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A review by amberrae00
Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker
DNF at 14%
I really wanted to like this book. I was seeing rave reviews for it everywhere, and it sounded like something that I would be really interested in. Unfortunately, I found this book to be uninteresting and unengaging.
The magic in what I read was unexplained and underdeveloped, with no reason, logical or otherwise, for the ban on magic. It is possible that this would have been expanded upon later in the book had I gotten to that point, but I didn't and I feel like some explanation should have been presented in the eighty pages that I read.
The main character, Elizabeth, is what really killed the book for me. The only thing that prevented her from having pretty much no personality was the fact that she was absolutely, incredibly annoying. She is totally obsessed with her witch hunting partner, Caleb, but we never get any reasoning as to why this is, and we don't see enough of him to appreciate her affections. She's judgemental, hypocritical, selfish, shallow, and incredibly set in her beliefs and resistant to change.
The writing was decent enough, and I may have enjoyed it in another context, but the story wasn't interesting enough for the writing to carry it just on its own. I might pick up another book by Virginia Boecker if the plot interests me enough, but it'll take a lot to persuade me to do that.
I really wanted to like this book. I was seeing rave reviews for it everywhere, and it sounded like something that I would be really interested in. Unfortunately, I found this book to be uninteresting and unengaging.
The magic in what I read was unexplained and underdeveloped, with no reason, logical or otherwise, for the ban on magic. It is possible that this would have been expanded upon later in the book had I gotten to that point, but I didn't and I feel like some explanation should have been presented in the eighty pages that I read.
The main character, Elizabeth, is what really killed the book for me. The only thing that prevented her from having pretty much no personality was the fact that she was absolutely, incredibly annoying. She is totally obsessed with her witch hunting partner, Caleb, but we never get any reasoning as to why this is, and we don't see enough of him to appreciate her affections. She's judgemental, hypocritical, selfish, shallow, and incredibly set in her beliefs and resistant to change.
The writing was decent enough, and I may have enjoyed it in another context, but the story wasn't interesting enough for the writing to carry it just on its own. I might pick up another book by Virginia Boecker if the plot interests me enough, but it'll take a lot to persuade me to do that.