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taelights's review against another edition
The writing is bad and repetitive. The world building is bad and hard to understand. Plus both main characters are both so annoying to me.
Also like i don't have issues with witches and/or vampires in general becaus I think there are respectful ways to write those types of creatures. But then there are ways to write those creatures that play into antisemitism. Personally I thought this book kind of protrayed vampires, and in a way witches, with antisemitic / blood libel themes which I personally foubd uncomfortable and yucky.
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Antisemitism
carolibrary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Torture
chymerra's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Torture
Minor: Vomit and Death of parent
lgbriteaaa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Minor: Child abuse, Violence, and Death of parent
elizajaquays's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child abuse and Physical abuse
Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia
betweentheshelves's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
On the other side, Kaye has been training as a Flame witch, to kill vampires. When the two collide on the night of Ava’s escape, Kaye follows Ava, planning on eventually turning her in. But the forest has other plans, and everything they thought they knew drastically changes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy of The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores to review! Fairy tale retellings are usually a good time, so I was excited to jump into this book. Especially because the twist in this (a Rapunzel retelling with witches and vampires) sounded intriguing! For the most part, I wasn’t disappointed.
My favorite thing about this was the way that Flores played with the Rapunzel story. She added some interesting twists and turns, and the characters are pretty great. For me, they were what made the story, especially the chemistry between Ava and Kaye. We’re here for a friends turned enemies turned lovers romance, honestly.
However, I did wish some of the world building would have been made more clear throughout the book. We get bits and pieces at the beginning, but never really the whole story, making some of the plot unclear. The plot itself also moves a bit too slowly at the beginning, meaning that a lot of the action is packed into the end, adding to some of the clarity issues.
Despite that, this is a quick read, and if you enjoy fairy tale retellings, you might get something out of this one! Especially if you’re just looking for something quick and easy to enjoy.
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Torture
Minor: Child death, Vomit, and Murder
diannasbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
I was very excited to receive this book. Sapphic? Yes please! Rapunzel retelling! Yes! Witches, and vampires? It all sounded amazing. However this read as an upper middle grade rather than a YA for me. Which there isn’t anything wrong with that. I read it fairly fast. I really like the world that Francesca created. The romance was adorable, and I loved the world building as well. Overall it’s a quick and easy fantasy read!
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and War
Minor: Vomit
bookstarbri's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Anyway, literally from chapter one, I was really into it. There was so much suspense in that first chapter and it just really got me excited to read the rest of this book. And overall, I liked so much about it. One of my favorite things was the vampire and witch lore in this. It was all so well thought out and in depth. Though there was info-dumping, I thought it was really interesting so I didn't mind it! I LOVEEEEE having a vampire story where the vampire isn't all sad about being a vampire all the time. Like that's fine sometimes, but this was a nice change of pace in that regard.
The characters were cool too, mostly. Ava was amazing, would die for her. She's such a great character through and through and was definitely my favorite of the book. Kaye got on my nerves a lot haha. For the first third of the book, she had me wanting to scream. It made sense at times, but then other times...Anyway, it took me awhile to warm up to her. As far as side characters go, there weren't that many which was interesting. The MCs had a past friend, Tristan. I won't go into too much detail about him, but I will say I was surprised at the direction the author chose for him. I don't think I loved the direction, but it was a surprise, to say the least lol.
There were a lot of antagonists in this book. More antagonists than side characters interestingly enough. That's not a bad thing, but I was surprised at just how many there were and how they all connected. This book had a lot of action and it did a lot of moving around and I appreciated that it was all pretty much very easy to follow. Of course, I read an ARC of this book so I don't know if the finished copy will have a map, but I think it definitely needs one because then it'll be even easier to kind of follow everything, but overall the author did a good job with that especially for how much was going on!
Now for why I didn't give it 5 stars. There were a lot of points in this book (mostly in the first half) where the author is quite repetitive in information we're given. Like at one point, Ava thinks something and then it's reiterated again a few paragraphs later. I'm being lenient on this since it's an ARC, but it occurred a lot. I also felt like one of the antagonists didn't feel as grandiose as she should have? Like she was very much a higher player so to speak than the other antagonists and she just didn't feel like it? She didn't have that weighty presence that I would've liked. Finally, I wish the book would've had more surprising plot twists. There was really only one I didn't see coming. This author writes action well so I think pairing that with some really shocking plot twists would've been fun, but we just didn't get too many of those.
Overall, this was fun! It definitely isn't this huge, sweeping romance so if that's what you're looking for, be prepared for that. However, the romance we do get is sweet enough and it is an enemies-to-lovers trope (I know publishers like throwing around enemies-to-lovers a lot now, but this one is actually good)! If there happens to be a sequel (there's no cliffhanger, but the ending definitely leaves room for a sequel), I would absolutely read it!
Thanks so much to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Vomit