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A review by alapinski
Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
2.0
EDIT: Down to two stars... the more I thought about this book, the more I realized how much I disliked it.
Oh. My. God. That took forever to finish. When I would sit down to read this book I found myself scrolling through my phone instead, which is saying a lot. Now I gave this book 3 stars for the following reasons:
Things I liked about the book:
1. The world, a new spin on magic and witches, cleaving was interesting, I still don't get why people don't like the Nomatsi and use "wards against evil" when they are around...
2. The main characters, Safi and Iseult were cool, I definitely liked Iseult more, Safi was too spoiled and stuck up for me to like her.
3. The overall storyline and plot of the book. It was different and although hard to follow at times, I found the premise intriguing.
Things I didn't like:
1. probably the most annoying thing was the way character dialog was split three words in with a description "I think that," she said softly, wind blowing her hair around and probably some grass and flowers smelled sweet and some more random description, "was the reason something happened." Like almost every time someone talked this is how it was written and it just drove me crazy
2. I feel like there was too much going on, the world building was terrible, eventually I got the gist of it but only 300 pages in
3. It was super slow and not much happened for the first 300 pages, maybe one or two action scenes
4. I feel like this book could've been split into two, the first half starting with gambling with the Chiseled Cheater(which was mentioned at the beginning and end.... still don't know who this guy is) and background then going into where the book actually started, then ending when she was taken on the ship. (That way Iseult's time in the Nomatsi camp could have been longer and we could've gotten to know her mom more and Safi's switching over to being a domna wouldn't have been rushed. Also why were they on the dock that one time? When the cleaving happened, and they had to elude the guards even though Safi was a domna? I still don't get it.) Anyways then starting up again on the ship. This book was just way too long with too many side plots.
5. Too many new pointless characters that show up for a few chapters then disappear again.
6. I mentioned 300 pages earlier... this book finally got good in the last 100 pages, which I hate because I struggled through 300 before finally starting to enjoy it. This book's ending redeemed my rating.
7. Terribly obvious foreshadowing... read the book and you'll know what I'm talking about. Like so obvious it almost hurt to know she just put it in so that the part she added next wouldn't be too random.
So there was more I didn't like about this book than I liked, and so I think 3 stars is fair, it's not bad, but the length and the writing style hit me so hard it took me too long to read it.
Oh. My. God. That took forever to finish. When I would sit down to read this book I found myself scrolling through my phone instead, which is saying a lot. Now I gave this book 3 stars for the following reasons:
Things I liked about the book:
1. The world, a new spin on magic and witches, cleaving was interesting, I still don't get why people don't like the Nomatsi and use "wards against evil" when they are around...
2. The main characters, Safi and Iseult were cool, I definitely liked Iseult more, Safi was too spoiled and stuck up for me to like her.
3. The overall storyline and plot of the book. It was different and although hard to follow at times, I found the premise intriguing.
Things I didn't like:
1. probably the most annoying thing was the way character dialog was split three words in with a description "I think that," she said softly, wind blowing her hair around and probably some grass and flowers smelled sweet and some more random description, "was the reason something happened." Like almost every time someone talked this is how it was written and it just drove me crazy
2. I feel like there was too much going on, the world building was terrible, eventually I got the gist of it but only 300 pages in
3. It was super slow and not much happened for the first 300 pages, maybe one or two action scenes
4. I feel like this book could've been split into two, the first half starting with gambling with the Chiseled Cheater(which was mentioned at the beginning and end.... still don't know who this guy is) and background then going into where the book actually started, then ending when she was taken on the ship. (That way Iseult's time in the Nomatsi camp could have been longer and we could've gotten to know her mom more and Safi's switching over to being a domna wouldn't have been rushed. Also why were they on the dock that one time? When the cleaving happened, and they had to elude the guards even though Safi was a domna? I still don't get it.) Anyways then starting up again on the ship. This book was just way too long with too many side plots.
5. Too many new pointless characters that show up for a few chapters then disappear again.
6. I mentioned 300 pages earlier... this book finally got good in the last 100 pages, which I hate because I struggled through 300 before finally starting to enjoy it. This book's ending redeemed my rating.
7. Terribly obvious foreshadowing... read the book and you'll know what I'm talking about. Like so obvious it almost hurt to know she just put it in so that the part she added next wouldn't be too random.
So there was more I didn't like about this book than I liked, and so I think 3 stars is fair, it's not bad, but the length and the writing style hit me so hard it took me too long to read it.