Reviews with content warning for Violence - Bad Witch Burning

Well, shit. This book is unlike any other book I've read. Technically YA contemporary fantasy, this is the story of Katrell. Her power of writing letters to summon the dead gets a sudden, unexplained upgrade, seemingly leading to full-on resurrections. Katrell is the main money-earner for her and her mother and her mother's boyfriend, so she is relieved at the new potential business venture to make rent and keep the power on. Despite Katrell's best efforts to keep everything under control, both the living and the undead have other plans, and everything starts to spiral.

I see people write in reviews sometimes "this book wrecked/destroyed me," and I admit that is not a common reaction I have when reading, but in this case, exceptions must be made. I've been razed to the ground by this book. The gut-wrenching author's note and dedication at the beginning had me sitting up and paying attention even before page 1, and the story held my undivided attention for the duration-- a great feat, indeed. This book is not for the faint of heart. I was crying before the 10% mark, and that was far from the last time. I didn't track every time I cried because how ridiculous would that be... but it happened again in the final pages of the book, so at least we can agree it was intermittent right until the bitter but hopeful end. I attribute the emotional reaction not only to the content of the story but also to the author's vivid, cutting writing and matter-of-fact narration. There are no frills, just brutal honesty.

Let me give you some less emotional, more cogent points about why you should read this one: Katrell is savvy, hard-headed, and loyal. Her responsibilities weigh her down, with no horizon in sight. This is her difficult, gruesome journey towards something better. It's about accepting help and support, and realizing there is something better to look forward to, an unconditional love that is reciprocated and deserved. In a rare move for a young adult book, there is no romantic plot, the focus on friendship and (found) family and self-love.

This book is not meant to be an easy read. Trigger warnings include physical and emotional abuse, neglect, animal death, murder, and extreme poverty. If you are in a place to pick this one up, it's a powerful read, one that has thoroughly lodged itself in my mind, maybe my soul.

Thanks to Delacorte and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, out 8/24.

Content Warnings

sarahmreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I received a copy of this novel as an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Any and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Katrell, for as long as she has lived, has had the power to bring ghosts back to talk with loved ones. One day, her power twists into the ability to bring back the dead to life. Katrell sees it as a chance to finally help her family thrive. However, what happens when this new power twists for the worse?

I warn you, please look at these trigger warnings before reading this book. I didn't research it ahead of time nor was it included in the document of the story itself. Therefore, when I read it and one of my biggest triggers happened in the first 10% of the story, it kind of threw off my whole experience. That being said, the topics covered are EXTREMELY heavy. Jessica Lewis doesn't hold back with how brutal and tragic Katrell's home life is, especially when it comes to her mom's boyfriend and her mom's lack of action and defending her boyfriend. It unfortunately is something that does occur in daily life, but everyone chooses to ignore it.

On top of that, we see its heavy repercussions on Katrell herself. She tends to be violent and even though she has her family's best interest in heart, she still gets betrayed by them every single time. And at the very end when everything hits the fan, she still feels like she has to defend her mother. As Lewis mentions in the beginning of the story, she has dealt with something extremely similar to what Katrell deals with, including homelessness at one point. I personally have never dealt with these things beside for the emotional abuse, so I can't speak to its accuracy in this context.

The plot was good. Typical case of new powers gone wrong. I wasn't a fan of how we immediately start the story with her using her original powers and then 2 chapters later her power twists into something else entirely. A part of me wishes that we got to see more of what her power was and slowly see it shift into something bad. Then when Katrell used her power more and more to bring people back, I liked that we saw her change with it. However, I can't say much else about the people she brought back. You could kind of tell from the beginning that something wasn't right and stayed that way for a bit until like a decent way through. As a result, the pacing felt off and the mystery not as developed as I would have liked it, since some other things are kind of just brought up and never fully explained.

In terms of characters, I had an extremely love hate relationship with Katrell. She was so oblivious to what was going on half the time, temperament issues, and greedy. But also caring to the core. I know that most of these traits come from living in her toxic household, but still causes for some unease reading from her perspective. I loved Will though, and her family. I kind of wish we saw more than just a friendship blossom between Will and Katrell, but with the ending it makes me feel weird thinking that.

Bad Witch Burning is a fast-paced story that you can finish in a day, but felt just a tad underdeveloped.

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