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freckled_frog_boi's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-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? Yes
4.25
I loved the book. I loved the vast amount of representation we see, the way fantasy tropes are exposed for it's colonialist background, the anti-establishment evident in many characters. The childhood friends-to-enemies-to-lovers was a slow burn I loved. All very good stuff!
Wyatt is an angry mc (for good reason) but doesn't process that anger in productive ways, so I could get frustrated with him at times. I also recognize he grew up in a very restricted environment and has only a few years in the human world to deconstruct - so wyatt overlooks his white privilege in some of his monologues. He also has to be warmed up to the revolutionary ideas of his friends, and i almost come to count on his friends more than him - i guess that’s why the plot twists work so well
But overall I loved reading it and I think you will too!
Wyatt is an angry mc (for good reason) but doesn't process that anger in productive ways, so I could get frustrated with him at times. I also recognize he grew up in a very restricted environment and has only a few years in the human world to deconstruct - so wyatt overlooks his white privilege in some of his monologues. He also has to be warmed up to the revolutionary ideas of his friends, and i almost come to count on his friends more than him - i guess that’s why the plot twists work so well
But overall I loved reading it and I think you will too!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Murder
criticalbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Violence, Abandonment, Deadnaming, Death, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder
uranaishi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and Bullying
Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Cursing, Drug use, Infertility, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Child abuse, Xenophobia, Genocide, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Miscarriage, and War
blairextraordinaire's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
relaxing
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Classism, Transphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
Minor: Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Deadnaming, and Sexual harassment
oliver_bug's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-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
3.0
The book is pretty average. It kept me hooked enough to finish the book, but not enough for me to want to read it again. I do want to read the second book just out of curiosity. Wyatt, the main character, is pretty bland. It feels like his only depth is being trans and being mean. I did however enjoy a lot of the side characters such as Emyr, briar, and jin. Emyr had a lot of depth to his character and was very interesting to read about. The world-building was okay at best, a lot of the lore was brought up a few times then almost never talked about again or explained. The plot point of fascism and racism was a little strange at times but I am definitely not the person to speak on that. The LGBTQ representation at some points seemed a little bit forced or over-explained, rather than something that's brought up once and flows naturally with the story, sometimes the story took a little too long explaining that these people are how they are. However, I did really enjoy the way that some of the relationships were written, like Solomons. Overall the book was okay and I would recommend reading it if you're looking for something like this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Deadnaming
Minor: Child abuse
librarianlayla's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
5.0
I adored this book so much!
If you're looking for a fantasy book with a trans protagonist, diverse characters, a slow burn romance peppered with sarcasm and wit - The Witch King is for you.
A take on the fae world as I haven't seen before and a truly twisting plot, I struggled to put this book down.
I cannot wait for the sequel!
If you're looking for a fantasy book with a trans protagonist, diverse characters, a slow burn romance peppered with sarcasm and wit - The Witch King is for you.
A take on the fae world as I haven't seen before and a truly twisting plot, I struggled to put this book down.
I cannot wait for the sequel!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
asworlds's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
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? Yes
3.25
So, I had high expectations that were not met unfortunately. There's a lot to say, but I dont want to take up your time. Some plot holes, some bad character development. If you're okay with tumblr shitpost style writing, then try it out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Child abuse
olliebolen's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, Drug use, Transphobia, and Death
Minor: Child abuse, Colonisation, and Violence
It's not as bad as it sounds, but if you really struggle with these themes, it's understandable to want to give this book a miss.mollivz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Police brutality, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
lgbtq+orcamagicka's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-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
1.5
So much potential, so much disappointment.
I would like to preface by saying that like the MC, I am also a queer trans teenager. Just as it’s important to read Own Voices books, it’s also equally important to read Own Voices reviews.
Starting off the the positives, the amount of diverse representation in the book is commendable. Diversity like this is rare in the fantasy genre, and I’m happy more YA fantasy books are making the effort to include a diverse array of characters in their story. This story includes trans, non-binary, queer relationships, polyamory, disability rep, and BIPOC characters.
However the representation is pretty much the ONLY good thing about this story, and even that isn’t saying much. If anything that’s my best guess why I’m constantly seeing so much hype for this story. Everything else that’s supposed to make a story good amounts to nothing in this book. The writing style and the inclusion of internet lingo and humor ripped directly off of Tumblr and Twitter had me cringing and rolling my eyes every chapter. Not only was it incredibly dated, cringey, and fell flat as humor, it broke my immersion with the *fantasy* world building. I never want to see the words “mcfuckin”, “yeet”, “vibin”, or “I’m just a gay little worm” (I’m NOT even exaggerating on that one) in a novel ever again or I’m going to bang my head into a wall. It turns out the author admitted in an interview he used TikTok as a means of “researching teen humor”. My hot tip for any YA authors, don’t do this.
The characterizations were incredibly weak. The side characters were under developed, had the exact same sense of humor and way of speaking, and were unremarkable. Most of the queer characters just felt like collections of stereotypes plucked off of Tumblr or Twitter, and that’s what their entire personalities and senses of humor revolved around. It seemed that the author was so caught up trying to write DIVERSE characters, he forgot to write diverse CHARACTERS. I’m shocked that this is an “own voices” story considering the poor writing for the queer characters and how they felt more like internet caricatures of queer people. I would honestly use this book as an example of how to NOT write queer characters. The world also felt very unfinished and inconsistent. On one hand it can be argued that this is the first installment of a duology and the characters and world will likely develop more in the sequel. But I’ve read so many series that were able to do so much more with less of a word count just within a first installment. And considering that this book is 422 PAGES long, there is very little excuse for having such bland writing.
The antagonists were some of the worst I’ve seen. The main villain is barely seen nor heard from throughout the story and he has some of the most basic, cliche villain dialogue that had me rolling my eyes. He was literally a rip off of the blue-eyed-blond-haired Neo Nazi villain trope you see in most action movies. And what kind of name is Derek for a fantasy villain??? The twist villain had me confused and beyond annoyed. And again, immediately started spouting off the same cliche lines and “maniacal laughter” you see in every other basic cheesy story once they were revealed to be an antagonist. Antagonists are usually some of my favorite characters in the story since they work to drive the plot and conflict, but these characters were so little seen and so bland that I couldn’t take them nor their threats seriously. Also how on earth was Derek still in position of the Guard despite being an obvious terrorist against the monarchy? That made no sense?
The story lends itself to be a “political allegory” with “radical” views as the author states, yet it completely lacks subtly. The author treats his audience like they’re incompetent and have to have their hand held throughout the entire story. The main character literally explains the parallels between the treatment of witches by the Fae and persecution of queer people in the human world, as if that wasn’t completely obvious. There are also many more spelled out parallels regarding police brutality, social justice movements, and defunding the police that felt very heavy handed. At the end of the book there was an out of the blue scene that basically mirrored the “dismantle the police” movement, which felt very out of place and not even realistic dialogue for one of the characters. And then at the VERY END of the book, after hundreds of pages of trying to sort out the heir situation, suddenly the characters pull a Game of Thrones season 7 and argue for Democracy?? Where was all this at for the first 420 pages?? Both these scenes felt so heavy handed and random and just felt like the author was trying to squeeze in as many social justice messages as he could without bothering to cohesively weave them into the story. Plenty of young adult stories do an excellent job of writing allegories for modern issues in a complex, nuanced way while allowing the readers to understand the issues. This book is not one of them.
I’m usually one to LOVE an “unlikable” character, but Wyatt is beyond one of the most annoying, edgy, and stagnant protagonists I’ve ever read in a story. I honestly felt nothing towards him, he could have dropped dead and I wouldn’t have cared. He’s not smart. He not kind. He’s not brave. He’s not good at magic and he doesn’t even TRY to learn despite constantly COMPLAINING how he can’t control his abilities and that he’s a “monster”. He doesn’t lead. He’s not anything. He contributes nothing to the story except through reacting to plot points thrown in to make the book less boring. And the constant self depreciating monologue and self wallowing pitty party worked against him and only made me agree with his negative self talk even more. I also felt uncomfortable with the way he talked about some of the female characters, especially Briar and all the sexual comments he made about her. And his off handed remark about the lesbian queens left a bad taste in my mouth. Can we please have trans male characters in books without writing them to be borderline misogynists?
The “romance” in between Wyatt and Emyr is some of the weakest I’ve seen. I usually love a good queer enemies-to-lovers story, but I felt absolutely nothing towards the two. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the “fated mates” trope or the fact that most of their romantic chemistry was from when they were children, but I couldn’t feel any excitement towards them. There was way more telling instead of showing when it came to their interactions, mainly consisting of just Wyatt internally moaning about how attractive yet annoying Emyr is anytime he’s on page.
I wanted to like this book so badly. Trans characters are a rarity in fiction, especially in fantasy. I was able to relate to many of Wyatt’s struggles with transphobia, being misgendered and deadnamed, and his dysphoria. But the lesson learned is that just because a story has representation, does not make it a GOOD story.
I would like to preface by saying that like the MC, I am also a queer trans teenager. Just as it’s important to read Own Voices books, it’s also equally important to read Own Voices reviews.
Starting off the the positives, the amount of diverse representation in the book is commendable. Diversity like this is rare in the fantasy genre, and I’m happy more YA fantasy books are making the effort to include a diverse array of characters in their story. This story includes trans, non-binary, queer relationships, polyamory, disability rep, and BIPOC characters.
However the representation is pretty much the ONLY good thing about this story, and even that isn’t saying much. If anything that’s my best guess why I’m constantly seeing so much hype for this story. Everything else that’s supposed to make a story good amounts to nothing in this book. The writing style and the inclusion of internet lingo and humor ripped directly off of Tumblr and Twitter had me cringing and rolling my eyes every chapter. Not only was it incredibly dated, cringey, and fell flat as humor, it broke my immersion with the *fantasy* world building. I never want to see the words “mcfuckin”, “yeet”, “vibin”, or “I’m just a gay little worm” (I’m NOT even exaggerating on that one) in a novel ever again or I’m going to bang my head into a wall. It turns out the author admitted in an interview he used TikTok as a means of “researching teen humor”. My hot tip for any YA authors, don’t do this.
The characterizations were incredibly weak. The side characters were under developed, had the exact same sense of humor and way of speaking, and were unremarkable. Most of the queer characters just felt like collections of stereotypes plucked off of Tumblr or Twitter, and that’s what their entire personalities and senses of humor revolved around. It seemed that the author was so caught up trying to write DIVERSE characters, he forgot to write diverse CHARACTERS. I’m shocked that this is an “own voices” story considering the poor writing for the queer characters and how they felt more like internet caricatures of queer people. I would honestly use this book as an example of how to NOT write queer characters. The world also felt very unfinished and inconsistent. On one hand it can be argued that this is the first installment of a duology and the characters and world will likely develop more in the sequel. But I’ve read so many series that were able to do so much more with less of a word count just within a first installment. And considering that this book is 422 PAGES long, there is very little excuse for having such bland writing.
The antagonists were some of the worst I’ve seen. The main villain is barely seen nor heard from throughout the story and he has some of the most basic, cliche villain dialogue that had me rolling my eyes. He was literally a rip off of the blue-eyed-blond-haired Neo Nazi villain trope you see in most action movies. And what kind of name is Derek for a fantasy villain??? The twist villain had me confused and beyond annoyed. And again, immediately started spouting off the same cliche lines and “maniacal laughter” you see in every other basic cheesy story once they were revealed to be an antagonist. Antagonists are usually some of my favorite characters in the story since they work to drive the plot and conflict, but these characters were so little seen and so bland that I couldn’t take them nor their threats seriously. Also how on earth was Derek still in position of the Guard despite being an obvious terrorist against the monarchy? That made no sense?
The story lends itself to be a “political allegory” with “radical” views as the author states, yet it completely lacks subtly. The author treats his audience like they’re incompetent and have to have their hand held throughout the entire story. The main character literally explains the parallels between the treatment of witches by the Fae and persecution of queer people in the human world, as if that wasn’t completely obvious. There are also many more spelled out parallels regarding police brutality, social justice movements, and defunding the police that felt very heavy handed. At the end of the book there was an out of the blue scene that basically mirrored the “dismantle the police” movement, which felt very out of place and not even realistic dialogue for one of the characters. And then at the VERY END of the book, after hundreds of pages of trying to sort out the heir situation, suddenly the characters pull a Game of Thrones season 7 and argue for Democracy?? Where was all this at for the first 420 pages?? Both these scenes felt so heavy handed and random and just felt like the author was trying to squeeze in as many social justice messages as he could without bothering to cohesively weave them into the story. Plenty of young adult stories do an excellent job of writing allegories for modern issues in a complex, nuanced way while allowing the readers to understand the issues. This book is not one of them.
I’m usually one to LOVE an “unlikable” character, but Wyatt is beyond one of the most annoying, edgy, and stagnant protagonists I’ve ever read in a story. I honestly felt nothing towards him, he could have dropped dead and I wouldn’t have cared. He’s not smart. He not kind. He’s not brave. He’s not good at magic and he doesn’t even TRY to learn despite constantly COMPLAINING how he can’t control his abilities and that he’s a “monster”. He doesn’t lead. He’s not anything. He contributes nothing to the story except through reacting to plot points thrown in to make the book less boring. And the constant self depreciating monologue and self wallowing pitty party worked against him and only made me agree with his negative self talk even more. I also felt uncomfortable with the way he talked about some of the female characters, especially Briar and all the sexual comments he made about her. And his off handed remark about the lesbian queens left a bad taste in my mouth. Can we please have trans male characters in books without writing them to be borderline misogynists?
The “romance” in between Wyatt and Emyr is some of the weakest I’ve seen. I usually love a good queer enemies-to-lovers story, but I felt absolutely nothing towards the two. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the “fated mates” trope or the fact that most of their romantic chemistry was from when they were children, but I couldn’t feel any excitement towards them. There was way more telling instead of showing when it came to their interactions, mainly consisting of just Wyatt internally moaning about how attractive yet annoying Emyr is anytime he’s on page.
I wanted to like this book so badly. Trans characters are a rarity in fiction, especially in fantasy. I was able to relate to many of Wyatt’s struggles with transphobia, being misgendered and deadnamed, and his dysphoria. But the lesson learned is that just because a story has representation, does not make it a GOOD story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, and Death of parent
Moderate: Gore, Child abuse, and Pregnancy
Minor: Grief, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Deadnaming