A review by chippyreads
Witch King by Martha Wells

Did not finish book. Stopped at 72%.

adventurous mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

 

Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. 

You‘d have thought I’d love this book given the author, genre, queer norm world with a character driven story, but I didn’t. I technically DNFd this book with only 40 pages to go. 

The positives

Most of this book happens around some body of water. There's ocean crossings, river travel, flooded buildings, and even diving for treasure. YAY! I love water. That was great, awesome. 

The world is queer norm, The MCs bestie is in a sapphic marriage. No one bats an eye when the MC is possessing a female body and uses he/him pronouns (he also uses male bodies throughout the book). 

The bad

I feel like I was dropped into the middle of a sequel. I struggled to follow along and had no idea where they were half the time. It’s told via two timelines, so some relationships are new in one timeline and established in others. Sometimes I’d forget which time line we were in and wonder why characters were acting certain ways. I dissociated so much while reading this book that once I got towards the end I had to stop reading with 40 pages to go. I didn’t care how it ended and doubt I ever will.