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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Torture, Car accident, Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Toxic friendship
I really enjoyed this book.
This is the first book in the series that is narrated by Savannah and I *loved* her voice. She's done a lot of growing up since we first met her a zillion books ago but she's still got more to do, and Kelley did a great job balancing those two elements of Savannah's personality in the story.
At its heart, the book is a mystery. As the description above says, the story opens with three murders that need to be solved. However, as Savannah investigates, instead of narrowing down her list of suspects, she keeps uncovering more and more suspicious happenings and strange characters.
The plot twists and turns, and just when you think you've got a theory about who did what, Savannah uncovers something new and you're back to square one again. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book--it kept the story fun, trying to stay ahead of the revelations, and also made it really hard to put the book down! Another thing I thought really worked in this story is the buildup of action. Savannah cruises into the small town with a bit of a chip on her shoulder. She's young and inexperienced, determined to prove herself to everyone by doing things her way and alone. But what starts out as a routine investigation quickly becomes dangerous--and personal--and she finds herself in over her head. The stakes are raised, credibly, with every chapter. Like I said, it's a real page-turner.
We also get to see more of Adam in this book. He's one of my favorite characters from the series and I love the teasing that goes on between him and Savannah. No spoilers (!!) but I really liked the way their relationship was handled in this story. It wasn't what I expected but it was very real and I loved that.
WAKING THE WITCH is the eleventh book in the series and, for those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, the books don't all have the same narrators/main characters. I've been a longtime fan of the series but, I'll admit, I don't love every book because I simply like some of the characters better than others. Savannah, though? She's great. She was really fun to read--a sassy, snarky tough girl who's got just enough raw vulnerability hiding beneath the surface that she kept my heart engaged, as well as my head. I can't wait for the next Savannah book!
This is the first book in the series that is narrated by Savannah and I *loved* her voice. She's done a lot of growing up since we first met her a zillion books ago but she's still got more to do, and Kelley did a great job balancing those two elements of Savannah's personality in the story.
At its heart, the book is a mystery. As the description above says, the story opens with three murders that need to be solved. However, as Savannah investigates, instead of narrowing down her list of suspects, she keeps uncovering more and more suspicious happenings and strange characters.
The plot twists and turns, and just when you think you've got a theory about who did what, Savannah uncovers something new and you're back to square one again. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book--it kept the story fun, trying to stay ahead of the revelations, and also made it really hard to put the book down! Another thing I thought really worked in this story is the buildup of action. Savannah cruises into the small town with a bit of a chip on her shoulder. She's young and inexperienced, determined to prove herself to everyone by doing things her way and alone. But what starts out as a routine investigation quickly becomes dangerous--and personal--and she finds herself in over her head. The stakes are raised, credibly, with every chapter. Like I said, it's a real page-turner.
We also get to see more of Adam in this book. He's one of my favorite characters from the series and I love the teasing that goes on between him and Savannah. No spoilers (!!) but I really liked the way their relationship was handled in this story. It wasn't what I expected but it was very real and I loved that.
WAKING THE WITCH is the eleventh book in the series and, for those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, the books don't all have the same narrators/main characters. I've been a longtime fan of the series but, I'll admit, I don't love every book because I simply like some of the characters better than others. Savannah, though? She's great. She was really fun to read--a sassy, snarky tough girl who's got just enough raw vulnerability hiding beneath the surface that she kept my heart engaged, as well as my head. I can't wait for the next Savannah book!
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I expected a Savannah-POV book to be more fun than this turned out to be.
I am a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong, and her book Bitten has been my favorite book since I read it ten years ago. I reread it with embarrassing frequency. I love the Otherworld series and recommend it to everyone, but specifically those that like YA paranormal but are looking for something a bit darker, more complex, with greater character development, and more sex, violence and thrills. I love Kelley’s characters. They are real and developed in ways that very few fictional characters come close to. It’s almost hard—and slightly embarrassing—to explain that her characters feel like real people, real friends in a way that only one other author besides Kelley has been able to accomplish (Diana Gabaldon, if you were curious).
Waking the Witch is the tenth book in the Otherworld Series and the first one that Savannah is narrating and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a side note, if you are new to the Otherworld I strongly recommend starting at the beginning with Bitten because I think this book, while it does work as a stand alone (barely), would not be nearly as enjoyable if I hadn’t already understood the complex relationships between the characters and Savannah’s long simmering backstory.
I will admit I was nervous about Savannah as a narrator, as she has never been my favorite character and as a reader I have known her since she was 12. But I was pleasantly surprised, Savannah at 21 is independent, smart, brave, strong, and while she wants to prove herself and be independent she also works smart and is capable of asking for help. In other words, her quest for independence and prove herself does not lead to new heights of stupidity like so many other fictional heroines. I really liked Savannah as a heroine and I found the overall plot was great too. No shortage of humour, death and mystery. Overall, a quick paced paranormal thriller that served as a great introduction to Savannah as narrator and sets up the events of book 12 well. A good novel in a freaking fantastic series!
Waking the Witch is the tenth book in the Otherworld Series and the first one that Savannah is narrating and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a side note, if you are new to the Otherworld I strongly recommend starting at the beginning with Bitten because I think this book, while it does work as a stand alone (barely), would not be nearly as enjoyable if I hadn’t already understood the complex relationships between the characters and Savannah’s long simmering backstory.
I will admit I was nervous about Savannah as a narrator, as she has never been my favorite character and as a reader I have known her since she was 12. But I was pleasantly surprised, Savannah at 21 is independent, smart, brave, strong, and while she wants to prove herself and be independent she also works smart and is capable of asking for help. In other words, her quest for independence and prove herself does not lead to new heights of stupidity like so many other fictional heroines. I really liked Savannah as a heroine and I found the overall plot was great too. No shortage of humour, death and mystery. Overall, a quick paced paranormal thriller that served as a great introduction to Savannah as narrator and sets up the events of book 12 well. A good novel in a freaking fantastic series!
adventurous
funny
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:
Complicated
This is the eleventh book in the Women of the Otherworld series, and the first book to be narrated by Savannah Levine, a character introduced in the second book of the series. This is the first book in a trilogy of books narrated by Savannah that will act as a closing trilogy to the book series. At twenty-one, Savannah Levine (orphaned daughter of a notorious dark witch and an equally notorious cutthroat sorcerer) considers herself a full-fledged member of the otherworld. The once rebellious teen has grown into a six-foot-tall, motorcycle-riding jaw-dropper, with an impressive knowledge of and ability to perform spells. The only problem is, she's having a hard time convincing her adoptive parents, Paige and Lucas, to take her seriously as an adult. She's working as the research assistant at the detective agency they founded, and when they take off on a romantic vacation alone, leaving her in charge, Savannah finds herself itching for a case to call her own. Suddenly, Savannah gets the chance she's been waiting for: Recruited by another supernatural detective, she travels to Columbus, Washington, a small, dying town. Two troubled young women have been found in an abandoned warehouse, murdered. Now a third woman's dead, and on closer inspection small details point to darker forces at play. Savannah feels certain she can handle the case, but with signs of supernatural activity appearing at every turn, things quickly become more serious, and far more dangerous, than she realizes. Out of all the books in the series, this final trilogy were the books I was most excited to read, mostly because it feels like everything was building up to this. Savannah’s character was introduced in the second book and slowly grew throughout the book series, and I was excited when I heard that the final three books in the series were narrated by her character. I loved seeing Savannah as a young woman and learning how she has grown into herself and her power.Over the course of the series, we’ve watched Savannah grow up and one of the things readers familiar with the Otherworld series will know is that she’s made lots of mistakes as teenagers growing up do. With Savannah’s background, that’s not surprising. Her mother was killed when she was young. She never really knew her father and with the exception of her half-brother Sean, her father’s family refuses to acknowledge her despite the fact that she has their clan’s very distinctive blue eyes. Because of her mother’s reputation, Savannah has never been liked amongst other witches and Paige lost her standing within the Coven because of Savannah. To say that Savannah has underlying guilt issues is an understatement. She usually bears it well but it manifests in other ways. One of them is the strong desire to prove herself worthy of the right to exist, let alone deserving of the love and trust other people hold for her. I’ve always liked Savannah. I’m aware she can be easily construed as that precocious, overpowered child who grows up into a sassy woman who’s all attitude with nothing to back it up. The truth, however, is that Savannah can back it up. Witches and sorcerers are traditional enemies in the Otherworld and can’t stand each other. Someone of her mixed parentage is pretty much unheard of, so her power potential is very high. She’s not all good like Paige and Lucas, but she’s not all bad like her mother either. Her attitude is tempered by a lot of smarts and pragmatic competence. From the first chapter I was interested and I read through it in a few days because I could hardly put it down. I was invested in Savannah immediately and several of the other characters, including Kayla, the daughter of one of the murder victims, who takes a central role throughout the novel and acts as an interesting character foil to Savannah herself. Waking The Witch is an imaginative blend of the fantasy and detective genres. The plot moves along at a brisk pace, throwing a good number of twists and tragedies at Savannah, who becomes a more likeable character as the book goes on and she seems to warm up to everyday humans. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get more of the witch hunter subplot since that’s definitely a new revelation and something that alters the playing field. As for the actual plot, I thought it seemed more like this was a set-up for future books. I don’t have any complaints about that aspect of it since this is such a long-running series and the first in the closing trilogy, but I was far more interested in the witch hunter angle than anything else happening. I’m not usually a huge fan of the couples in this series, but I liked the potential of Savannah and Adam together. I liked Savannah’s self-awareness of their relationship’s evolution. First, she knew she needed to be older before he’d take her seriously as a potential love interest. Then, she knew that no decent grown man would look at a teenager that way so she knew she needed to wait longer. She thought hitting 21 would be that magic number but then she realized Adam sees her as a coworker and friend, and that there was a strong possibility that this was all she’d ever be. But even as she’s resigned herself to this fact, she’s still in love with him. When she goes on a date with another date, even though she likes that man, she still compares him to Adam. She likes sex but she prefers not having the complications of a relationship to go with it and I can only infer that this is because of Adam. I really hope this gets addressed in future books. As part of a long-running series, there are significant points in the book that will mean much more to fans than to casual readers, but for the most part the story is self-contained. A few plot threads are left dangling at the end to inform the next chapter in Savannah’s story and intrigue Armstrong’s loyal readers. Overall, I liked this book. It wasn’t the strongest book in the series, but it wasn’t the weakest either. This book does a good job at setting-up the beginning of the final three books in the series.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have loved all the other books, but this one not as much
I really enjoyed this book, I cannot wait for the next to see how Savannah handles what happened to her at the ending of this book!