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A review by paradoxically
Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
3.0
Not going to lie, books with a premise like this one where the main character is some sort of down trodden, talentless person compared to everyone else are really up my alley. Then couple that with magical powers, finding out that she's really not all that ordinary after all--well. I'm not sure if it's because of my love for (well done) cliches or what-have-you, but there you go. That said, I was pretty on the fence about Once a Witch.
The main character, Tamsin, is envious of her sister and longs to get away from her family and be someone 'normal' because she thinks she doesn't have any powers. She pities herself (a lot) and her complaining leaves a lot to be desired, but it's all understandable. Commence my expecting great amounts of character development because at the moment she makes me want to roll my eyes a lot. Did I get great amounts of character development? Eh. She gets better at the end, but I suspect that's mainly due to the fact that she's shown to and the fact that there's a lot more stuff going on (and so she doesn't get so bogged down in her self pity).
Then you have Gabriel, who has very convenient timing in coming back after being gone for years. Not only convenient timing, but the convenient ability of finding things just as Tamsin needs something found. It's a a little--well, 'cheesey' is not quite the word, but something similar to it. Granted, he doesn't insta-find the item, but it's a little too neat. You wonder why he seems to like Tamsin as much as he does when he hasn't seen her for years and the fact that she hasn't even been writing him for just as long. He also has another useful (and convenient) power of time travel. You can probably figure out my feelings about him, haha.
The plot speeds by quickly, which isn't bad, but I'd have liked a little more depth to the world and the other characters. It's not a great book. It's not a terrible book. It was almost painfully mediocre, in fact. 3 stars.
The main character, Tamsin, is envious of her sister and longs to get away from her family and be someone 'normal' because she thinks she doesn't have any powers. She pities herself (a lot) and her complaining leaves a lot to be desired, but it's all understandable. Commence my expecting great amounts of character development because at the moment she makes me want to roll my eyes a lot. Did I get great amounts of character development? Eh. She gets better at the end, but I suspect that's mainly due to the fact that she's shown to
Spoiler
to have great magical talentThen you have Gabriel, who has very convenient timing in coming back after being gone for years. Not only convenient timing, but the convenient ability of finding things just as Tamsin needs something found. It's a a little--well, 'cheesey' is not quite the word, but something similar to it. Granted, he doesn't insta-find the item, but it's a little too neat. You wonder why he seems to like Tamsin as much as he does when he hasn't seen her for years and the fact that she hasn't even been writing him for just as long. He also has another useful (and convenient) power of time travel. You can probably figure out my feelings about him, haha.
The plot speeds by quickly, which isn't bad, but I'd have liked a little more depth to the world and the other characters. It's not a great book. It's not a terrible book. It was almost painfully mediocre, in fact. 3 stars.