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A review by colossal
Witches of Ash and Ruin by E. Latimer
1.0
Dayna Walsh is an Irish teenager with a lot going on. She's a witch, a real one that can do spells, and is part of a local coven. She's also recently been outed as bisexual to her entire school and family. On top of all that, her father is an evangelical semi-Christian cult leader whose strict rules and odd behavior has Dayna fleeing every chance she can get.
Then another witch is murdered in a disturbingly ritualistic way, Dayna's long-lost mother returns, another coven arrives in town which includes an ancient witch that was once kicked out of Dayna's coven and a much younger witch that Dayna is attracted to. Meiner King is the girl that Dayna is attracted to, and after some initial antipathy, the attraction is returned, but Meiner has nearly as much going on as Dayna does.
*breathe*
Ok, I've barely scratched the surface here. There's also heaps of stuff about witchcraft and celtic gods, serial-killing witch-slayers and plots within plots of the covens.
Sounds great right?
Nope. This fails at almost every level.
Quite clearly this is kitchen-sink level overstuffed, and because it's so overstuffed, there's simply no room to do things like show believable evidence that the main characters have mental health issues. Dayna for instance has OCD, but until she actually says that, the reader would have no idea from her behavior. There's no room here to "show", so we resort to "tell" at nearly every turn.
Plot points are so overly telegraphed that it's like the author is beating you around the head with them. For instance, at one point Dayna "levels up" to become a full witch and for most of a chapter gets constantly warned about not overusing the temporary extra magic she receives in the process. Guess what happens soon after? Go on ... you'll never guess! (Ok, maybe you will ...)
Interpersonal relationships between anyone but the main characters show signs of deep history, but isn't given room to emerge organically and instead appears with those characters taking actions that appear out of nowhere and are justified only as they do it. There's a character besides Dayna that has a thing for Meiner, and when she acts on it, it comes completely out of the blue despite Meiner having clearly known about it beforehand.
And finally, a lot of YA books get cliffhangers, but there aren't very many of them where the "good guys" get the snot kicked out of them, barely survive, and have the bad guys get everything they wanted.
This was a delete from eReader with prejudice. Terrible book and a rare one star from me.
Then another witch is murdered in a disturbingly ritualistic way, Dayna's long-lost mother returns, another coven arrives in town which includes an ancient witch that was once kicked out of Dayna's coven and a much younger witch that Dayna is attracted to. Meiner King is the girl that Dayna is attracted to, and after some initial antipathy, the attraction is returned, but Meiner has nearly as much going on as Dayna does.
*breathe*
Ok, I've barely scratched the surface here. There's also heaps of stuff about witchcraft and celtic gods, serial-killing witch-slayers and plots within plots of the covens.
Sounds great right?
Nope. This fails at almost every level.
Quite clearly this is kitchen-sink level overstuffed, and because it's so overstuffed, there's simply no room to do things like show believable evidence that the main characters have mental health issues. Dayna for instance has OCD, but until she actually says that, the reader would have no idea from her behavior. There's no room here to "show", so we resort to "tell" at nearly every turn.
Plot points are so overly telegraphed that it's like the author is beating you around the head with them. For instance, at one point Dayna "levels up" to become a full witch and for most of a chapter gets constantly warned about not overusing the temporary extra magic she receives in the process. Guess what happens soon after? Go on ... you'll never guess! (Ok, maybe you will ...)
Interpersonal relationships between anyone but the main characters show signs of deep history, but isn't given room to emerge organically and instead appears with those characters taking actions that appear out of nowhere and are justified only as they do it. There's a character besides Dayna that has a thing for Meiner, and when she acts on it, it comes completely out of the blue despite Meiner having clearly known about it beforehand.
And finally, a lot of YA books get cliffhangers, but there aren't very many of them where the "good guys" get the snot kicked out of them, barely survive, and have the bad guys get everything they wanted.
This was a delete from eReader with prejudice. Terrible book and a rare one star from me.