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maddie_hitzeman 's review for:
The Witch Hunter
by Virginia Boecker
7/10
Good, fast-paced, easy read that was a better book than I expected. I really enjoyed the author’s attention to detail and her compelling descriptions. Another thing I really enjoyed and was surprised by was how the protagonist interacted one-on-one, not just with the love(s) of her life, but with side characters too. I think it really added good character growth and development.
Even so, I would have liked to see more emotion and reaction in every character beyond “looks of sympathy” and how Fifer wanted to kill Elizabeth after finding out she’s a witch. Yes, the two tasseled, but not soon after they were good friends. I think it would have been more realistic to lengthen out the distrust just a bit.
I may also be getting nit picky... but it took me a while to gauge most characters’ ages, and once I did have a clearer scope, I found that the characters seemed too young, or as they say “girl” and “boy,” and referred to adults as “old.” Again, it is a ya novel so I wouldn’t take it as a criticism, rather my opinion. Sometimes I also had difficulty understanding what the author meant when she added certain details. For example, when Elizabeth is back in her room during the masquerade, she mentions its been over a year... does that mean she’s been away at missions for a year or that it’s been a year since she escaped Fleet?
I also would have liked to get more detail and deeper interaction between Elizabeth and Blackwell. With more evidence given to the reader through a character’s actions and words, rather than being told he/she was or is this, would have given me more emotion toward Blackwell. Where the book is, Blackwell is just another villain, but it had the potential to make me trust, suspect, understand, or hate Blackwell, and follow the progression of his character development.
Finally, one of the largest things I’m most upset about is how Malcolm’s raping Elizabeth appeared to, initially, be used just as a link for getting Elizabeth tried as a witch and put in jail. There was little regard or emotion surrounding how “he took a part of me I can never get back” (358). The presence of rape seemed to simply be a side detail that was never looked at too closely beyond the reason why Elizabeth was carrying and taking witch’s herbs, and another secret for Elizabeth to keep, meant to amp up the story.
To end on a good note, I really liked the incorporation of the illusion v. reality at the end! It really threw me for a loop and left me with a seed of doubt against reality until the end.
Overall, a good easy read that could have made a few adjustments.
Good, fast-paced, easy read that was a better book than I expected. I really enjoyed the author’s attention to detail and her compelling descriptions. Another thing I really enjoyed and was surprised by was how the protagonist interacted one-on-one, not just with the love(s) of her life, but with side characters too. I think it really added good character growth and development.
Even so, I would have liked to see more emotion and reaction in every character beyond “looks of sympathy” and how Fifer wanted to kill Elizabeth after finding out she’s a witch. Yes, the two tasseled, but not soon after they were good friends. I think it would have been more realistic to lengthen out the distrust just a bit.
I may also be getting nit picky... but it took me a while to gauge most characters’ ages, and once I did have a clearer scope, I found that the characters seemed too young, or as they say “girl” and “boy,” and referred to adults as “old.” Again, it is a ya novel so I wouldn’t take it as a criticism, rather my opinion. Sometimes I also had difficulty understanding what the author meant when she added certain details. For example, when Elizabeth is back in her room during the masquerade, she mentions its been over a year... does that mean she’s been away at missions for a year or that it’s been a year since she escaped Fleet?
I also would have liked to get more detail and deeper interaction between Elizabeth and Blackwell. With more evidence given to the reader through a character’s actions and words, rather than being told he/she was or is this, would have given me more emotion toward Blackwell. Where the book is, Blackwell is just another villain, but it had the potential to make me trust, suspect, understand, or hate Blackwell, and follow the progression of his character development.
Finally, one of the largest things I’m most upset about is how Malcolm’s raping Elizabeth appeared to, initially, be used just as a link for getting Elizabeth tried as a witch and put in jail. There was little regard or emotion surrounding how “he took a part of me I can never get back” (358). The presence of rape seemed to simply be a side detail that was never looked at too closely beyond the reason why Elizabeth was carrying and taking witch’s herbs, and another secret for Elizabeth to keep, meant to amp up the story.
To end on a good note, I really liked the incorporation of the illusion v. reality at the end! It really threw me for a loop and left me with a seed of doubt against reality until the end.
Overall, a good easy read that could have made a few adjustments.