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A review by mackle13
A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez
3.0
Several reviews describe this book as quirky, and I'm certainly not going to argue there. It plays with tropes to the level of parody - a witch cursed with beauty (and a hunger for flesh), a demon in the body of a duck, a thoughtful troll, a wistful broom, and a true White Knight.
It starts out being a sort of revenge story, but it's really more a coming-of-age/romance kind of book. And there's definitely more in the way of romance than I was expecting. Not that I mind, as it's the "story book" kind of romance that I like (as opposed to the euphemistic kind), I just wasn't really prepared for it.
I think my overall verdict is "cute". I liked the characters in a "hey, they're pretty cool/funny" kinda way, but never really connected with them. Part of this is the narration, I think, which, while written in first person, is also rather distant.
That said, there was a fair bit of wry, slightly twisted humor, which I certainly enjoyed. I never laughed out loud, or anything, but I did find myself smirking from time to time.
As to the quest, I would've liked for their to be more at stake. The witch is nigh immortal - ageless and also very hard to kill. I never really felt like there was any real peril, until the end, and even then it was sort of short lived.
The focus, to me, definitely seemed to be on the romance and the coming-of-age stuff. The quest is sort of a vessel for that more than anything.
So, yeah, cute, quirky, darkly wry, and mostly sweet with a side dish of wistful longing.
It starts out being a sort of revenge story, but it's really more a coming-of-age/romance kind of book. And there's definitely more in the way of romance than I was expecting. Not that I mind, as it's the "story book" kind of romance that I like (as opposed to the euphemistic kind), I just wasn't really prepared for it.
I think my overall verdict is "cute". I liked the characters in a "hey, they're pretty cool/funny" kinda way, but never really connected with them. Part of this is the narration, I think, which, while written in first person, is also rather distant.
That said, there was a fair bit of wry, slightly twisted humor, which I certainly enjoyed. I never laughed out loud, or anything, but I did find myself smirking from time to time.
As to the quest, I would've liked for their to be more at stake. The witch is nigh immortal - ageless and also very hard to kill. I never really felt like there was any real peril, until the end, and even then it was sort of short lived.
The focus, to me, definitely seemed to be on the romance and the coming-of-age stuff. The quest is sort of a vessel for that more than anything.
So, yeah, cute, quirky, darkly wry, and mostly sweet with a side dish of wistful longing.