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A review by lorny
Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
4.0
The best adjective I can come up with to describe Once a Witch would have to be adventurous. Tamsin travels through time more than once, she commutes to and from boarding school, and between all that traveling, she has to put up with her crazy family and solve a mystery. Phew! Once a Witch is very busy, but Carolyn MacCullough manages to write in a way that makes the multitude of characters and various plotlines manageable.
My favorite aspect of the book would have to be Tamsin. She’s a smart aleck, she’s got a cynical outlook on life, and she does whatever the heck she wants. Her personality made reading her story quite entertaining, and definitely made her feel more realistic. Because Tamsin was raised as an outsider, her moodiness and constant sarcasm really make a lot of sense.
Another part of Once a Witch that I liked was its fantasy feel. Because of Tamsin’s big family and the time traveling, the book just felt magical! It didn’t have that feeling of still being grounded in the real world, which I enjoyed! Carolyn MacCullough’s writing contributed to the fairy-tale quality of Once a Witch; her writing wasn’t super hip (no excessive cursing, not too much slang), so it felt distant from today’s world. This sounds like an insult, but it isn’t! I enjoyed MacCullough’s style of writing; it was a nice change of pace.
Once a Witch was an amazing ride, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It reminded me a little bit of Nikki Christina Hoffman’s A Fistful of Sky (the talented family and a talent-less protagonist), which was great, since I had really enjoyed that book as well. I’d recommend Once a Witch to fantasy lovers, and people who like to read about crazy families and their secrets.
My favorite aspect of the book would have to be Tamsin. She’s a smart aleck, she’s got a cynical outlook on life, and she does whatever the heck she wants. Her personality made reading her story quite entertaining, and definitely made her feel more realistic. Because Tamsin was raised as an outsider, her moodiness and constant sarcasm really make a lot of sense.
Another part of Once a Witch that I liked was its fantasy feel. Because of Tamsin’s big family and the time traveling, the book just felt magical! It didn’t have that feeling of still being grounded in the real world, which I enjoyed! Carolyn MacCullough’s writing contributed to the fairy-tale quality of Once a Witch; her writing wasn’t super hip (no excessive cursing, not too much slang), so it felt distant from today’s world. This sounds like an insult, but it isn’t! I enjoyed MacCullough’s style of writing; it was a nice change of pace.
Once a Witch was an amazing ride, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It reminded me a little bit of Nikki Christina Hoffman’s A Fistful of Sky (the talented family and a talent-less protagonist), which was great, since I had really enjoyed that book as well. I’d recommend Once a Witch to fantasy lovers, and people who like to read about crazy families and their secrets.