patriarchy, in very clear terms.) Sounds like fun! HOWEVER, as soon as the story enters the modern day, the power of the plot shifts completely to the men, who have imprisoned the witches and taken away their power with... their love?? And it's 2008 but it's also the 50s? Very little is done to explore or explain this weird setting or the way in which the men's "love" has somehow suppressed these women's power, so the story mostly turns into showing how oppressed these women are in their new lives. This drags on for some time until everything turns around very quickly at the end, giving the witches back their power and allowing them to become their true selves. This is clearly meant to be a strong setup of the newly-made modern and powerful witches (the characters I came here to read about and didn't get at all) going into the next volume, but why waste the whole first book on setup when you could just start at the good part?
Overall I think this comic had a great concept, but with the failures in editing themselves and the strange lack of awareness in setting up these strong women but giving all the narrative power to the men, it really fell flat for me. The 50s-esque atmosphere also made for a very joyless color palette and overall setting, so even though the art was nice it was very... boring. Nice try but next time don't let a man write this.

bookswithscrump's review against another edition

3.0

This was a quick and fun read that I would have liked to have had more of. I felt like it was more of an introduction to a story instead of a whole standalone story and I wanted more from it then what I got. I did like the unique premise and thought it was great, but I wish the action had started earlier. Still a good read if you like new takes on the typical witch story.