Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

50 reviews

veeples's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I’ve read a couple of books that use a theme of fear of witches and the associated religious persecution, and unfortunately, this one is not one of my favorites.

While Immanuel does well to understand that the religion that Bethel operates her forces its black population to the outskirts, allows men of religious standing to take advantage of young girls, and cultivates a culture of fear and distrust, I kept expecting there to be more empathy for the witches of persecuted past or for Immanuel to come to see magic isn’t just something violent. There was potential for it too since her grandmother is a witch, but her magic is never spoke of, so there’s lost potential in letting Immanuel see the misinformation of the understanding of magic perpetuated by the church. Instead, magic and its witches are… just as bad as Bethel has always taught her. There’s no sympathy for the fact that a young girl and two queer women died, and no chance for Immanuel to even understand them more as people instead of purely monsters.

What I do enjoy about this book is the strong relationship and respect Immanuel and Ezra have together, how even if their ideas of what should be done clashes somewhat, their care for each means they wanna see each other live and thrive. I think Henderson does very well to show how even in someone as well meaning as Ezra, he still has ideas that he needs to rethink and challenge but he never puts Immanuel down for her own ideals.

Some other issues I have is I felt this book was quite a bit slower than I would have liked, and I wish Immanuel had more time to understand other things in the book namely: the outskirts and its culture and the history of magic, but maybe this will be touched upon in the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Confinement

Minor: Police brutality and Animal death

skelleybean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.75

This book was so dark and raw, and I loved it all… until it tripped at the finish line and kind of turned into an after school special.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Violence, Animal death, Body horror, Murder, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Confinement, and Pandemic/Epidemic

michaelttay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The pacing in the book was sometimes odd and the battle moments needed more energy but I couldn’t stop reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Sexual assault, Confinement, Gore, and Misogyny

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, and Blood

cait_henry56's review against another edition

3.5

Solid book. I agree with some of the other reviews that I prefer my horror to not have romantic subplots, so if you are similar you might not enjoy this book. Otherwise, there was wonderful world building, interesting characters, and a fairly unique plot when it comes to witch hunts. I will say that some of the themes were heavy handed, but overall I recommend the audiobook for a dark night's entertainment

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Colonisation, Animal death, and Death of parent

rustbeltcoastie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

I cannot recommend this book highly enough! It subverted so many of my expectations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Misogyny

Minor: Death of parent, Rape, and Child abuse

gogotheque's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I really enjoyed this book and it had few emotional tearful moments but the ending sort of lacked something. Technically there was a grand finale but it wasn't enough for me. I guess I expected more? It was very proper typical plot..nothing too exciting but still enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Torture

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Medical trauma, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Animal death

Minor: Racism, Chronic illness, Medical content, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Classism, Body horror, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pedophilia, and Sexual harassment

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Rape and Adult/minor relationship

r_o_s_e's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Animal death, Gun violence, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Sexism, and Confinement

Minor: Miscarriage, Chronic illness, Medical content, Racism, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Bullying, and Adult/minor relationship

steph_thelibrarian's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

3.75

I loved this book! Honestly could not put it down! It is like The VVitch meets The Village. I love books with this type of puritanical setting, weird church, magic, corruption... it's good stuff. I thought the author did a great job describing some horrific and brutal scenes, and developing the characters. I really like Immanuelle as a lead character - very strong, smart, and honorable. 

<spolier>My main beef with this story comes at the point when Immanuelle has to defeat the witches. It felt unrealistic (LOL) to me that she just had to reach into the depths of her person and believe that she could take back the curses in order to save Bethel. I think I would have liked a little more development of her coming to terms, truly, with her magic/witchcraft past, and reclaiming it, remaking into her own. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, and Death

This is a horror novel. Blood is in every chapter.

Death comes at the end.