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A review by the_ritz_cracker
The Herbwitch's Apprentice by Ireen Chau
4.0
Honestly....this book transports me back to my childhood and literally gives all the warm fuzzy feelings I felt when I stayed up all night reading a book.
With that said, The Herbwitch's Apprentice tells a tale of a girl named Amarante who discovers that she's half-witch in a kingdom that has banished witches all together. This story was an amazing coming-of-age story that I felt like dabbled in all of the genres a bit - adventure, romance, and so lovely *magical* moments as well. I think the author did an AMAZING job tackling complicated family dynamics and truly weaving the pain and anguish that many of the characters have felt within their familial relationships. I feel like this definitely added a layer of complexity to the story and the made the narrative so much more satisfactory and ~good feelings-y~ in the end.
Also - I follow the author on instagram and she very beautifully broke down the color analysis that she did throughout the book for Amarante's outfits. And...can I just saw that I truly loved and appreciated all of the drawings and imagery and colors that the author used throughout the book. Again, I felt like it only added to the story and allowed me visual how the story went, successfully adding to the author's storytelling.
My one and only reason why this book was not a five star for me was because...I just felt that it lacked a set of diverse characters. I know that it isn't a super big thing especially because I felt that author make up for it a bit in the 2nd book, I do wish that I were reading stories and tales of folx who were not all...white appearing. Regardless, I don't think that this factor took away from the amazing story that the author wrote, but just a small little aside.
Overall, this was an amazing book and truly was a great way to start the series off. I can't wait for the upcoming books in this series!
With that said, The Herbwitch's Apprentice tells a tale of a girl named Amarante who discovers that she's half-witch in a kingdom that has banished witches all together. This story was an amazing coming-of-age story that I felt like dabbled in all of the genres a bit - adventure, romance, and so lovely *magical* moments as well. I think the author did an AMAZING job tackling complicated family dynamics and truly weaving the pain and anguish that many of the characters have felt within their familial relationships. I feel like this definitely added a layer of complexity to the story and the made the narrative so much more satisfactory and ~good feelings-y~ in the end.
Also - I follow the author on instagram and she very beautifully broke down the color analysis that she did throughout the book for Amarante's outfits. And...can I just saw that I truly loved and appreciated all of the drawings and imagery and colors that the author used throughout the book. Again, I felt like it only added to the story and allowed me visual how the story went, successfully adding to the author's storytelling.
My one and only reason why this book was not a five star for me was because...I just felt that it lacked a set of diverse characters. I know that it isn't a super big thing especially because I felt that author make up for it a bit in the 2nd book, I do wish that I were reading stories and tales of folx who were not all...white appearing. Regardless, I don't think that this factor took away from the amazing story that the author wrote, but just a small little aside.
Overall, this was an amazing book and truly was a great way to start the series off. I can't wait for the upcoming books in this series!