Scan barcode
tencutepuppies's review against another edition
4.0
(3.5) This book is definitely not for everyone, as I can see how the general lack of worldbuilding in the beginning could turn people off. I will say that I was confused for a good seventy-five pages in about everything other than Safi and Iseult’s relationship and the way they interacted. That was very clear, which makes sense because they are the central part of the book.
Frankly, in this case, I can look past a bunch of names and places being thrown at me out of the blue with no prior knowledge. The characterization makes up for it. I wasn’t immediately hooked, but it did get a lot better with the addition of Aeduan, who was instantly very interesting.
Safi...was not my favorite. I don’t have much to say about her, honestly. She was struggling with the repercussions of her brash, sometimes downright selfish, actions and on paper that sounds like it would make for an interesting character. But something about the execution didn’t really connect with me. She’s cool to read about, but only because she’s the main character.
Iseult, on the other hand, connected with me immediately. She’s quieter, more calculating. She doesn’t show all of her cards. Girls like her are the ones I’m most often drawn to in stories because you never know what she might do next. My favorite part of hers was in the Nomatski tribal group with her mom and seeing her jealousy as she realizes that she’s been replaced by another better girl. The whole cult aspect of the Purists with Corlant was really well done too. I felt the horror Iseult felt when they were going to sacrifice her.
Merik, I don’t really care about. He’s just neutral. There was not much in his favor that made him more interesting than the girls besides his struggle with his cruel sister Vivia, who is also vying for the throne. I would much rather see her POV than his, although I do think he is so brave for willing to lay down his life so that his people can finally be fed. He’s not a bad character, it’s just the other three characters outshone him. I also found his and Safi’s romance to be kind of rushed. They didn’t have that many bonding scenes before they were getting all mushy gushy and making out, so it felt a little fast.
We didn’t get to see much of Aeduan and how his mind works, but I am excited to get more of him in the later books. By the end, I could already tell he and Iseult are going to be good. “Trust me as if my soul were yours”? Uhhh yeah. Ruin me please.
All in all, I think this was a good start that laid the foundations for what is going to happen later. I think that foundation-laying is kind of what was its downfall; it’s like it was just getting started at the end. Not to say that the story was boring or that nothing happened, because there was near-constant action. It just wasn’t anything that felt hugely consequential until the end.
I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series because I’ve heard it only gets better from here and I believe it.
Frankly, in this case, I can look past a bunch of names and places being thrown at me out of the blue with no prior knowledge. The characterization makes up for it. I wasn’t immediately hooked, but it did get a lot better with the addition of Aeduan, who was instantly very interesting.
Safi...was not my favorite. I don’t have much to say about her, honestly. She was struggling with the repercussions of her brash, sometimes downright selfish, actions and on paper that sounds like it would make for an interesting character. But something about the execution didn’t really connect with me. She’s cool to read about, but only because she’s the main character.
Iseult, on the other hand, connected with me immediately. She’s quieter, more calculating. She doesn’t show all of her cards. Girls like her are the ones I’m most often drawn to in stories because you never know what she might do next. My favorite part of hers was in the Nomatski tribal group with her mom and seeing her jealousy as she realizes that she’s been replaced by another better girl. The whole cult aspect of the Purists with Corlant was really well done too. I felt the horror Iseult felt when they were going to sacrifice her.
Merik, I don’t really care about. He’s just neutral. There was not much in his favor that made him more interesting than the girls besides his struggle with his cruel sister Vivia, who is also vying for the throne. I would much rather see her POV than his, although I do think he is so brave for willing to lay down his life so that his people can finally be fed. He’s not a bad character, it’s just the other three characters outshone him. I also found his and Safi’s romance to be kind of rushed. They didn’t have that many bonding scenes before they were getting all mushy gushy and making out, so it felt a little fast.
We didn’t get to see much of Aeduan and how his mind works, but I am excited to get more of him in the later books. By the end, I could already tell he and Iseult are going to be good. “Trust me as if my soul were yours”? Uhhh yeah. Ruin me please.
All in all, I think this was a good start that laid the foundations for what is going to happen later. I think that foundation-laying is kind of what was its downfall; it’s like it was just getting started at the end. Not to say that the story was boring or that nothing happened, because there was near-constant action. It just wasn’t anything that felt hugely consequential until the end.
I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series because I’ve heard it only gets better from here and I believe it.
kishma_'s review against another edition
2.0
Concept was great and intriguing but it didn't really click with me... I'm probably not going to continue with this series.
storiesofsolace's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
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? Yes
3.25
paxyquiltan's review against another edition
2.0
A Guide to the Witchland World: (because god knows I needed one)
The map above is the area where Truthwitch takes place. There are three large empires that take the most space in the map and of course the resources. They are: Dalmotti empire, Cartorra empire, and the empire of Marstok. Alongside that you have a host of smaller countries surrounding the empires (Those of which include Nubrovna, home of Prince Merik). We enter the Witchlands during a period known as the end of the 20 year truce. Basically before the truce was signed all the countries in the Witchlands were at war with one another, and the countries were starting to feel the weight of the war as it was getting really bad. And so because of that a treaty was signed between the countries, this meant that for twenty years there will be no war. But of course despite it being a 'time of peace' there is a lot of political tension.
People in these lands may be born with gifts (witchery). This gives those people powers, and so these powers come from the same 'elemental' sources. So you have Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Aether, and Void. Basically witches have diverse powers (Seawitch vs Waterwitch) but all there powers no matter how rare or diverse will fall under those six classes (both fall under the element water but both are still different with how powerful they are).
Scattered across these lands, we have magical wells that are linked to the above elemental sources. They have magical powers such as healing.
The Cartorra empire is home to Safiya who is a truthwitch. She can tell lie from truth and she can tell someones true intentions (although she was doing a very bad job at that if you ask me). Being a truthwitch is extremely rare and everyone wants a hold of her (again if you ask me threadwitch sounds way more important than truthwitch). Safiya is also what is called a Domna which I'm assuming has a similar meaning to Lady.
Cartorra empire is a wealthy empire ruled by Emperor Henrick (i think thats how you spell his name).
We follow four characters in this book: Safiya who is a truthwitch, Iseult who is a threadwitch, Merik who is a windwitch, and Aeduan who is a bloodwitch.
You will find threadwitches only in the Nomatsi people (Iseult's people). They see the threads of emotion and feelings and strong relationships of a person. Each emotion or feeling is expressed in different colors. I got very confused in the beginning when Iseult would mention colors with emotions like angry red and so on.
A bloodwitch is very rare and very dangerous. It's considered Voidwitchery because of its connection to death. Basically a bloodwitch can control another person’s blood. They're also great trackers as they can smell your blood and track to the ends of the earth. They also have creepy red eyes when they're using their powers.
There is something called Cleaving as well, that even after finishing the book I still don't understand the what, how, and why's.
I did not enjoy this book. All the above information was basically dumped on you the first 50 pages. It was very confusing. The world was very hazy and did not make sense to me. I had to read the first 100 pages twice, write down and highlight and annotate, and read witchland wiki to understand what was going on. I found so hard to imagine the world. And I did not care much about the characters because I was busy trying to understand the world. I had to go back and forth to understand certain things.
Maybe if I had come into this book with a more understanding of the world I could have enjoyed it more, or at least paid a little more attention to the characters.
Truthwitch had a lot of elements and tropes I usually enjoy when reading books. But I did not enjoy it.
Not sure if I'm going to continue with the series.
The map above is the area where Truthwitch takes place. There are three large empires that take the most space in the map and of course the resources. They are: Dalmotti empire, Cartorra empire, and the empire of Marstok. Alongside that you have a host of smaller countries surrounding the empires (Those of which include Nubrovna, home of Prince Merik). We enter the Witchlands during a period known as the end of the 20 year truce. Basically before the truce was signed all the countries in the Witchlands were at war with one another, and the countries were starting to feel the weight of the war as it was getting really bad. And so because of that a treaty was signed between the countries, this meant that for twenty years there will be no war. But of course despite it being a 'time of peace' there is a lot of political tension.
People in these lands may be born with gifts (witchery). This gives those people powers, and so these powers come from the same 'elemental' sources. So you have Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Aether, and Void. Basically witches have diverse powers (Seawitch vs Waterwitch) but all there powers no matter how rare or diverse will fall under those six classes (both fall under the element water but both are still different with how powerful they are).
Scattered across these lands, we have magical wells that are linked to the above elemental sources. They have magical powers such as healing.
The Cartorra empire is home to Safiya who is a truthwitch. She can tell lie from truth and she can tell someones true intentions (although she was doing a very bad job at that if you ask me). Being a truthwitch is extremely rare and everyone wants a hold of her (again if you ask me threadwitch sounds way more important than truthwitch). Safiya is also what is called a Domna which I'm assuming has a similar meaning to Lady.
Cartorra empire is a wealthy empire ruled by Emperor Henrick (i think thats how you spell his name).
We follow four characters in this book: Safiya who is a truthwitch, Iseult who is a threadwitch, Merik who is a windwitch, and Aeduan who is a bloodwitch.
You will find threadwitches only in the Nomatsi people (Iseult's people). They see the threads of emotion and feelings and strong relationships of a person. Each emotion or feeling is expressed in different colors. I got very confused in the beginning when Iseult would mention colors with emotions like angry red and so on.
A bloodwitch is very rare and very dangerous. It's considered Voidwitchery because of its connection to death. Basically a bloodwitch can control another person’s blood. They're also great trackers as they can smell your blood and track to the ends of the earth. They also have creepy red eyes when they're using their powers.
There is something called Cleaving as well, that even after finishing the book I still don't understand the what, how, and why's.
I did not enjoy this book. All the above information was basically dumped on you the first 50 pages. It was very confusing. The world was very hazy and did not make sense to me. I had to read the first 100 pages twice, write down and highlight and annotate, and read witchland wiki to understand what was going on. I found so hard to imagine the world. And I did not care much about the characters because I was busy trying to understand the world. I had to go back and forth to understand certain things.
Maybe if I had come into this book with a more understanding of the world I could have enjoyed it more, or at least paid a little more attention to the characters.
Truthwitch had a lot of elements and tropes I usually enjoy when reading books. But I did not enjoy it.
Not sure if I'm going to continue with the series.
emilyb_chicago's review against another edition
3.0
As a first book in what will obviously be a series, this did a decent job of world building and giving an understanding of the rules of magic without compromising story pacing or becoming a lecture. The characters were light and fun when they should be and multilayered and evil where appropriate. The two main characters are obviously set up with room for growth, which will be interesting to follow.
The story was a well written, fast paced adventure with a splash of romance. All in all, I found this a pretty traditional fantasy book. I’m looking forward to the next one.
The story was a well written, fast paced adventure with a splash of romance. All in all, I found this a pretty traditional fantasy book. I’m looking forward to the next one.
prisigtr's review against another edition
I think I’m getting too fantasy heavy in my reading; try again later because I could not focus on the audiobook. The story seems really good though.
paigeturner04's review against another edition
5.0
This is the most beautifully writen book!!! I was hooked by the first sentence!
paigeturner04's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
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? Yes
5.0
harleyrae's review against another edition
3.0
I have VERY mixed feelings about this book. There were some stuff I liked and some stuff I didn't. It also didn't help that it took me forever and a day to finish this book.
The Good
One of the couple things that kept me reading was the world building and the magic system, I found it to be interesting and I just wanted to keep meeting more different types of magictype. I also liked all of our main characters, they were each so completely different and unique. I wanted to know more about them, especially Merik and Aeduan.
The Bad
I found the pacing of this book to be INCREDIBLY slow, for most of the book I really could have cared less about what was happening. Frankly I was quite bored when reading this book. When I had walked away from this book I had no desire to pick it back up, I also kept forgetting what happened earlier on in the book(though this might be cause to it taking me SO LONG to read this).
All in all I had multiple issues with this book, and I am still unsure of my final thoughts on this. I really wanted to enjoy this, but in truth I didn't enjoy it like I was hoping too. As of right now I'm not sure I will be continuing on with the series.
The Good
One of the couple things that kept me reading was the world building and the magic system, I found it to be interesting and I just wanted to keep meeting more different types of magictype. I also liked all of our main characters, they were each so completely different and unique. I wanted to know more about them, especially Merik and Aeduan.
The Bad
I found the pacing of this book to be INCREDIBLY slow, for most of the book I really could have cared less about what was happening. Frankly I was quite bored when reading this book. When I had walked away from this book I had no desire to pick it back up, I also kept forgetting what happened earlier on in the book(though this might be cause to it taking me SO LONG to read this).
All in all I had multiple issues with this book, and I am still unsure of my final thoughts on this. I really wanted to enjoy this, but in truth I didn't enjoy it like I was hoping too. As of right now I'm not sure I will be continuing on with the series.