Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Black Witch

Why aren't more folks talking about this book? I am several years behind, but once I picked it up. I could not put it down. Laurie Forest's world and character building are glorious.

The commentary on religious zealots and government policy is front and center in this adventure that leads to rebellion. Other themes include racism with supremacy, misogyny, and sexuality. Forest's storytelling combines all these through the lens of discovery for Elloren, her siblings, and friends.

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mlottermoser's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Great world building, solid magic system, and believable creature classes. Immersive political background moves the story along.
Sheltered “chosen child” goes to University only to be treated as an outsider and imposter. Her eyes are opened when she realizes people are not as she is taught in school.

TW: Light kissing and barbaric treatment of lower classes.

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crystalsparkles's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

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intothestarrysea's review

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

In a world with all magical races, the premise is basically: what if Hitler won, and his granddaughter who’s supposed to inherit his magical power slowly realizes that her family and race/species are, well… Nazis.

It started out really rough (I mean, the MC is super privileged and doesn’t realize her race are Nazis), but I’m surprised at the character growth. Elleoren seldom has the “right” reaction and makes a lot of mistakes, but she grows.

Still not a fan of the author’s writing style though. I really wanted to edit this one.

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_nerdy_fantasy_reader1313's review

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adventurous mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I cannot put into words how amazing this book is!
The world building is phenomenal! The characters and their development is fantastic. I loved watching Elloren's character and others evolve to what they were at the end. Fallon and Elloren's banter makes you hate Fallon but love the depth of her character and Elloren. The suspense and small plot twists were immaculate! It doesn't feel like you are reading 600 pages, it is so fast paced, however you understand everything that is happening and don't get lost.
This book reminds me a lot of the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling from the setting of the University to Fallon Bane being like a female version of Draco Malfoy. It also reminds me a lot of The Empirium Trilogy by Claire Legrand with the angels and Iracnals to the complex religion along with the ancient prophecy that surrounds the main characters. If you like either of these books read this!!!
If I could rate this 100/5 stars on this app I would! This book I'd such a delight and I cannot wait to see where The Iron Flower takes Elloren and her friends.

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frantically's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.25

NHIE understood why fantasy authors have this burning desire to replicate the Nazi regime and manage to do it terribly every. single time. Please leave writing about The Third Reich to the historians and the victims.

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bookishfaye's review

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Dnf’d at 27%

I went into this expecting something really fun & epic & witches and warlocks and dragons and werewolves & elves and fae & a magic school & that sounded like fucking eeevverrything but…. Dear god did this one ever take a turn…

The first hundred pages it became clear that this was going to be a story about realizing your people are the bad ones and you’ve been lied too; it was kinda vague in the early stages and that can go a lot of ways & mean a lot of things so I was like period okay okay let’s see where the author goes with this. The next 100 pages then showcase the most vile metaphors for racism that mirror our world but in a fantasy world in ways that are so incredibly fucking odd & obviously written by a white person?? Like the white coded/white saviour protagonist is wildly sheltered and naive and doesn’t understand why so many people hate her and are terrified of her (though the audience catches on real quick that it’s because they are oppressed by her people/family etc). In one scene, she is pushed by a child of one of the mixed races who then refers to her as a “black roach” & the whitecoded MC “flinches at the racial insult” & I- …. What the fuck???? Also the main army in this book is absolutely coded to be the nazi regime down to the symbol on the uniforms. I just don’t care to see where this author is going with this story, because at this point it is clear to me she didn’t do the proper research to go about representing things with grace and is talking about things that she doesn’t understand & being fucking disrespectful about it. This is not even including the homophobic coded world of women needing to be “wandmated” to a male love interest while they are still children, & if they don’t remain faithful to this pairing they are whipped & put into like… slavery??? Also the 2014 era girl on girl hatred is just eyeroll. This is just an incredibly strange and disgusting way to go about representing racism.

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