Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - The Year of the Witching

Ok, first off, the premise of this book is so intriguing to me. I was so invested in the premise and first 2/3 of this book, but the last 1/3 of this book really missed the mark for me. Without going into too much detail, the second guessing of the town and church's true motives is built up throughout the whole first 2/3 of the book, and then kind of abandoned and not truly fulfilled at the end of the book. Overall, this book was just really disappointing to me. When I picked it up, I was so excited and eager to dig down to the bottom of the mystery and learning about all these secrets towards the beginning of the book was so exciting, but the resolution was such a let down on all of the points the book seemed to be attempting to make.

Ok, now for some spoiler specific review comments to explain the above points:

1.) So, the entire beginning of the book was all about how Immanuelle was sort of discovering these issues and prejudices within the church, and also her discovering the "true story" behind the origins of Bethel and the story of the three witches. The beginning of this book was really building up how the men who run this town were not good people, and would deliberately hurt women and people with less power who tried to stand up against them, and applying that to the witches, BUT THEN you discover that the witches really were just completely evil and wanted to kill everyone and are still trying to destroy the town and EVERYONE in it (not just the manipulative men), which almost entirely negates the point that this book seems to be trying to make.
2.) The mom issue was never resolved. Immanuelle's mom supposedly was consorting with these three witch spirits to curse the entire town (not just the people who caused all of her pain). Immanuelle goes through all of these steps and discoveries that her mom essentially used her as a conduit to bring the curse to the town (which is also why only Immanuelle can stop it), and that her mom left Immanuelle to just become only this thing to carry the curse. However, when Immanuelle goes and finds her grandma (dad's mom) who left Bethel, she says that Immanuelle's mom was so over protective of Immanuelle even before she was born, and how excited she was to have her baby and how she would never reduce Immanuelle to essentially an object to carry out the curse. But this thread is never resolved. It just is left dangling, and the only resolution we get is that Immanuelle's mom really did just use Immanuelle to deliver this curse? Which again, reduces the point this book is making by having this woman who is betrayed and hurt by all the men in power in Bethel reduce her own child to an object (which is what this book seems to be trying to protest, the objectification of women and how the men of Bethel think that they can do whatever they want with these women).
3.) There is kind of a "white savior" ending. Not fully, but there are little bits and pieces of it with the love interest (white boy) saving Immanuelle multiple times at the end, so that she can then save the town. I don't think it's a full white savior, but the fact that he needed to save Immanuelle at all was a little irksome, as it is proven throughout the whole book that Immanuelle is very capable on her own, so I thought it was a little frustrating that the author did this when we, the audience, know it's not needed.

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_forestofpages's review against another edition

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I did not enjoy the atmosphere, the main character was boring and too weak in my opinion, thoug I understand why I was nearly halfway into the book and she still had yet to do anything remotely interesting. She was beyond passive. The, what I assume, love interest was boring as well and I had no idea what anyone's motivations were even 6 hrs into the book. Not the book for me.

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coleyglasses's review against another edition

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dark hopeful tense fast-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

4.25

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spacerkip's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

5.0

Loved every second of this. The descriptions were amazing, and I loved the exploration of religious/spiritual trauma as horror. Everything was so tangible and visceral, and it was so easy to visualize as I read. Who would have predicted I could be such a fan of horror, not me.

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powkaye's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

A young woman who is sort of an outcast because of her mother’s past learns she has supernatural powers but she lives in a purist community where women have few rights. This story is about how she comes into her power to disrupt the status quo.

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