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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Reseña Completa: El Extraño Gato del Cuento
The Witch Hunter es una libro que siento no agradará a muchos, puedo ver que puntos serán criticados, detalles que en lo personal también me hicieron considerar que quizá este libro no merezca la calificación que le di. Lo curioso es que al mismo tiempo, son esos mismo detalles lo que me hicieron gustar mucho de este libro.
Para empezar tenemos una protagonista que en cierta forma su mundo gira alrededor de su mejor amigo. Sip, un chico. Ahora, mi primer pensamiento, y estoy segura que quizá el tuyo también fue: "Otra que cree que el mundo termina porque un hombre no le hace caso", sé lo que parece, pero no es así. Si has leído Since You've Been Gone (Morgan Matson), puedes tener una idea como la relación de Elizabeth y su amigo es un poco como la de Em y Sloane. Me hizo pensar ¿Por qué está bien cuando es solo entre mujeres y pero cuando sientes que necesitas un amigo (varón) automáticamente eres una necesitada-sin-personalidad? Creo que si bien es algo en lo que yo jamás caería (soy demasiado desinteresada de las personas, la verdad), pero siento que en este caso sí funciona. O sea, literalmente Elizabeth no tiene nadie en el mundo. Y no, la historia no gira en torno a como el tipo este no le hace caso.
Al terminar la historia sientes el avance de Elizabeth y estoy bastante segura, al menos tengo la esperanza que podamos ver mucho más de su desarrollo.
Luego, la segunda cosa que me dejó un poco descuadrada fue que... no sé como decirlo sin que sea spoiler. Solo diré que si bien no es del todo mencionado, es tratado con delicadeza por las personajes que esperaba y es tratado como me esperaba por los otros personajes que no merecen nada. Por una cosa personal, para mí es difícil leer ese tipo de experiencias. Tienen que leer The Witch Hunter para saber de qué hablo u.u
Si leíste mi reseña de Girl On a Wire (y si no le hiciste ¡Hazlo!), te hablé de Character Agency, ese libro era un ejemplo con la protagonista. Me tuvo pensando mucho tiempo como era posible que un personaje secundario pudiera desarrollar Character Agency, es secundario por algo, por lo general no tienen mucho desarrollo. Pero en The Witch Hunter he tenido la oportunidad de verlo en desarrollo, Fifer a mí parecer es una gran ejemplo, uno de mis personajes favoritos, sin duda alguna.
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The Witch Hunter es una libro que siento no agradará a muchos, puedo ver que puntos serán criticados, detalles que en lo personal también me hicieron considerar que quizá este libro no merezca la calificación que le di. Lo curioso es que al mismo tiempo, son esos mismo detalles lo que me hicieron gustar mucho de este libro.
Para empezar tenemos una protagonista que en cierta forma su mundo gira alrededor de su mejor amigo. Sip, un chico. Ahora, mi primer pensamiento, y estoy segura que quizá el tuyo también fue: "Otra que cree que el mundo termina porque un hombre no le hace caso", sé lo que parece, pero no es así. Si has leído Since You've Been Gone (Morgan Matson), puedes tener una idea como la relación de Elizabeth y su amigo es un poco como la de Em y Sloane. Me hizo pensar ¿Por qué está bien cuando es solo entre mujeres y pero cuando sientes que necesitas un amigo (varón) automáticamente eres una necesitada-sin-personalidad? Creo que si bien es algo en lo que yo jamás caería (soy demasiado desinteresada de las personas, la verdad), pero siento que en este caso sí funciona. O sea, literalmente Elizabeth no tiene nadie en el mundo. Y no, la historia no gira en torno a como el tipo este no le hace caso.
Al terminar la historia sientes el avance de Elizabeth y estoy bastante segura, al menos tengo la esperanza que podamos ver mucho más de su desarrollo.
Luego, la segunda cosa que me dejó un poco descuadrada fue que... no sé como decirlo sin que sea spoiler. Solo diré que si bien no es del todo mencionado, es tratado con delicadeza por las personajes que esperaba y es tratado como me esperaba por los otros personajes que no merecen nada. Por una cosa personal, para mí es difícil leer ese tipo de experiencias. Tienen que leer The Witch Hunter para saber de qué hablo u.u
Si leíste mi reseña de Girl On a Wire (y si no le hiciste ¡Hazlo!), te hablé de Character Agency, ese libro era un ejemplo con la protagonista. Me tuvo pensando mucho tiempo como era posible que un personaje secundario pudiera desarrollar Character Agency, es secundario por algo, por lo general no tienen mucho desarrollo. Pero en The Witch Hunter he tenido la oportunidad de verlo en desarrollo, Fifer a mí parecer es una gran ejemplo, uno de mis personajes favoritos, sin duda alguna.
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I really love this author's style and I loved her alternate 1580s fantasy England. I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel.
I was intrigued by the fact the main character being a witch hunter and the back story as to why they were needed. Having read it I'm still confused. This wasn't the worst of I read but I have read better that fall in this category. I think if this book feel into the hands of someone who has not read many historical fantasy books would really enjoy this.
At the beginning it was slow, it picked up though towards the middle and was full-steam ahead until the end. The romance was a little predictable but still cute.
I wanted to like this. But the research was so shoddy I couldn't. Honestly, I don't know how some of this slipped past so many people through publication.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
a fun light read that, in retrospect, didn't click with me super well.
I first heard about The Witch Hunter because the author, Virginia Boecker, is part of the Freshman Fifteens (which you may remember as the group of 2015 debut YA authors that includes my lovely COMMON ROOM mentor Kim Liggett). At the time, it sounded like a really cool, action-packed, twisty YA fantasy—and you all know I'm always up for that. So I was ridiculously pleased to receive an ARC in the mail from Little, Brown.
The book was a really fast read—the pacing felt a little jerky at times, going back and forth from action to calm a little too quickly sometimes, but overall it was very snappy and speedy. There was lots of action and fight scenes, which is always nice, because I love reading fast fight scenes. This book is a definite page-turner. Actually, I was originally planning on rating this book a solid four stars, because while I was reading, I definitely enjoyed myself. It wasn't anything mind-blowing, to be sure, but it was fun.
However, I eventually decided to lower my rating because The Witch Hunter didn't hold up so well in retrospect.
While the characters were pretty endearing on the surface (resident 'mean girl' Fifer especially), none of them stood out to me as individuals I was deeply invested in. The heroine, Elizabeth, seemed serviceable but nothing special, and while I appreciate her willingness to question her own morals and address her flaws, she seemed very readily convinced to switch sides when it was convenient. Most of the side cast kind of fell flat, including the sweet but incredibly bland love interest (whose relationship with Elizabeth frankly screams instalove). Although the dialogue is cute here and there and I didn't outright hate anyone, there's not a ton of attention given to developing characters in a realistic and dynamic way, and that hurts this book overall.
I haven't read a lot of alternate history books, so when I figured out that this was one of them, I got really excited. Especially because this is an alternate spin on the Reformation in England, aka 1500s aka one of my favorite time periods ever to learn/read about. I thought that witch hunting, alternate Reformation, and magic would meld to produce an incredibly complex, layered storyworld. Unfortunately, it didn't really feel like that was the case. The magic wasn't anything all that different from what's already out there, as there wasn't a hugely original magic system. The rest of the worldbuilding wasn't that extensive, either; to me, it felt like a light fantasy world with a thin layer of semi-history on the surface. It wasn't bad worldbuilding necessarily; it just wasn't all that good, either.
The prose was fairly decent in that it did its job and let scenes play out without grating on my nerves, but it didn't stand out to me as especially well-crafted. However, I do tend to focus on style a lot as a reader, so it could be just me who wasn't satisfied by the writing. Also, at times I was really annoyed because the writing style itself felt like something of an anachronism, flip-flopping between a 'historical' tone and a modern one—I don't know about you, but I don't think the word 'okay' has a place in ANY version of sixteenth-century England. (According to Google, it didn't really come into use until the mid-1800s.) Little things like that kept bothering me as I was reading, and I think these distracting inaccuracies detracted significantly from my reading experience. Then again, I nitpick a lot, so they probably won't have quite as pronounced of an effect on many other readers.
Additionally, you can kind of see the twists coming from a mile off. I say this as someone who's usually ridiculously bad at guessing plot twists. It's really, really easy to surprise me with a plot because sometimes twists can be staring me right in the face several pages in advance and I. Won't. See. Them. But in this book nothing felt all that shocking, which was a letdown because the blurb seemed like it was promising a thoroughly convoluted plot.
There's also another thing that really, really bothers me about this book that feels very problematic. It forms a large part of my reasoning behind my rating. So I feel it's my duty to inform you all.
[CONTENT WARNING: RAPE
In the book, Elizabeth has a 'relationship' with the the king of Anglia, the alternate England where the book is set. It's essentially rape. But the book never delves into the trauma that this must have caused for Elizabeth, effectively using rape as nothing more than a plot device and spending little to no time exploring Elizabeth's resulting emotions or her recovery from this abuse. The rape doesn't really factor into Elizabeth's character at all, and it's not used to discuss sexual violence in depth. To me, that's incredibly disappointing and I feel it trivializes the experiences of survivors.]
I'd say give this a shot if you're looking for something quick and fun, but go in knowing that it's not perfect. If you're looking for a truly groundbreaking YA fantasy, I personally think that you'd be much better served elsewhere.
I first heard about The Witch Hunter because the author, Virginia Boecker, is part of the Freshman Fifteens (which you may remember as the group of 2015 debut YA authors that includes my lovely COMMON ROOM mentor Kim Liggett). At the time, it sounded like a really cool, action-packed, twisty YA fantasy—and you all know I'm always up for that. So I was ridiculously pleased to receive an ARC in the mail from Little, Brown.
The book was a really fast read—the pacing felt a little jerky at times, going back and forth from action to calm a little too quickly sometimes, but overall it was very snappy and speedy. There was lots of action and fight scenes, which is always nice, because I love reading fast fight scenes. This book is a definite page-turner. Actually, I was originally planning on rating this book a solid four stars, because while I was reading, I definitely enjoyed myself. It wasn't anything mind-blowing, to be sure, but it was fun.
However, I eventually decided to lower my rating because The Witch Hunter didn't hold up so well in retrospect.
While the characters were pretty endearing on the surface (resident 'mean girl' Fifer especially), none of them stood out to me as individuals I was deeply invested in. The heroine, Elizabeth, seemed serviceable but nothing special, and while I appreciate her willingness to question her own morals and address her flaws, she seemed very readily convinced to switch sides when it was convenient. Most of the side cast kind of fell flat, including the sweet but incredibly bland love interest (whose relationship with Elizabeth frankly screams instalove). Although the dialogue is cute here and there and I didn't outright hate anyone, there's not a ton of attention given to developing characters in a realistic and dynamic way, and that hurts this book overall.
I haven't read a lot of alternate history books, so when I figured out that this was one of them, I got really excited. Especially because this is an alternate spin on the Reformation in England, aka 1500s aka one of my favorite time periods ever to learn/read about. I thought that witch hunting, alternate Reformation, and magic would meld to produce an incredibly complex, layered storyworld. Unfortunately, it didn't really feel like that was the case. The magic wasn't anything all that different from what's already out there, as there wasn't a hugely original magic system. The rest of the worldbuilding wasn't that extensive, either; to me, it felt like a light fantasy world with a thin layer of semi-history on the surface. It wasn't bad worldbuilding necessarily; it just wasn't all that good, either.
The prose was fairly decent in that it did its job and let scenes play out without grating on my nerves, but it didn't stand out to me as especially well-crafted. However, I do tend to focus on style a lot as a reader, so it could be just me who wasn't satisfied by the writing. Also, at times I was really annoyed because the writing style itself felt like something of an anachronism, flip-flopping between a 'historical' tone and a modern one—I don't know about you, but I don't think the word 'okay' has a place in ANY version of sixteenth-century England. (According to Google, it didn't really come into use until the mid-1800s.) Little things like that kept bothering me as I was reading, and I think these distracting inaccuracies detracted significantly from my reading experience. Then again, I nitpick a lot, so they probably won't have quite as pronounced of an effect on many other readers.
Additionally, you can kind of see the twists coming from a mile off. I say this as someone who's usually ridiculously bad at guessing plot twists. It's really, really easy to surprise me with a plot because sometimes twists can be staring me right in the face several pages in advance and I. Won't. See. Them. But in this book nothing felt all that shocking, which was a letdown because the blurb seemed like it was promising a thoroughly convoluted plot.
There's also another thing that really, really bothers me about this book that feels very problematic. It forms a large part of my reasoning behind my rating. So I feel it's my duty to inform you all.
[CONTENT WARNING: RAPE
In the book, Elizabeth has a 'relationship' with the the king of Anglia, the alternate England where the book is set. It's essentially rape. But the book never delves into the trauma that this must have caused for Elizabeth, effectively using rape as nothing more than a plot device and spending little to no time exploring Elizabeth's resulting emotions or her recovery from this abuse. The rape doesn't really factor into Elizabeth's character at all, and it's not used to discuss sexual violence in depth. To me, that's incredibly disappointing and I feel it trivializes the experiences of survivors.]
I'd say give this a shot if you're looking for something quick and fun, but go in knowing that it's not perfect. If you're looking for a truly groundbreaking YA fantasy, I personally think that you'd be much better served elsewhere.
Fun, but not as exciting as you'd think? If you're expecting high fantasy, I'm sorry? The backstory is iffy... But I like this book, because it's pretty enjoyable, and I didn't feel like putting it down! I wish we got to see more badass moments from Elizabeth, and more exploring of the plot, but the side characters were cool! Mysterious, HAWT, Schuyler needs to be elaborated on (unless he died - er, I don't remember?)!