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A review by leeleeski
The Hatak Witches by Devon A. Mihesuah
4.0
This was a great book. Read like one of the better X-Files episodes. Some things held it back from being a five star:
There was a lot of unexpected and food and body shaming in the book. Lots of judgement of what people should and shouldn't be eating. It makes sense that the author would focus on this given her prior written. However, it added little to the story. There is an entirely scene body shaming a person shopping at Walmart just because they exist in public in a fat body. It was gross and fatphobic.
The pacing feels off. The supernatural elements of the story don't take off until 200 pages in. Then there's a rush to conclude the story. If there was 100 more pages to build to the final battle, it would feel better. As a result of the rush, some of the secondary plots felt abandoned, like the abduction story. There could have been something more interesting there but instead it was hastily abandoned and the women were limited to being silent victims.
There was a lot of unexpected and food and body shaming in the book. Lots of judgement of what people should and shouldn't be eating. It makes sense that the author would focus on this given her prior written. However, it added little to the story. There is an entirely scene body shaming a person shopping at Walmart just because they exist in public in a fat body. It was gross and fatphobic.
The pacing feels off. The supernatural elements of the story don't take off until 200 pages in. Then there's a rush to conclude the story. If there was 100 more pages to build to the final battle, it would feel better. As a result of the rush, some of the secondary plots felt abandoned, like the abduction story. There could have been something more interesting there but instead it was hastily abandoned and the women were limited to being silent victims.