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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Felt choppy in the pacing mostly, even for middle grade. Each obstacle was no more than three pages and solved almost instantly. I’d rather she had chosen a couple obstacles than ten and fleshed them out. I did appreciate the darker stories in the book though. Also, MC is pretty useless until the end when he suddenly develops exactly what they need, which bugged me
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Curse of the Night Witch was one of my most anticipated books for this year. I’m a complete sucker for a middle-grade fantasy, and if anything so much as mentions witches then I’m almost definitely going to add it to my TBR. So you can probably guess that I was pretty pumped to get the chance to read this one.
At its heart, this is really an adventure story with a nice dose of fairy tale and myths thrown in. I’m not usually one for fairy tales, but I do enjoy a good myth. (Yeah, I’m not sure how that works either). But the stories in here are short and woven into the adventure of our three characters. This is a fast-paced journey, and those tales add a new depth to the story without slowing it down. I really appreciated how well this was done, and how the stories tied into what the characters were doing or where they were without giving too much away.
I enjoyed the characters as well, but I can’t ignore the fact they feel very like Harry, Hermione and Ron. Not every middle-grade fantasy is HP and this is definitely quite different, but there were a couple of moments that felt a little too similar for me. This is only the first book in this series, so I really hope that the characters will grow more in the next book and that they’ll take a little bit of a different route.
All in all, I think this would be great for fans of Rick Riordan or Chris Colfer. If you’re looking for a quick, fun adventure read then this is definitely worth picking up.
Curse of the Night Witch was one of my most anticipated books for this year. I’m a complete sucker for a middle-grade fantasy, and if anything so much as mentions witches then I’m almost definitely going to add it to my TBR. So you can probably guess that I was pretty pumped to get the chance to read this one.
At its heart, this is really an adventure story with a nice dose of fairy tale and myths thrown in. I’m not usually one for fairy tales, but I do enjoy a good myth. (Yeah, I’m not sure how that works either). But the stories in here are short and woven into the adventure of our three characters. This is a fast-paced journey, and those tales add a new depth to the story without slowing it down. I really appreciated how well this was done, and how the stories tied into what the characters were doing or where they were without giving too much away.
I enjoyed the characters as well, but I can’t ignore the fact they feel very like Harry, Hermione and Ron. Not every middle-grade fantasy is HP and this is definitely quite different, but there were a couple of moments that felt a little too similar for me. This is only the first book in this series, so I really hope that the characters will grow more in the next book and that they’ll take a little bit of a different route.
All in all, I think this would be great for fans of Rick Riordan or Chris Colfer. If you’re looking for a quick, fun adventure read then this is definitely worth picking up.
I requested and received an e-ARC of this book from Alex Aster and Sourcebooks Young Readers through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
I cannot wait for book two!!! I need to know what happens next to the characters in this novel. I think kids and adults will really enjoy reading this story about Emblem Island. It is a really cool premise to be born with the ability that shapes your future visible to everyone. I love that in between each chapter there was a myth from the Island of Emblem.
I cannot wait for book two!!! I need to know what happens next to the characters in this novel. I think kids and adults will really enjoy reading this story about Emblem Island. It is a really cool premise to be born with the ability that shapes your future visible to everyone. I love that in between each chapter there was a myth from the Island of Emblem.
so excited to finally get a chance to read this book!
i very much enjoyed the plot and the characters journey throughout this book, and loved how unique this idea was! i BREEZED through this book way faster than i thought i would, but enjoyed every second of it! can't wait to get my hands on the 2nd book!
would recommend this to anyone who's looking for a fast-paced fantasy book, but keep in mind it is recommended for ages 8-14, so it will not include some topics that other adult fantasy novels would! please keep it in mind:)
this is a great debut book for aster to start off with, i just know that there can be improvements and i'm waiting to see what comes out in the future!
i very much enjoyed the plot and the characters journey throughout this book, and loved how unique this idea was! i BREEZED through this book way faster than i thought i would, but enjoyed every second of it! can't wait to get my hands on the 2nd book!
would recommend this to anyone who's looking for a fast-paced fantasy book, but keep in mind it is recommended for ages 8-14, so it will not include some topics that other adult fantasy novels would! please keep it in mind:)
this is a great debut book for aster to start off with, i just know that there can be improvements and i'm waiting to see what comes out in the future!
yup. have definitely outgrown middle grade books
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am definitely not the target audience for this book but I've enjoyed quite a few middle grade aimed books before and I saw the author's tiktok, so having lived my dream for me I decided to buy this book almost immediately.
Overall I can definitely see preteens loving this book, it definitely gave me Percy Jackson vibes the whole way through and honestly with the right advertising it could be for a new generation but for me there was a mix of stuff I liked and stuff I didn't.
The author is talented and has a lot of potential but some of my issues lay in the individual pacing of chapters and story beats that seemed to have a lot of build up but end pretty quickly and a little underwhelming. The main character, Tor, was ok but for most of the book I didn't particularly like him, which is obviously for character growth, but I'm not sure if it came across that way. Some scenes felt like they were thrown in for emotional depth too but they also resolved fairly quickly so it never quite felt earned in those moments.
But I did like other things. I liked Melda and Engle, Tor's travel buddies, who really brightened the scenes for me and I was more invested in, I liked the concept of the story and the world, the ending was pretty good and I finished it actually wanting to read the next one.
For me this book is a mixed bag of things I did and didn't like but I can see lots of people really loving it and I'm probably going to pick up the next one too.
Overall I can definitely see preteens loving this book, it definitely gave me Percy Jackson vibes the whole way through and honestly with the right advertising it could be for a new generation but for me there was a mix of stuff I liked and stuff I didn't.
The author is talented and has a lot of potential but some of my issues lay in the individual pacing of chapters and story beats that seemed to have a lot of build up but end pretty quickly and a little underwhelming. The main character, Tor, was ok but for most of the book I didn't particularly like him, which is obviously for character growth, but I'm not sure if it came across that way. Some scenes felt like they were thrown in for emotional depth too but they also resolved fairly quickly so it never quite felt earned in those moments.
But I did like other things. I liked Melda and Engle, Tor's travel buddies, who really brightened the scenes for me and I was more invested in, I liked the concept of the story and the world, the ending was pretty good and I finished it actually wanting to read the next one.
For me this book is a mixed bag of things I did and didn't like but I can see lots of people really loving it and I'm probably going to pick up the next one too.