Scan barcode
will_overthink's review against another edition
3.0
I received this e-book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. Willow Born, by Shanna Miles comes out June 1, 2017, from Rochelle and Reed Publishing.
Stumbling through its foreword and first few chapters, Willow Born hits its stride once our leading lady, Colette, starts attending high school. With that structure, however minute, suddenly the storytelling shifts from barreling to merely rushing, and the reader’s confusion is paralleled and assuaged at the same rate as Colette’s.
The story follows a young black girl as she wakes up in a lake, having been recently resurrected, is rescued from near-death by a young man, is possibly kidnapped by her imaginary friend who is possessing the body of an ill-clad co-ed, and then meets with her lawyer. Colette knows something’s up (read: she probably shouldn’t be alive) and when an inconceivable school Mega Project combining her Forensics class and her Journalism class (two subjects I never took in public high school) require her to dig up a cold case that just happens to be her own, she starts to learn about her past, and her self. On top of that, young girls keep disappearing, and some of them are lucky enough to be found dead. Oh, and also, there’s been some angel-sightings.
It’s confusing, yes. There are a ton of different elements, yes. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief. But I was only seven pages in when I first said, “Okay, I love this,” aloud. Miles has done something that absolutely fascinates me. She has created a network of women, the Willows, who have effortlessly combined two seemingly irreconcilable belief systems: the Gospel, and old magic. Old as in lets you see kitchen fairies keeping your floors scrubbed and trolls helping your garden protect you, old. And, in fact, Willow philosophy folds in the modern sciences as well. Trolls and fairies are God’s creatures, and magic is just energy obeying the laws of physics in ways most of us plebeians don’t understand.
I swear, this book feels like someone took all those tumblr prompts that don’t seem like they should go together but they JUST DO and made something lovely.
Along with the beauty of Willow philosophy, this book does something else that I love and deeply respect and that I, personally, haven’t seen a lot in the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres. Willow Born operates with Black As Default. Unless otherwise specified, all characters are black as default, and that’s wonderful.
The main factors contributing to my rating are how confusing the beginning was, and how forced the ending felt. Miles seems to be gearing up for a sequel that I don’t feel she earned. Several story points were introduced and never followed up with (i.e. THE GUN), and while Colette is very interesting, Matt’s story really needed some filling out (WHY did he feel compelled to protect her, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?), and all the side characters seemed to blend together. In a movie remake, Summer, Qutey, and Brianna would probably be recast as one character and there would be next to no story alterations. Carlos is fantastic, though. Keep Carlos. Protect him.
Now, I know that the book-to-e-book transition often exacerbates the typo issue, and that ARCs are not finished copies, but this version had way more than it’s far share of misspellings, misquotations, and missed punctuation. It’s not affecting my rating, but it was super distracting!
So overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. Incredible premise, but the execution could use some love.
~dustmotesandvellichor
Stumbling through its foreword and first few chapters, Willow Born hits its stride once our leading lady, Colette, starts attending high school. With that structure, however minute, suddenly the storytelling shifts from barreling to merely rushing, and the reader’s confusion is paralleled and assuaged at the same rate as Colette’s.
The story follows a young black girl as she wakes up in a lake, having been recently resurrected, is rescued from near-death by a young man, is possibly kidnapped by her imaginary friend who is possessing the body of an ill-clad co-ed, and then meets with her lawyer. Colette knows something’s up (read: she probably shouldn’t be alive) and when an inconceivable school Mega Project combining her Forensics class and her Journalism class (two subjects I never took in public high school) require her to dig up a cold case that just happens to be her own, she starts to learn about her past, and her self. On top of that, young girls keep disappearing, and some of them are lucky enough to be found dead. Oh, and also, there’s been some angel-sightings.
It’s confusing, yes. There are a ton of different elements, yes. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief. But I was only seven pages in when I first said, “Okay, I love this,” aloud. Miles has done something that absolutely fascinates me. She has created a network of women, the Willows, who have effortlessly combined two seemingly irreconcilable belief systems: the Gospel, and old magic. Old as in lets you see kitchen fairies keeping your floors scrubbed and trolls helping your garden protect you, old. And, in fact, Willow philosophy folds in the modern sciences as well. Trolls and fairies are God’s creatures, and magic is just energy obeying the laws of physics in ways most of us plebeians don’t understand.
I swear, this book feels like someone took all those tumblr prompts that don’t seem like they should go together but they JUST DO and made something lovely.
Along with the beauty of Willow philosophy, this book does something else that I love and deeply respect and that I, personally, haven’t seen a lot in the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres. Willow Born operates with Black As Default. Unless otherwise specified, all characters are black as default, and that’s wonderful.
The main factors contributing to my rating are how confusing the beginning was, and how forced the ending felt. Miles seems to be gearing up for a sequel that I don’t feel she earned. Several story points were introduced and never followed up with (i.e. THE GUN), and while Colette is very interesting, Matt’s story really needed some filling out (WHY did he feel compelled to protect her, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?), and all the side characters seemed to blend together. In a movie remake, Summer, Qutey, and Brianna would probably be recast as one character and there would be next to no story alterations. Carlos is fantastic, though. Keep Carlos. Protect him.
Now, I know that the book-to-e-book transition often exacerbates the typo issue, and that ARCs are not finished copies, but this version had way more than it’s far share of misspellings, misquotations, and missed punctuation. It’s not affecting my rating, but it was super distracting!
So overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. Incredible premise, but the execution could use some love.
~dustmotesandvellichor
halligomez's review against another edition
4.0
If you love stories about witches, magic, and the past and present clashing, this is the one for you! I was hooked from the beginning when we learned Collette died and came back to life. Her journey to understand what happened to her by using a school project to investigate her death, as well as watching her navigate high school, friends, and her crush was interesting.
Miles’s strengths are clearly in writing and descriptions, such as her use of color and movement to describe the emotions Collette sees in others. For example: “a milky-green anxiety is buzzing around him.” In addition, each character was fully developed with strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and unique voices. And she did not disappoint when it came to secondary characters.
Although I loved each piece of this story – the Willows, Collette coming back and learning how to fight the demon, and the murder mysteries – there may have been too many pieces for one story. Possibly because of word count limitations, the more pieces to the plot, the less they can be developed. Although they did tie together at the end, some explanations were breezed over when they warranted something deeper.
Miles’s strengths are clearly in writing and descriptions, such as her use of color and movement to describe the emotions Collette sees in others. For example: “a milky-green anxiety is buzzing around him.” In addition, each character was fully developed with strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and unique voices. And she did not disappoint when it came to secondary characters.
Although I loved each piece of this story – the Willows, Collette coming back and learning how to fight the demon, and the murder mysteries – there may have been too many pieces for one story. Possibly because of word count limitations, the more pieces to the plot, the less they can be developed. Although they did tie together at the end, some explanations were breezed over when they warranted something deeper.
emcroff's review against another edition
2.0
I was provided access to an ARC of Willow Born through NetGalley. The book is expected to be published in ebook format on June 1, 2017 by Rochelle and Reed publishing. It is marketed as a “stand alone Paranormal Fantasy.”
The description of Willow Born immediately grabbed my attention because I’m a sucker for Southern gothics and fantasy steeped in Southern culture. I’m also a sucker for witchy books that promise covens (usually a sign of a whole lot of powerful female characters). Unfortunately, the book didn’t live up to my excitement and left me feeling pretty “meh.”
Summary (some potential mild spoilers)
Willow Born opens with the main character, sixteen-year-old Collette Hognose (though, honestly, I think I was a solid third of the way through the book before I learned her last name) being plucked from a lake. We quickly learn that Collette is an empath who died fifty years previously and has somehow been resurrected (returned from “the Void”) for reasons that are never really explained and through magic that is similarly vague.
Though Collette is surprised to find herself returned, her guardian/imp/imaginary friend, Raphael, is expecting her and places her in the hands of an attorney (”Uncle Silas”) who, with the help of his niece, “Summer,” is tasked with helping Collette re-assimilate into society.
Through a school project investigating her own murder, Collette meets Miss Collins, who reveals that Collette is part of a long line of Willows, a coven of witches descended from slave women brought to the Carolinas. The book then focuses on Collette learning to use and accept her powers, falling in love with the boy who plucked her from the lake who has secrets of his own, and myriad Stereotpyical Teen scenes (shopping with friends, flirting with boys, etc.) However, as more and more girls in the area go missing, it’s clear there is evil afoot and Collette may be the only one able to stop it.
Thoughts on Willow Born
I really wanted to like this book, and I spent a lot of time wondering if the reason I didn’t enjoy reading it was that I’m probably older than the target audience. Ultimately, though, I decided that the book had good ideas but was poorly executed.
The actual experience of reading Willow Born was similar to when someone tries to explain a very elaborate dream they had once. While you can tell the person obviously though the dream was incredibly detailed, incredibly real, and so so cool, you’re inevitably left confused because the details just don’t come through. It’s obvious that Shanna Miles could envision these characters, places, and plot points, but her vision never really stands out through the page, and it leaves the reader somewhat lost and confused.
By the end 300+ pages, I felt like I really cared about only one of the characters (Miss Collins), and honestly, I’m not even sure I understood even the basics of who each character was supposed to be. Each character seems to be more of a stand in for a role/trope (e.g.the Reluctant Protagonist, the Best Friend, the Love Interest, the Pretty Mean Girl, the Responsible Adult), and beyond that one-note casting, no character develops into something more nuanced or three-dimensional.
The plot is similarly hazy and undeveloped. Transitions between places and times were unclear, and I frequently found myself flipping between pages to figure out when and how we got to a new place or time. The flow of the story is strangely interrupted by scenes that seem totally out of place--a random surprise karaoke session, a visit to a haunted house, etc. And by the time we reached the end of the book, there were vastly more questions left open than answered. This might be fine for the start of a series, but for a “stand alone” book, it’s highly unsatisfying.
The strongest point of Willow Born is its mythos/magic. Magic in this world is firmly rooted in judeo christian history. Willow witches mark themselves with crosses, their spell books include the Bible, and angels have been sighted and recorded by local news. However, even on this point, Willow Born sends mixed messages. The universe is clearly one in which angels, and the Christian God are real and powerful, but so are water nymphs and trolls. While there is clearly great power at work, Collette is explicitly told time and time again that there is no magic, only science. While the world-building is Willow Born’s strongest point, it is still lacking the necessary development to feel fully believable and realized.
The “romance” piece (because, remember, this is marketed as a paranormal romance) feels shoe-horned into a world that doesn’t need it. There’s little chemistry between the two characters, and the “development” of the relationship mostly involves an overprotective high school boy assigning Collette bodyguards (because reasons?) to walk her between class and ignoring her when she tells him to leave her alone.
I can’t touch on some of the other unbelievable parts of the book without giving spoilers. Unfortunately, while Willow Born had some ambitious potential, it falls flat, and I can’t recommend it.
The description of Willow Born immediately grabbed my attention because I’m a sucker for Southern gothics and fantasy steeped in Southern culture. I’m also a sucker for witchy books that promise covens (usually a sign of a whole lot of powerful female characters). Unfortunately, the book didn’t live up to my excitement and left me feeling pretty “meh.”
Summary (some potential mild spoilers)
Willow Born opens with the main character, sixteen-year-old Collette Hognose (though, honestly, I think I was a solid third of the way through the book before I learned her last name) being plucked from a lake. We quickly learn that Collette is an empath who died fifty years previously and has somehow been resurrected (returned from “the Void”) for reasons that are never really explained and through magic that is similarly vague.
Though Collette is surprised to find herself returned, her guardian/imp/imaginary friend, Raphael, is expecting her and places her in the hands of an attorney (”Uncle Silas”) who, with the help of his niece, “Summer,” is tasked with helping Collette re-assimilate into society.
Through a school project investigating her own murder, Collette meets Miss Collins, who reveals that Collette is part of a long line of Willows, a coven of witches descended from slave women brought to the Carolinas. The book then focuses on Collette learning to use and accept her powers, falling in love with the boy who plucked her from the lake who has secrets of his own, and myriad Stereotpyical Teen scenes (shopping with friends, flirting with boys, etc.) However, as more and more girls in the area go missing, it’s clear there is evil afoot and Collette may be the only one able to stop it.
Thoughts on Willow Born
I really wanted to like this book, and I spent a lot of time wondering if the reason I didn’t enjoy reading it was that I’m probably older than the target audience. Ultimately, though, I decided that the book had good ideas but was poorly executed.
The actual experience of reading Willow Born was similar to when someone tries to explain a very elaborate dream they had once. While you can tell the person obviously though the dream was incredibly detailed, incredibly real, and so so cool, you’re inevitably left confused because the details just don’t come through. It’s obvious that Shanna Miles could envision these characters, places, and plot points, but her vision never really stands out through the page, and it leaves the reader somewhat lost and confused.
By the end 300+ pages, I felt like I really cared about only one of the characters (Miss Collins), and honestly, I’m not even sure I understood even the basics of who each character was supposed to be. Each character seems to be more of a stand in for a role/trope (e.g.the Reluctant Protagonist, the Best Friend, the Love Interest, the Pretty Mean Girl, the Responsible Adult), and beyond that one-note casting, no character develops into something more nuanced or three-dimensional.
The plot is similarly hazy and undeveloped. Transitions between places and times were unclear, and I frequently found myself flipping between pages to figure out when and how we got to a new place or time. The flow of the story is strangely interrupted by scenes that seem totally out of place--a random surprise karaoke session, a visit to a haunted house, etc. And by the time we reached the end of the book, there were vastly more questions left open than answered. This might be fine for the start of a series, but for a “stand alone” book, it’s highly unsatisfying.
The strongest point of Willow Born is its mythos/magic. Magic in this world is firmly rooted in judeo christian history. Willow witches mark themselves with crosses, their spell books include the Bible, and angels have been sighted and recorded by local news. However, even on this point, Willow Born sends mixed messages. The universe is clearly one in which angels, and the Christian God are real and powerful, but so are water nymphs and trolls. While there is clearly great power at work, Collette is explicitly told time and time again that there is no magic, only science. While the world-building is Willow Born’s strongest point, it is still lacking the necessary development to feel fully believable and realized.
The “romance” piece (because, remember, this is marketed as a paranormal romance) feels shoe-horned into a world that doesn’t need it. There’s little chemistry between the two characters, and the “development” of the relationship mostly involves an overprotective high school boy assigning Collette bodyguards (because reasons?) to walk her between class and ignoring her when she tells him to leave her alone.
I can’t touch on some of the other unbelievable parts of the book without giving spoilers. Unfortunately, while Willow Born had some ambitious potential, it falls flat, and I can’t recommend it.
will_overthink's review
3.0
I received this e-book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. Willow Born, by Shanna Miles comes out June 1, 2017, from Rochelle and Reed Publishing.
Stumbling through its foreword and first few chapters, Willow Born hits its stride once our leading lady, Colette, starts attending high school. With that structure, however minute, suddenly the storytelling shifts from barreling to merely rushing, and the reader’s confusion is paralleled and assuaged at the same rate as Colette’s.
The story follows a young black girl as she wakes up in a lake, having been recently resurrected, is rescued from near-death by a young man, is possibly kidnapped by her imaginary friend who is possessing the body of an ill-clad co-ed, and then meets with her lawyer. Colette knows something’s up (read: she probably shouldn’t be alive) and when an inconceivable school Mega Project combining her Forensics class and her Journalism class (two subjects I never took in public high school) require her to dig up a cold case that just happens to be her own, she starts to learn about her past, and her self. On top of that, young girls keep disappearing, and some of them are lucky enough to be found dead. Oh, and also, there’s been some angel-sightings.
It’s confusing, yes. There are a ton of different elements, yes. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief. But I was only seven pages in when I first said, “Okay, I love this,” aloud. Miles has done something that absolutely fascinates me. She has created a network of women, the Willows, who have effortlessly combined two seemingly irreconcilable belief systems: the Gospel, and old magic. Old as in lets you see kitchen fairies keeping your floors scrubbed and trolls helping your garden protect you, old. And, in fact, Willow philosophy folds in the modern sciences as well. Trolls and fairies are God’s creatures, and magic is just energy obeying the laws of physics in ways most of us plebeians don’t understand.
I swear, this book feels like someone took all those tumblr prompts that don’t seem like they should go together but they JUST DO and made something lovely.
Along with the beauty of Willow philosophy, this book does something else that I love and deeply respect and that I, personally, haven’t seen a lot in the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres. Willow Born operates with Black As Default. Unless otherwise specified, all characters are black as default, and that’s wonderful.
The main factors contributing to my rating are how confusing the beginning was, and how forced the ending felt. Miles seems to be gearing up for a sequel that I don’t feel she earned. Several story points were introduced and never followed up with (i.e. THE GUN), and while Colette is very interesting, Matt’s story really needed some filling out (WHY did he feel compelled to protect her, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?), and all the side characters seemed to blend together. In a movie remake, Summer, Qutey, and Brianna would probably be recast as one character and there would be next to no story alterations. Carlos is fantastic, though. Keep Carlos. Protect him.
Now, I know that the book-to-e-book transition often exacerbates the typo issue, and that ARCs are not finished copies, but this version had way more than it’s far share of misspellings, misquotations, and missed punctuation. It’s not affecting my rating, but it was super distracting!
So overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. Incredible premise, but the execution could use some love.
~dustmotesandvellichor
Stumbling through its foreword and first few chapters, Willow Born hits its stride once our leading lady, Colette, starts attending high school. With that structure, however minute, suddenly the storytelling shifts from barreling to merely rushing, and the reader’s confusion is paralleled and assuaged at the same rate as Colette’s.
The story follows a young black girl as she wakes up in a lake, having been recently resurrected, is rescued from near-death by a young man, is possibly kidnapped by her imaginary friend who is possessing the body of an ill-clad co-ed, and then meets with her lawyer. Colette knows something’s up (read: she probably shouldn’t be alive) and when an inconceivable school Mega Project combining her Forensics class and her Journalism class (two subjects I never took in public high school) require her to dig up a cold case that just happens to be her own, she starts to learn about her past, and her self. On top of that, young girls keep disappearing, and some of them are lucky enough to be found dead. Oh, and also, there’s been some angel-sightings.
It’s confusing, yes. There are a ton of different elements, yes. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief. But I was only seven pages in when I first said, “Okay, I love this,” aloud. Miles has done something that absolutely fascinates me. She has created a network of women, the Willows, who have effortlessly combined two seemingly irreconcilable belief systems: the Gospel, and old magic. Old as in lets you see kitchen fairies keeping your floors scrubbed and trolls helping your garden protect you, old. And, in fact, Willow philosophy folds in the modern sciences as well. Trolls and fairies are God’s creatures, and magic is just energy obeying the laws of physics in ways most of us plebeians don’t understand.
I swear, this book feels like someone took all those tumblr prompts that don’t seem like they should go together but they JUST DO and made something lovely.
Along with the beauty of Willow philosophy, this book does something else that I love and deeply respect and that I, personally, haven’t seen a lot in the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres. Willow Born operates with Black As Default. Unless otherwise specified, all characters are black as default, and that’s wonderful.
The main factors contributing to my rating are how confusing the beginning was, and how forced the ending felt. Miles seems to be gearing up for a sequel that I don’t feel she earned. Several story points were introduced and never followed up with (i.e. THE GUN), and while Colette is very interesting, Matt’s story really needed some filling out (WHY did he feel compelled to protect her, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?), and all the side characters seemed to blend together. In a movie remake, Summer, Qutey, and Brianna would probably be recast as one character and there would be next to no story alterations. Carlos is fantastic, though. Keep Carlos. Protect him.
Now, I know that the book-to-e-book transition often exacerbates the typo issue, and that ARCs are not finished copies, but this version had way more than it’s far share of misspellings, misquotations, and missed punctuation. It’s not affecting my rating, but it was super distracting!
So overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. Incredible premise, but the execution could use some love.
~dustmotesandvellichor
deadgoodbookreviews's review
3.0
Review originally published here: https://chaininteraction.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/review-willow-born-shanna-miles/?iframe=true&theme_preview=true
I came this close to giving up on this one. I have yet to add anything to any kind of 'did not finish' pile and I'm too proud to give up now, so I persevered. Here's what I discovered:
Willow Born very much has the feel of a debut novel. It also has the feel of a novel that would have benefited from a lot of editing or perhaps just putting it aside and coming back to it in a year or so and then cutting bits and adding bits in. Does that make any sense? What I mean is that Willow Born has some really great ideas and most of the actual writing is pretty decent but there are so many loose ends or just unnecessary threads that I spent the first 60% of the book utterly confused. In the last 40% I just decided that the things I had thought were important and plot relevant and about to be explained probably weren't any of those things and I should just read the book like none of the plot mattered.
In terms of subject/story...this kind of reads like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossed with old school Dr Who crossed with some kind of teen high school drama. There's paranormal activity, there's time travel (of sorts) and there's romance for the sake of romance. None of this is overtly a 'bad' thing it just doesn't make for particularly compelling reading.
If you think you might give this book a go you won't have a terrible time of it, the last 40% of the book actually got quite interesting and exciting. But you have to be willing to commit to the confusion of the earliest phase of the book first.
By the way: I received a digital copy of this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I came this close to giving up on this one. I have yet to add anything to any kind of 'did not finish' pile and I'm too proud to give up now, so I persevered. Here's what I discovered:
Willow Born very much has the feel of a debut novel. It also has the feel of a novel that would have benefited from a lot of editing or perhaps just putting it aside and coming back to it in a year or so and then cutting bits and adding bits in. Does that make any sense? What I mean is that Willow Born has some really great ideas and most of the actual writing is pretty decent but there are so many loose ends or just unnecessary threads that I spent the first 60% of the book utterly confused. In the last 40% I just decided that the things I had thought were important and plot relevant and about to be explained probably weren't any of those things and I should just read the book like none of the plot mattered.
In terms of subject/story...this kind of reads like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossed with old school Dr Who crossed with some kind of teen high school drama. There's paranormal activity, there's time travel (of sorts) and there's romance for the sake of romance. None of this is overtly a 'bad' thing it just doesn't make for particularly compelling reading.
If you think you might give this book a go you won't have a terrible time of it, the last 40% of the book actually got quite interesting and exciting. But you have to be willing to commit to the confusion of the earliest phase of the book first.
By the way: I received a digital copy of this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
More...