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olliebolen's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, Drug use, Transphobia, and Death
Minor: Child abuse, Colonisation, and Violence
It's not as bad as it sounds, but if you really struggle with these themes, it's understandable to want to give this book a miss.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
darkmattersoybean's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Death
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
bookcrushin's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
This was a surprising read! Just amazing and I loved it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, and Bullying
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
Minor: Deadnaming, War, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Child abuse
sauvageloup's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-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
An interesting book! I think Edgmon is still finding their feet as an author but it's a decent story.
pros:
- there's a lot of description, which does really help with imagining the characters, the setting and visualising the scene, making it vivid. (The beautiful art on the front also really helped).
- although there was perhaps a bit much, I did like how Edgmon included Wyatt's strong sexual attraction to Emyr was brought up repeatedly and centralised. It didn't skirt around the physical side of Wyatt's attraction and that was neat.
- Wyatt's friendship and closeness with Briar was nice.
- the setting of Asalin, with the dragons, Boom the hellhound, the magic, was all pretty cool.
- and of course, the diversity of characters was excellent.
- oh and I liked Wyatt's backstory; that was original and dark and cool.
- i appreciated also that Wyatt's deadname was never given. I thought at one point that it had and was gutted, but no. It makes sense a trans author would get this but I was glad all the same.
- oh and I appreciated how Wyatt wearing a binder and his feelings about his body were described and handled. The issue wasn't dealt with too heavy-handedly but it got the point across and that was cool.
cons:
- somehow the book didn't *quite* work. It was disjointed, a bit slow, a bit amateurish. The plot didn't come together neatly enough, with some plot points coming out of nowhere like Clarke orchestrating things whilst the other main reveal, I guessed from like, page 10 or whatever that faery was inhabitable and Leonidas had lied
- I'm not sure if there's due to be a sequel (there's no mention of one) but it feels unfinished and the ending a bit rushed.
- the plot was also just a bit weak. I didn't understand why Wyatt agreed to help Derek in the first place (though him influencing Wyatt does explain it a bit) and then none of Wyatt's attempts to 'get thrown out' work at all, even slightly. The whole thing seemed a bit weak and yet that was what Wyatt was meant to be doing for most of the middle of the book. The riot came out of nowhere and didn't seem well integrated... idk I can't articulate it exactly, but there wasn't enough tension. The stakes weren't clear and it all seemed like a lot of Wyatt monologuing until I got a bit fed up with him.
- then there was Wyatt's character development, which wasn't too bad, but it wasn't the best either. Somehow, he didn't seem to really connect deeply with Emyr. I got the sexual tension between them, but why Emyr put up with Wyatt's shit so much, I didn't really get. Also, Emyr forcing Wyatt to come to Asalin at the start was pretty out of character compared to how he was in the rest of the book.
- OH, so this is more of a personal thing, but Wyatt was grateful several times for Wyatt getting his pronouns right, even when talking abt a past story and,, I think this should be taken for granted?? I don't know, I understand that people can mess up, but in an ideal world, everyone would get the right pronouns and that wouldn't need to be appreciated i guess is what I'm saying.
- finally, I thought a lot of uh,, message? political stuff? was too on the nose. I understood the link between the guards' brutality and police brutality, about witch discrimination and queer people's discrimination, etc. just fine without it literally being spelled out on the page and I thought Edgmon could've given the reader more space there, rather than assuming the reader had exactly zero critical thinking skills. Maybe a me thing though.
Overall, I did enjoy it. I feel like Edgmon has some growing to do as a writer, but they have a lot of potential and I loved the descriptions. I would compare this book to Out of Salem in themes and tone, but I would say that I think Out of Salem did it better overall, with more originality, better writing and more engaging characters. But this was still a worthwhile read. It's always good to see more lgbt writers and stories being told and this definitely felt like a very contemporary, 'right now' story.
pros:
- there's a lot of description, which does really help with imagining the characters, the setting and visualising the scene, making it vivid. (The beautiful art on the front also really helped).
- although there was perhaps a bit much, I did like how Edgmon included Wyatt's strong sexual attraction to Emyr was brought up repeatedly and centralised. It didn't skirt around the physical side of Wyatt's attraction and that was neat.
- Wyatt's friendship and closeness with Briar was nice.
- the setting of Asalin, with the dragons, Boom the hellhound, the magic, was all pretty cool.
- and of course, the diversity of characters was excellent.
- oh and I liked Wyatt's backstory; that was original and dark and cool.
- i appreciated also that Wyatt's deadname was never given. I thought at one point that it had and was gutted, but no. It makes sense a trans author would get this but I was glad all the same.
- oh and I appreciated how Wyatt wearing a binder and his feelings about his body were described and handled. The issue wasn't dealt with too heavy-handedly but it got the point across and that was cool.
cons:
- somehow the book didn't *quite* work. It was disjointed, a bit slow, a bit amateurish. The plot didn't come together neatly enough, with some plot points coming out of nowhere
- I'm not sure if there's due to be a sequel (there's no mention of one) but it feels unfinished and the ending a bit rushed.
- the plot was also just a bit weak.
- then there was Wyatt's character development, which wasn't too bad, but it wasn't the best either. Somehow, he didn't seem to really connect deeply with Emyr. I got the sexual tension between them, but why Emyr put up with Wyatt's shit so much, I didn't really get. Also, Emyr forcing Wyatt to come to Asalin at the start was pretty out of character compared to how he was in the rest of the book.
- OH, so this is more of a personal thing, but Wyatt was grateful several times for Wyatt getting his pronouns right, even when talking abt a past story and,, I think this should be taken for granted?? I don't know, I understand that people can mess up, but in an ideal world, everyone would get the right pronouns and that wouldn't need to be appreciated i guess is what I'm saying.
- finally, I thought a lot of uh,, message? political stuff? was too on the nose. I understood the link between the guards' brutality and police brutality, about witch discrimination and queer people's discrimination, etc. just fine without it literally being spelled out on the page and I thought Edgmon could've given the reader more space there, rather than assuming the reader had exactly zero critical thinking skills. Maybe a me thing though.
Overall, I did enjoy it. I feel like Edgmon has some growing to do as a writer, but they have a lot of potential and I loved the descriptions. I would compare this book to Out of Salem in themes and tone, but I would say that I think Out of Salem did it better overall, with more originality, better writing and more engaging characters. But this was still a worthwhile read. It's always good to see more lgbt writers and stories being told and this definitely felt like a very contemporary, 'right now' story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Death, and Drug use
Moderate: Sexual assault and Child abuse
Minor: Transphobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Suicidal thoughts
nefariousbee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
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
4.75
I understood the concept of book boyfriends because of this book. it was the perfect relaxing fantasy queer read and I can't wait for the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Infertility, Violence, Suicide attempt, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, and Emotional abuse
contains often passages about trans male pregnancycaseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
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? Yes
4.0
- Hi hi welcome to another QUEER SCREAMING review! THE WITCH KING is packed with so much good stuff: found family, the fluidity of trans identity, a huge spectrum of genders, sexualities, races, and more.
- Though the book is a wild ride through the fae kingdom, it also covers a lot of hard topics, too: cruel parents, trauma recovery, broken friendships, racism, trying to burn the system down.
- You know I love a book with a prickly protagonist, and that's Wyatt. He makes a lot of bad choices and says a lot of hurtful things impulsively, but much of this book is about him and his friends growing through it together.
- THE WITCH KING is just such a unique book for so many reasons that I can't fit it all here. If you love queer fantasy, put it at the top of your list!
- Though the book is a wild ride through the fae kingdom, it also covers a lot of hard topics, too: cruel parents, trauma recovery, broken friendships, racism, trying to burn the system down.
- You know I love a book with a prickly protagonist, and that's Wyatt. He makes a lot of bad choices and says a lot of hurtful things impulsively, but much of this book is about him and his friends growing through it together.
- THE WITCH KING is just such a unique book for so many reasons that I can't fit it all here. If you love queer fantasy, put it at the top of your list!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Genocide, Infertility, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Transphobia