annicaseal 's review for:

The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields

2.5

---

2.5

This was alright. I enjoyed the romance dynamic — though, I am admittedly biased to sapphic romances when one half is particularly prickly. I did struggle with Marigold as the main character at times though, and though this was marketed as “cosy fantasy” I’m not sure I would classify it as such? To me I kinda feel like these types of “cosy fantasies” should focus more on the sort of “process” of the magic and work that feature in them, and this book doesn’t really do that. I won’t bang on too much about that, though — this certainly isn’t the first book to be mismarketed for the sake of being “on trend”, and it won’t be the last.

All that said, one thing that really bugged me about this book was its depiction of a queernormative world. Because everything in the story around LGB the characters presents this idea that queer relationships are generally accepted, that wasn’t really reflected in the rest of the world around them? Like all the social structures are still really heteropatriarchal, and I found it really dissonant with the whole “oh, but LGB folks are accepted!” presentation.

And yeah, I say “LGB”, because I don’t recall any trans characters in the story, and ho dang was this book amatonormative. I get the whole “soulmates” and “feeling of incompleteness without a romantic relationship” is rife within fiction, particular fiction that features romance — but it just felt so hammered in here to the point where it was making me roll my eyes at times. The more I think on that, particularly in reflection to the queernormative world this book had, the more I’m disappointed by it.

Also the ending felt super rushed and haphazard and I’d say this book kinda leant a bit more on the melodrama than I prefer at times.

So yah.