Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - El Niño Brujo

This was a real gem of a book! I love how the protagonist, Aster, was having struggles with fitting into cultural expectations for his gender and magical culture, because there are such obvious connections to people in our world who also don’t quite fit gendered expectations. I also liked that he befriended a non-magical girl who immediately knew the rules were not serving him and that he should help his male relatives by using witchcraft. She’s also breaking gendered expectations of what it means to be a girl in the non-magic world and mentioned having dads a couple times, which was a nice way to be even more inclusive in a simple way because that’s the dream, just having a character give the basic details about their family and it’s instantly known and no big deal.

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.0

This was so good! Very wholesome.

The Witch Boy follows Aster, a young boy from a family of magical people. The men are all shapeshifters while the women are all witches. Aster has never felt attached to being a shapeshifter and he'd much rather learn witchery. When his boy cousins start disappearing, Aster might be the only one capable of saving them.

I really enjoyed Aster's character. He must be protected at all costs. His story really shows gender exclusive activities are really harmful. I'm so glad he found a friend in Charlie! She was the best and always so supportive of him.

I enjoyed this world and I'm really curious to see how things will change for Aster in the sequel. I hope we also get to see more of the world. I wonder if there will be any trans or nonbinary characters. That was really the only thing this was missing.

Rep: biracial male MC, Black female side character with a broken leg and two dads, side characters with two moms, multiple BIPOC characters (specific ethnicity was not indicated), fat white female side characters.

CWs: Bullying, body horror, sexism. Moderate: violence, blood, animal death, injury/injury detail. Minor: gaslighting.

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malupastafrola's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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