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kananineko's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I want to start by saying this is not a terrible book and i think there will be lots of people who will love it. However, it just simply felt meh to me. Very mid. I also think I am starting to get too old for YA fantasy. The plot and location was interesting, but tbh the worldbuilding fell kinda flat for me. (I also was rushing a bit while reading, so that might be my fault for potentially skipping some things).
The characters were hit or miss for me. I didn’t like Logan at all and her dynamic as the “baby witch” was kinda annoying and i didn’t really get why the others invited her into their group? I actually did really like Iris, and kinda wish she was the main character. I loved what we saw of Jaila but I wish we got more or her—I feel like her story was underdeveloped. And I didn’t really like Thalia either although unlike Logan I couldn’t really tell you why. Both of the male characters were bland AF and I didn’t really care about them at all. None of the romances were compelling either, the only one I was semi invested in was Iris and that guy (forgot his name) but I only grew into caring about them a little bit (but not enough to read the next book lol).
The plot was pretty weak imo. I feel kinda bad giving 2.5 stars bc tbh I still enjoyed the book overall and I read it pretty quickly, it held my attention. But tbh it was much worse than some books I've given 3 stars... Someone said it was like a bad CW show and I agree. So if you like those kinds of shows, if you like YA fantasy and stuff, I think you’ll like this. I also kinda hyped this book up in my head a lot bc the description sounded so cool to me and it took me like a year to actually get my hands on it, so the disappointment factor is there too.
One last note, the word “witchy” was used wayyyy too often and annoyed me so much. Like literally everything was described as witchy, like a “witchy book” rather than a “witch book” or "witch's book" idk why but that annoyed me? Def a personal pet peeve but just wanted to say it lol.
The characters were hit or miss for me. I didn’t like Logan at all and her dynamic as the “baby witch” was kinda annoying and i didn’t really get why the others invited her into their group? I actually did really like Iris, and kinda wish she was the main character. I loved what we saw of Jaila but I wish we got more or her—I feel like her story was underdeveloped. And I didn’t really like Thalia either although unlike Logan I couldn’t really tell you why. Both of the male characters were bland AF and I didn’t really care about them at all. None of the romances were compelling either, the only one I was semi invested in was Iris and that guy (forgot his name) but I only grew into caring about them a little bit (but not enough to read the next book lol).
The plot was pretty weak imo. I feel kinda bad giving 2.5 stars bc tbh I still enjoyed the book overall and I read it pretty quickly, it held my attention. But tbh it was much worse than some books I've given 3 stars... Someone said it was like a bad CW show and I agree. So if you like those kinds of shows, if you like YA fantasy and stuff, I think you’ll like this. I also kinda hyped this book up in my head a lot bc the description sounded so cool to me and it took me like a year to actually get my hands on it, so the disappointment factor is there too.
One last note, the word “witchy” was used wayyyy too often and annoyed me so much. Like literally everything was described as witchy, like a “witchy book” rather than a “witch book” or "witch's book" idk why but that annoyed me? Def a personal pet peeve but just wanted to say it lol.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Violence, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Religious bigotry, Death, Grief, Murder, Body horror, Death of parent, and Gore
Minor: Cursing and Fire/Fire injury
msradiosilence's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
TLDR; 3.5 rating, I love sapphics, I love Black witches, and I’m just…a lil disappointed.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)
The premise for this book sounded delicious. Magic school? A curse? Black witches?? Yes please! And then I get to the first chapter and I just feel like we have skipped several parts. Isabelle skips over Logan actually coming to the school and the months she’s been taking classes and drops you right into the story and it’s missing some key elements. A little bit is explained, but the feeling of missing pieces never leaves.
I love a good magic system, and one of my favorites is in Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow trilogy. This book seemed to have a very similar magic premise? I’m not sure, because it’s never really explained. From what I understand, there’s spell phrases that everyone learns and then when you completely understand them, you can change the words to make the spell work better with your personal magic. Which is very cool, except once again we’re not really told any of this. And since the Red Three keeps saying Logan’s proxy-ness breaks all the magic rules they have to follow, it would be very helpful to know the rules the Red Three have to follow, ya know?
I think it boils down to wanting more details as a whole. Balancing six POVs (I’ll get to that in a minute) means that there are a lot of descriptions that would round out the characters, the setting, the magic, everything, is sacrificed in favor of bouncing between Trent, Matthew, Jailah, Iris, Thalia, and Logan. It took me almost the entire book to realize this wasn’t like Harry Potter and the whole world is aware of witches. Thalia’s storyline suddenly made a lot more sense.
Six POVs is so much to juggle, and the book probably would’ve benefitted greatly from following three, or just being an omniscient narrator instead of omniscient about one person at a time. The POVs aren’t in first person. It took a lot away from the story, and I really think the plot and the details could’ve benefitted greatly from cutting down or cutting out POVs.
Also, by the end, I wanted to bop Logan on the head. She was incredibly selfish, incredibly naive, and she deserves a bop.
Because I do plan on reading the sequel (out in Sept 2023), I do have several questions not plot related I need answered:
- How exactly does the school work?
- How does magic work, exactly? Be specific, please.
- Why do Thalia and Lilly have familiars but not anyone else?
- Is there a limit to the magic witches can perform? How do they know the limit? Is there a way to increase the limit?
- Does everyone have a Pull? If they don’t, what happens? Are people with Pulls rare?
- What exactly do witches as a group do out in the rest of the world? How has the world changed from what we know irl?
- Are tethers a thing everyone has? Is it rare? How often are witches and mundanes tethers? What does it entail for a witch and a mundane to be tethered?
Please I have so many more, I would just love a lore dump or something.
Once I articulated my main problems with the book, I could push them aside (for the most part) and enjoy what I was reading, even if I was still confused, hence the three stars. There is a solid plot underneath, if we wanna go bare bones. Powerful witches willing to do dubious magic to save their school. None of them are all good, they’re not all bad, and I like that.
Rating: 3.5
Would I recommend? A tentative yes, but this is one the reader just kinda has to push through.
Content warnings: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Hate crime, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Religious bigotry, Torture, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gore
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Murder, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, and Torture
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