A review by bisexualwentworth
The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon

adventurous mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

My feelings about this book are definitely complicated.

There were a lot of things that I liked. The dialogue was fun. Wyatt’s narrative voice was incredibly entertaining (though I can definitely see why some readers wouldn’t like it). Every scene that was just characters hanging out and bantering was extremely enjoyable. 

I loved several of the side characters, especially Briar (though I’m not sure how I feel about the twist regarding her character, even though it was totally unsurprising). 

The politics and the ruminations on oppression were interesting, but more on that later.

But then there were a LOT of things that didn’t work for me. Here is the list, in no particular order:
  • First person present tense is my least favorite POV/tense choice for novels, and I especially didn’t like that the flashbacks were still in present tense. That was the part that really got to me.
  • I HATE the term “theydy.” Hate it.
  • Super fascinating that this is a book that is largely about indigenous climate activism, both in a real way and in a fantasy metaphor way, WRITTEN BY AN INDIGENOUS AUTHOR, that still centers a white main character. Maybe it’s not my place as a white reader to have an issue with this. But I thought it was a weird choice and I certainly don’t think it helped the book’s message.
  • Wyatt was a deeply frustrating main character generally. He is annoying and oblivious, and every bad thing he does is justified as self-defense or something. I think I would have liked him better if he’d been a worse person, honestly. Maybe that’s just an issue with this book being YA. I don’t know.
  • Honestly the fantasy oppression metaphor was very confusing. Were the witches a metaphor? The author was trying hard to make them NOT be one by creating a cast that was super diverse in a variety of ways. So they weren’t a metaphor for queer people or people of color, at least not intentionally, but it ended up feeling like they were an unintentional metaphor for disability, especially since there were no disabled characters in the book. Regardless, it felt messy.
  • All of the interpersonal conflict was kind of annoying, but again, that’s probably just a YA thing that I’ve mostly avoided by only reading really good YA.
  • I absolutely hated the whole soulmates/fated mates thing. ESPECIALLY when only one partner even felt this special draw to the other one. I think that’s an awful, nonconsensual way to wrote a relationship, and this book totally failed to interrogate this really really weird idea that there’s one person who’s perfectly fated to be with you. I kept thinking it would, especially after the whole Clarke thing, but NOOOOO the main couple is meant for each other and we just have to suck it up and root for them! Very frustrating.
  • The transitions between scenes and the action scenes generally were simply not well-written. I was very confused about how the characters arrived at certain locations and conversations in almost every chapter.

Anyway, I guess I’d recommend this book if you’re looking for YA low fantasy with a soft magic system and a trans main character. It does those things well. It just also has a lot of issues.
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