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A review by fallingletters
Healer and Witch by Nancy Werlin
4.0
Review originally published 20 November 2022 at Falling Letters.
Not sure how I feel about a 15 year old declining to marry a 24 year old until she is a few years older?! I get that this would have been progressive for the time period. It wouldn’t stand out to me in an adult medieval fantasy. However I’m not sure how I feel about handing a book that features that kind of relationship to, say, a ten year old.
I did quite like Sylvie as a protagonist. I like that she’s only out and about in the big wide world so she can figure out her powers to help her mother. She’s truly a homebody who enjoys village life and desire to go back! Not your stereotypical girl trapped in small town who yearns to escape. I also like how she looks out for Martin and how cleverly she speaks to the inquisitor (pg 231).
Sylvie, just past her fifteenth birthday, had come finally into womanhood with her first monthly bleeding, and then the understanding – the power – had simply appeared inside her. When she touched people, she could reach and see their thoughts and their memories.Healer & Witch is probably the most atypical middle grade I’ll read this year. The narrative style and mature themes make me think it was originally intended for an older audience but deemed not ‘young adult’ enough, or something.
She understood that the landlady thought that Sylvie was unhappily pregnant, as a result of seduction – or even worse, rape – and needed assistance from a wisewoman so tha tthere would be no baby. (pg 37)Generally speaking, Healer & Witch explores the question of how one chooses to use their gifts (via a healer and witch dichotomy), and independent womanhood.
Not sure how I feel about a 15 year old declining to marry a 24 year old until she is a few years older?! I get that this would have been progressive for the time period. It wouldn’t stand out to me in an adult medieval fantasy. However I’m not sure how I feel about handing a book that features that kind of relationship to, say, a ten year old.
The barest flicker of dismay crossed his expression; had she not been watching so closely, she would have missed it. “Ah. Not any longer a child, and yet…” (pg 135)Okay?! He thought she was 17 or 18 and is surprised to learn she’s only 15.
I did quite like Sylvie as a protagonist. I like that she’s only out and about in the big wide world so she can figure out her powers to help her mother. She’s truly a homebody who enjoys village life and desire to go back! Not your stereotypical girl trapped in small town who yearns to escape. I also like how she looks out for Martin and how cleverly she speaks to the inquisitor (pg 231).