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whatthefridge's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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
4.0
It took a little while for me to get into the worldbuilding. The Fae stuff didn't include things I'm used to and the Witch stuff didn't do what I thought it would (I thought it'd be like witches can only be women but aHa trans witch), but in the end I got on board with it.
The relationship Wyatt has with Briar is queerplatonic, which should be a big yay from me, but most of the time it felt like Briar was Wyatt's crutch. I'm glad the story addresses this, but it's still a bit tedious to go through.
I like the chemistry between Wyatt and Emyr. Part of me wishes Emyr had a bit more personality to him because there's not enough show of why he and Wyatt are compatible with their personalities.
There's also the ending that bugged me. There's an entire moustache-twirling villain monologue style thing where the grand plan has to be verbally spelled out to everyone in the room, which conveniently includes *everyone* important in that room.
But, like, I adore Wyatt as a character, and he did a great job carrying the story without making it drag.
The relationship Wyatt has with Briar is queerplatonic, which should be a big yay from me, but most of the time it felt like Briar was Wyatt's crutch. I'm glad the story addresses this, but it's still a bit tedious to go through.
I like the chemistry between Wyatt and Emyr. Part of me wishes Emyr had a bit more personality to him because there's not enough show of why he and Wyatt are compatible with their personalities.
There's also the ending that bugged me. There's an entire moustache-twirling villain monologue style thing where the grand plan has to be verbally spelled out to everyone in the room, which conveniently includes *everyone* important in that room.
But, like, I adore Wyatt as a character, and he did a great job carrying the story without making it drag.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Police brutality, and Child abuse
Moderate: Transphobia, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Deadnaming and Sexual assault
librarianlayla's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I adored this book so much!
If you're looking for a fantasy book with a trans protagonist, diverse characters, a slow burn romance peppered with sarcasm and wit - The Witch King is for you.
A take on the fae world as I haven't seen before and a truly twisting plot, I struggled to put this book down.
I cannot wait for the sequel!
If you're looking for a fantasy book with a trans protagonist, diverse characters, a slow burn romance peppered with sarcasm and wit - The Witch King is for you.
A take on the fae world as I haven't seen before and a truly twisting plot, I struggled to put this book down.
I cannot wait for the sequel!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
whatcassiedid's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Wyatt is such a feisty little shit and I love him. Big ups to Edgmon for including content warnings at the beginning of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Transphobia
Minor: Deadnaming
queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
5 ⭐ CW: deadnaming, swearing, violence, child abuse, child killing parents (by accident), descriptions of blood and gore, oppression of a minority class, sexual assault
"Somewhere, at some point in time, some random cis person, who's probably dead now decided all trans people were stuck in the wrong body, and that became law. But I'm not a boy trapped in a girl's body.y body is a boy's body and its mine. My body isn't wrong."
"Your value as a person is not based on how much you can do for other people. You are valuable, Wyatt. You. All on your own. For exactly who you are."
Witch King by H.E. Edgmon is a YA urban fantasy and a queer dream! I loved this book with every fiber of my being. The representation was so so good. We get Trans, gay, bi, ace, demisexual, Indigenous (specifically Seminole and Diné), nonbinary, polyamory, and disability and fat rep! Whew! That's a lot of rep!
We follow Wyatt, a trans witch who lives in the human world with his found family and best friend Briar. We learn about Wyatt's trauma and why he left. Then his fae fiance shows up and all hell breaks loose.
Every snarky thing Wyatt says is mood af. I love that we get all the queer teen angst, and it feels so really instead of feeling like what adults *think* teen angst is. We explore the dark parts that comes with being trans and the guilt and self-loathing that comes with trauma. Edgmon does a great job of weaving these together with making the story too bleak. It's just so dang relatable as a queer person! Edgmon also clearly understands how impulsive (and how much of a dumbass) teenagers can be. And there are consequences.
We have found family tropes, childhood friends to lovers, and there's only one bed tropes. I absolutely loved Wyatt and Briar's relationship. They are family and have such an intimate bond, that is something I personally crave as an Aromantic person. Edgmon also did a wonderful job of showing how easy and seamless it can be to get consent and discuss boundaries. Just great communication about sex.
That twist at the end! I didn't see it coming at all! Imma need that sequel, like, yesterday! You need to read this book. This is a queer person's dream. Also dragons.
"Somewhere, at some point in time, some random cis person, who's probably dead now decided all trans people were stuck in the wrong body, and that became law. But I'm not a boy trapped in a girl's body.y body is a boy's body and its mine. My body isn't wrong."
"Your value as a person is not based on how much you can do for other people. You are valuable, Wyatt. You. All on your own. For exactly who you are."
Witch King by H.E. Edgmon is a YA urban fantasy and a queer dream! I loved this book with every fiber of my being. The representation was so so good. We get Trans, gay, bi, ace, demisexual, Indigenous (specifically Seminole and Diné), nonbinary, polyamory, and disability and fat rep! Whew! That's a lot of rep!
We follow Wyatt, a trans witch who lives in the human world with his found family and best friend Briar. We learn about Wyatt's trauma and why he left. Then his fae fiance shows up and all hell breaks loose.
Every snarky thing Wyatt says is mood af. I love that we get all the queer teen angst, and it feels so really instead of feeling like what adults *think* teen angst is. We explore the dark parts that comes with being trans and the guilt and self-loathing that comes with trauma. Edgmon does a great job of weaving these together with making the story too bleak. It's just so dang relatable as a queer person! Edgmon also clearly understands how impulsive (and how much of a dumbass) teenagers can be. And there are consequences.
We have found family tropes, childhood friends to lovers, and there's only one bed tropes. I absolutely loved Wyatt and Briar's relationship. They are family and have such an intimate bond, that is something I personally crave as an Aromantic person. Edgmon also did a wonderful job of showing how easy and seamless it can be to get consent and discuss boundaries. Just great communication about sex.
That twist at the end! I didn't see it coming at all! Imma need that sequel, like, yesterday! You need to read this book. This is a queer person's dream. Also dragons.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Deadnaming, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Blood, and Gore
Minor: Sexual assault
midnightgremlin's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail
princess_peach's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book might be better to read once all three books are published. It's a first-person character book, so everything we know is based on what the main character, Wyatt knows. Wyatt, however, is a witch who was forbidden from learning about his powers and left Asalin, a fae kingdom for the human world. Wyatt is found and brought back to Asalin by his fae prince fiancee, Emyr. As Wyatt learns (or actively resists learning) about Asalin, fae and witch craft, so does the reader. I personally found that very frustrating. I'm hoping that once all three books are out, it will be less frustrating for me to read and I'll enjoy it more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Grief, Racism, and Transphobia
Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
mollivz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Police brutality, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
lgbtq+orcamagicka's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
So much potential, so much disappointment.
I would like to preface by saying that like the MC, I am also a queer trans teenager. Just as it’s important to read Own Voices books, it’s also equally important to read Own Voices reviews.
Starting off the the positives, the amount of diverse representation in the book is commendable. Diversity like this is rare in the fantasy genre, and I’m happy more YA fantasy books are making the effort to include a diverse array of characters in their story. This story includes trans, non-binary, queer relationships, polyamory, disability rep, and BIPOC characters.
However the representation is pretty much the ONLY good thing about this story, and even that isn’t saying much. If anything that’s my best guess why I’m constantly seeing so much hype for this story. Everything else that’s supposed to make a story good amounts to nothing in this book. The writing style and the inclusion of internet lingo and humor ripped directly off of Tumblr and Twitter had me cringing and rolling my eyes every chapter. Not only was it incredibly dated, cringey, and fell flat as humor, it broke my immersion with the *fantasy* world building. I never want to see the words “mcfuckin”, “yeet”, “vibin”, or “I’m just a gay little worm” (I’m NOT even exaggerating on that one) in a novel ever again or I’m going to bang my head into a wall. It turns out the author admitted in an interview he used TikTok as a means of “researching teen humor”. My hot tip for any YA authors, don’t do this.
The characterizations were incredibly weak. The side characters were under developed, had the exact same sense of humor and way of speaking, and were unremarkable. Most of the queer characters just felt like collections of stereotypes plucked off of Tumblr or Twitter, and that’s what their entire personalities and senses of humor revolved around. It seemed that the author was so caught up trying to write DIVERSE characters, he forgot to write diverse CHARACTERS. I’m shocked that this is an “own voices” story considering the poor writing for the queer characters and how they felt more like internet caricatures of queer people. I would honestly use this book as an example of how to NOT write queer characters. The world also felt very unfinished and inconsistent. On one hand it can be argued that this is the first installment of a duology and the characters and world will likely develop more in the sequel. But I’ve read so many series that were able to do so much more with less of a word count just within a first installment. And considering that this book is 422 PAGES long, there is very little excuse for having such bland writing.
The antagonists were some of the worst I’ve seen. The main villain is barely seen nor heard from throughout the story and he has some of the most basic, cliche villain dialogue that had me rolling my eyes. He was literally a rip off of the blue-eyed-blond-haired Neo Nazi villain trope you see in most action movies. And what kind of name is Derek for a fantasy villain??? The twist villain had me confused and beyond annoyed. And again, immediately started spouting off the same cliche lines and “maniacal laughter” you see in every other basic cheesy story once they were revealed to be an antagonist. Antagonists are usually some of my favorite characters in the story since they work to drive the plot and conflict, but these characters were so little seen and so bland that I couldn’t take them nor their threats seriously. Also how on earth was Derek still in position of the Guard despite being an obvious terrorist against the monarchy? That made no sense?
The story lends itself to be a “political allegory” with “radical” views as the author states, yet it completely lacks subtly. The author treats his audience like they’re incompetent and have to have their hand held throughout the entire story. The main character literally explains the parallels between the treatment of witches by the Fae and persecution of queer people in the human world, as if that wasn’t completely obvious. There are also many more spelled out parallels regarding police brutality, social justice movements, and defunding the police that felt very heavy handed. At the end of the book there was an out of the blue scene that basically mirrored the “dismantle the police” movement, which felt very out of place and not even realistic dialogue for one of the characters. And then at the VERY END of the book, after hundreds of pages of trying to sort out the heir situation, suddenly the characters pull a Game of Thrones season 7 and argue for Democracy?? Where was all this at for the first 420 pages?? Both these scenes felt so heavy handed and random and just felt like the author was trying to squeeze in as many social justice messages as he could without bothering to cohesively weave them into the story. Plenty of young adult stories do an excellent job of writing allegories for modern issues in a complex, nuanced way while allowing the readers to understand the issues. This book is not one of them.
I’m usually one to LOVE an “unlikable” character, but Wyatt is beyond one of the most annoying, edgy, and stagnant protagonists I’ve ever read in a story. I honestly felt nothing towards him, he could have dropped dead and I wouldn’t have cared. He’s not smart. He not kind. He’s not brave. He’s not good at magic and he doesn’t even TRY to learn despite constantly COMPLAINING how he can’t control his abilities and that he’s a “monster”. He doesn’t lead. He’s not anything. He contributes nothing to the story except through reacting to plot points thrown in to make the book less boring. And the constant self depreciating monologue and self wallowing pitty party worked against him and only made me agree with his negative self talk even more. I also felt uncomfortable with the way he talked about some of the female characters, especially Briar and all the sexual comments he made about her. And his off handed remark about the lesbian queens left a bad taste in my mouth. Can we please have trans male characters in books without writing them to be borderline misogynists?
The “romance” in between Wyatt and Emyr is some of the weakest I’ve seen. I usually love a good queer enemies-to-lovers story, but I felt absolutely nothing towards the two. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the “fated mates” trope or the fact that most of their romantic chemistry was from when they were children, but I couldn’t feel any excitement towards them. There was way more telling instead of showing when it came to their interactions, mainly consisting of just Wyatt internally moaning about how attractive yet annoying Emyr is anytime he’s on page.
I wanted to like this book so badly. Trans characters are a rarity in fiction, especially in fantasy. I was able to relate to many of Wyatt’s struggles with transphobia, being misgendered and deadnamed, and his dysphoria. But the lesson learned is that just because a story has representation, does not make it a GOOD story.
I would like to preface by saying that like the MC, I am also a queer trans teenager. Just as it’s important to read Own Voices books, it’s also equally important to read Own Voices reviews.
Starting off the the positives, the amount of diverse representation in the book is commendable. Diversity like this is rare in the fantasy genre, and I’m happy more YA fantasy books are making the effort to include a diverse array of characters in their story. This story includes trans, non-binary, queer relationships, polyamory, disability rep, and BIPOC characters.
However the representation is pretty much the ONLY good thing about this story, and even that isn’t saying much. If anything that’s my best guess why I’m constantly seeing so much hype for this story. Everything else that’s supposed to make a story good amounts to nothing in this book. The writing style and the inclusion of internet lingo and humor ripped directly off of Tumblr and Twitter had me cringing and rolling my eyes every chapter. Not only was it incredibly dated, cringey, and fell flat as humor, it broke my immersion with the *fantasy* world building. I never want to see the words “mcfuckin”, “yeet”, “vibin”, or “I’m just a gay little worm” (I’m NOT even exaggerating on that one) in a novel ever again or I’m going to bang my head into a wall. It turns out the author admitted in an interview he used TikTok as a means of “researching teen humor”. My hot tip for any YA authors, don’t do this.
The characterizations were incredibly weak. The side characters were under developed, had the exact same sense of humor and way of speaking, and were unremarkable. Most of the queer characters just felt like collections of stereotypes plucked off of Tumblr or Twitter, and that’s what their entire personalities and senses of humor revolved around. It seemed that the author was so caught up trying to write DIVERSE characters, he forgot to write diverse CHARACTERS. I’m shocked that this is an “own voices” story considering the poor writing for the queer characters and how they felt more like internet caricatures of queer people. I would honestly use this book as an example of how to NOT write queer characters. The world also felt very unfinished and inconsistent. On one hand it can be argued that this is the first installment of a duology and the characters and world will likely develop more in the sequel. But I’ve read so many series that were able to do so much more with less of a word count just within a first installment. And considering that this book is 422 PAGES long, there is very little excuse for having such bland writing.
The antagonists were some of the worst I’ve seen. The main villain is barely seen nor heard from throughout the story and he has some of the most basic, cliche villain dialogue that had me rolling my eyes. He was literally a rip off of the blue-eyed-blond-haired Neo Nazi villain trope you see in most action movies. And what kind of name is Derek for a fantasy villain??? The twist villain had me confused and beyond annoyed. And again, immediately started spouting off the same cliche lines and “maniacal laughter” you see in every other basic cheesy story once they were revealed to be an antagonist. Antagonists are usually some of my favorite characters in the story since they work to drive the plot and conflict, but these characters were so little seen and so bland that I couldn’t take them nor their threats seriously. Also how on earth was Derek still in position of the Guard despite being an obvious terrorist against the monarchy? That made no sense?
The story lends itself to be a “political allegory” with “radical” views as the author states, yet it completely lacks subtly. The author treats his audience like they’re incompetent and have to have their hand held throughout the entire story. The main character literally explains the parallels between the treatment of witches by the Fae and persecution of queer people in the human world, as if that wasn’t completely obvious. There are also many more spelled out parallels regarding police brutality, social justice movements, and defunding the police that felt very heavy handed. At the end of the book there was an out of the blue scene that basically mirrored the “dismantle the police” movement, which felt very out of place and not even realistic dialogue for one of the characters. And then at the VERY END of the book, after hundreds of pages of trying to sort out the heir situation, suddenly the characters pull a Game of Thrones season 7 and argue for Democracy?? Where was all this at for the first 420 pages?? Both these scenes felt so heavy handed and random and just felt like the author was trying to squeeze in as many social justice messages as he could without bothering to cohesively weave them into the story. Plenty of young adult stories do an excellent job of writing allegories for modern issues in a complex, nuanced way while allowing the readers to understand the issues. This book is not one of them.
I’m usually one to LOVE an “unlikable” character, but Wyatt is beyond one of the most annoying, edgy, and stagnant protagonists I’ve ever read in a story. I honestly felt nothing towards him, he could have dropped dead and I wouldn’t have cared. He’s not smart. He not kind. He’s not brave. He’s not good at magic and he doesn’t even TRY to learn despite constantly COMPLAINING how he can’t control his abilities and that he’s a “monster”. He doesn’t lead. He’s not anything. He contributes nothing to the story except through reacting to plot points thrown in to make the book less boring. And the constant self depreciating monologue and self wallowing pitty party worked against him and only made me agree with his negative self talk even more. I also felt uncomfortable with the way he talked about some of the female characters, especially Briar and all the sexual comments he made about her. And his off handed remark about the lesbian queens left a bad taste in my mouth. Can we please have trans male characters in books without writing them to be borderline misogynists?
The “romance” in between Wyatt and Emyr is some of the weakest I’ve seen. I usually love a good queer enemies-to-lovers story, but I felt absolutely nothing towards the two. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the “fated mates” trope or the fact that most of their romantic chemistry was from when they were children, but I couldn’t feel any excitement towards them. There was way more telling instead of showing when it came to their interactions, mainly consisting of just Wyatt internally moaning about how attractive yet annoying Emyr is anytime he’s on page.
I wanted to like this book so badly. Trans characters are a rarity in fiction, especially in fantasy. I was able to relate to many of Wyatt’s struggles with transphobia, being misgendered and deadnamed, and his dysphoria. But the lesson learned is that just because a story has representation, does not make it a GOOD story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, and Death of parent
Moderate: Gore, Child abuse, and Pregnancy
Minor: Grief, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Deadnaming
therainbowshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I felt a bit so-so on this book but have absolutely no doubt that it'll be a treasure for the target audience. Many teens, especially LGBTQ teens and teens who love magic and excitablr queer culture will probably love this. I liked the fantasy setting, the characters, and the LGBTQ representation in this story. Several things about this book didn't work for me because they felt too forced to be an organic element. My top complaint was how forced the Facebook and cellphone stuff felt. It seemed like a cool concept that just needed a little more kneeding before it was fully mixed in.
📘The Gist 📘: Wyatt ran from the Fae world and his betrothed prince following a cataclysmic, traumatic event. When the prince comes to drag him back, Wyatt finds himself facing the same anti-witch discrimination and new transohobia as he fights to return home.
📒Representation📒: trans mc, mlm, wlw sc, nonbinary sc, bipoc mc and sc, native American mc
💕 For readers looking for 💕: Complex characters, evolving relationships, friends to lovers to enemies to...?, Magic, fantasy exploring real-world discrimination, moody protagonist
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Ableism, Violence, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Homophobia, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Blood, and Drug use
Moderate: Racism
kylieqrada's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I would die for Wyatt and Emyr and Briar and the gang, OK? The characters really did it for me in this one. It dragged a bit at the beginning, but the last 2/3 were super intriguing and fun. Plus the rep was just everything. Give me a fat, bi, ace, Indigenous queen any day!!!! 😭😭😭
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Violence
Moderate: Deadnaming, Sexual assault, and Transphobia
Minor: Drug use, Infertility, and Miscarriage