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A review by stasiareading
The Orphan Witch by Paige Crutcher
2.0
This book was a flop for me. I just could not get into it, I felt it dragged on and I just never felt compelled to pick it up. I would probably have DNF’d it except it was a NetGalley copy and I wanted to be able to give a full review. Many of the ideas and concepts in this book were interesting but fell flat in execution.
The book begins with Persephone an lonely young woman, every time she looks someone in the eye they quickly go mad/try to kill themselves. Seems like an interesting premise.
After causing another person to lose themselves under her gaze Persephone decides to start over and visit one of her few friends, Hyacinth, who she mainly knows via email, who has been begging her to visit her on Wile Isle where she lives. Persephone goes and we learn she is a witch, one of a family of cursed witches. She starts to learn of her powers, about breaking the curse and her part in it from Hyacinth and her older sister Moira. At this point the whole making eye contact and people going crazy element seems to be just completely abandoned. It's briefly explained as part of her being a untrained witch but after that never really comes up again. Why create that element of her "magic" to just abandon it, she just as easily could have been a lonely orphan without the curse who never really made friends and therefore moves around a lot.
In the meantime Persephone also finds out she is a walker between worlds and often ends up walking between them while on the island, mainly to the Library of the Lost, a living library, guarded by its captive Dorian. The library is probably my favorite part of the book, its a cool idea/place and has an interesting role in the story and I enjoyed the fact that it was hard to decide if the library was good or bad. In the end I'm still not quite sure on it. I found the romance between Dorian and Persephone lacking, I did not feel it, part of this is I think Dorian could have used more fleshing out, I wanted more of his story, the bits we got were interesting but not enough and not enough between the two of them of build the romance/feelings they develop IMO.
As things unfold and Persephone learns more about her power and past, she also learns more about the island and its other residents. Most importantly, their “enemy” and cousin witches, Ariel and Ellison Way. These two are also cursed witches from another branch of the family. We have a few unfriendly run ins with them and there is clearly a lot of history between all the women. As Persephone learns more about the past with the help of the Library, she learns things are not all as they appear. This leads her to the home of the Way sisters where she joins with them, at this point I had trouble following along with the why behind all of this. Eventually in the end they must all come together to end the curse that haunts their family.
I liked that the ending wasn't perfect, there was a lot in the book about magic and its cost. In many books at the end a lot of times characters get out of paying the cost of magic, Persephone does not, though she still gets a fairly happy ending.
Overall this book was just not for me, the whole time I felt I was slogging through it, I couldn't get into it or connect with it. The story had moment of interest but mainly it dragged on, didn't always make sense and left me wanting more.
If you enjoy found family, strong sense of place and witches you may enjoy this book, but I find myself unable to recommend it.
Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Copy
The book begins with Persephone an lonely young woman, every time she looks someone in the eye they quickly go mad/try to kill themselves. Seems like an interesting premise.
After causing another person to lose themselves under her gaze Persephone decides to start over and visit one of her few friends, Hyacinth, who she mainly knows via email, who has been begging her to visit her on Wile Isle where she lives. Persephone goes and we learn she is a witch, one of a family of cursed witches. She starts to learn of her powers, about breaking the curse and her part in it from Hyacinth and her older sister Moira. At this point the whole making eye contact and people going crazy element seems to be just completely abandoned. It's briefly explained as part of her being a untrained witch but after that never really comes up again. Why create that element of her "magic" to just abandon it, she just as easily could have been a lonely orphan without the curse who never really made friends and therefore moves around a lot.
In the meantime Persephone also finds out she is a walker between worlds and often ends up walking between them while on the island, mainly to the Library of the Lost, a living library, guarded by its captive Dorian. The library is probably my favorite part of the book, its a cool idea/place and has an interesting role in the story and I enjoyed the fact that it was hard to decide if the library was good or bad. In the end I'm still not quite sure on it. I found the romance between Dorian and Persephone lacking, I did not feel it, part of this is I think Dorian could have used more fleshing out, I wanted more of his story, the bits we got were interesting but not enough and not enough between the two of them of build the romance/feelings they develop IMO.
As things unfold and Persephone learns more about her power and past, she also learns more about the island and its other residents. Most importantly, their “enemy” and cousin witches, Ariel and Ellison Way. These two are also cursed witches from another branch of the family. We have a few unfriendly run ins with them and there is clearly a lot of history between all the women. As Persephone learns more about the past with the help of the Library, she learns things are not all as they appear. This leads her to the home of the Way sisters where she joins with them, at this point I had trouble following along with the why behind all of this. Eventually in the end they must all come together to end the curse that haunts their family.
I liked that the ending wasn't perfect, there was a lot in the book about magic and its cost. In many books at the end a lot of times characters get out of paying the cost of magic, Persephone does not, though she still gets a fairly happy ending.
Overall this book was just not for me, the whole time I felt I was slogging through it, I couldn't get into it or connect with it. The story had moment of interest but mainly it dragged on, didn't always make sense and left me wanting more.
If you enjoy found family, strong sense of place and witches you may enjoy this book, but I find myself unable to recommend it.
Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Copy