hannie's review against another edition
4.0
4.5*? 4*?
I will always love Iseult. SO SO MUCH . She is divine and I love her and this whole book with her story only punctuated her character growth and let her shine so much. However, I feel like alot of it was also undermined by her constant back and forth. I dont know how its possible that her titular book that uplifts her also simultaneously does her so dirty? It was a ways from her psyche just suffering and her swapping from this all powerful being to numb and cold to hopeless and damn her mental state gave me whiplash. Vivia and Vaness also are starting to grow on me! Do ignore that its been 4 books cough cough
The generational trauma also hit too close to home and after this Im gonna check off the list of Mommy Issues Characters in the Witchlands and maybe Iseult, Aeduan and Vivia can all have a little party together !
* ***Also NOT ENOUGH AEDUAN AND ISEULT no more possessed aeduan pls it was PAINFUL TO SAY THE LEAST
I will always love Iseult. SO SO MUCH . She is divine and I love her and this whole book with her story only punctuated her character growth and let her shine so much. However, I feel like alot of it was also undermined by her constant back and forth. I dont know how its possible that her titular book that uplifts her also simultaneously does her so dirty? It was a ways from her psyche just suffering and her swapping from this all powerful being to numb and cold to hopeless and damn her mental state gave me whiplash. Vivia and Vaness also are starting to grow on me! Do ignore that its been 4 books cough cough
The generational trauma also hit too close to home and after this Im gonna check off the list of Mommy Issues Characters in the Witchlands and maybe Iseult, Aeduan and Vivia can all have a little party together !
* ***Also NOT ENOUGH AEDUAN AND ISEULT no more possessed aeduan pls it was PAINFUL TO SAY THE LEAST
linaria's review against another edition
3.0
This is a hard review to write. I’ll try to provide enough information, however, that you can decide for yourself if you’ll enjoy the book. Book enjoyment is so subjective, and I think that, perhaps, if I had read this book another time, I may have had a different experience. There would have still been things that annoyed me (see below), but my overall enjoyment may have been higher.
First, Susan Dennard, by all accounts, seems to be a lovely person, who admittedly, has had some hard times recently. I wanted to love this book, because I know how hard she’s worked on it, and the rest of the Witchlands series.
The Witchshadow book takes some dark turns. The series has been getting progressively darker with the introduction of the Paladins and the overarching politics plot, but no lie, this book is definitely the darkest out of the series. I think it’s been heading this way for a while, but it was especially evident withThis kind of flashback storytelling is not a favourite of mine, so that may have implanted my enjoyment.
I actually did a full re-read of the series prior to reading Witchshadow because I knew I would have forgotten a ton of politics, but one of the things that really stood out to me is the timeline. I get that there is a ton happening, but this is book 4 (or 5 if we count Sightwitch, which I do since it’s required to understand Bloodwitch), and I think that the timeline from the heist in book 1 to now is something like 2 or 3 months. For a while the frantic pace of the books makes sense, but I sort of want the books to slow down a bit and give us a bit more of life in the Witchlands without literally every character on the run for their lives in every single book.
There were some great moments, especially with Iseult and Aeduan, and I love how the cast has expanded. There are so many great characters that have gone from minor antagonists to pretty important characters to the overall plot. The overall misery of the characters though is pretty high in this book. It’s like the definition of the ‘road to hell is paved with good intentions.’
First, Susan Dennard, by all accounts, seems to be a lovely person, who admittedly, has had some hard times recently. I wanted to love this book, because I know how hard she’s worked on it, and the rest of the Witchlands series.
The Witchshadow book takes some dark turns. The series has been getting progressively darker with the introduction of the Paladins and the overarching politics plot, but no lie, this book is definitely the darkest out of the series. I think it’s been heading this way for a while, but it was especially evident with
Spoiler
Iseult in this book. We’re introduced to her in this book after she’s killed a bunch of people, and seems pretty callous about it and the development to those events are only told through flashbacks.I actually did a full re-read of the series prior to reading Witchshadow because I knew I would have forgotten a ton of politics, but one of the things that really stood out to me is the timeline. I get that there is a ton happening, but this is book 4 (or 5 if we count Sightwitch, which I do since it’s required to understand Bloodwitch), and I think that the timeline from the heist in book 1 to now is something like 2 or 3 months. For a while the frantic pace of the books makes sense, but I sort of want the books to slow down a bit and give us a bit more of life in the Witchlands without literally every character on the run for their lives in every single book.
There were some great moments, especially with Iseult and Aeduan, and I love how the cast has expanded. There are so many great characters that have gone from minor antagonists to pretty important characters to the overall plot. The overall misery of the characters though is pretty high in this book. It’s like the definition of the ‘road to hell is paved with good intentions.’
heleng_reads's review against another edition
4.0
A new storytelling structure to the series that sometimes worked, sometimes didn’t. The plot was interesting, but didn’t feel like it moved the over-arching story of the bigger picture of the series forward.
coffeekat3's review against another edition
3.0
I don’t recall previous books mentioning much of Paladins, but let me say that it made this book much more confusing than previous ones. It seems to me that Paladins are like beings who reincarnate through humans. However, we learn that some of the characters we know are Paladins (seemingly with ancient knowledge within them). I don’t recall this being stressed upon much - at least in the first two books - but it felt out of place to introduce it now (or expand upon it now).
It took me a little bit to understand that writing in italicized font is from the past. I know why the author went back and forth between past a present due to information being revealed later in the book, but I wasn’t a big fan of this way of story-telling.
There are a lot of riddles in this book as well, too much if you ask me.
At 96% we finally figure out what Merik has been up to. I’m like “Merik, you missed the whole book.”
I was a much bigger fan of the first book, but there is a lot of action that keeps things interesting.
It took me a little bit to understand that writing in italicized font is from the past. I know why the author went back and forth between past a present due to information being revealed later in the book, but I wasn’t a big fan of this way of story-telling.
There are a lot of riddles in this book as well, too much if you ask me.
At 96% we finally figure out what Merik has been up to. I’m like “Merik, you missed the whole book.”
I was a much bigger fan of the first book, but there is a lot of action that keeps things interesting.
jacyjean's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
saraxuherondale's review against another edition
4.0
4.1 stars
I really enjoyed this book! It took me a few days to adjust and remind myself about what happened in the previous 3 books (and character's names), but I made it in the end. I quite enjoy the characters, and I love the fact that there's just a little bit of romance (it's not the focus of the story), so it makes it even more special when some romantic moments happen. My favorite character are, unsurprisingly, Aeudan and Iseult and I can't wait to see them again in the fifth and final book of this series.
I really enjoyed this book! It took me a few days to adjust and remind myself about what happened in the previous 3 books (and character's names), but I made it in the end. I quite enjoy the characters, and I love the fact that there's just a little bit of romance (it's not the focus of the story), so it makes it even more special when some romantic moments happen. My favorite character are, unsurprisingly, Aeudan and Iseult and I can't wait to see them again in the fifth and final book of this series.
literaryluxe's review against another edition
4.0
I think this is the best book and my favorite out of the series so far. There was so much action and adventure which was what I was looking for. It also cleared up a few things from Bloodwitch. It mainly focuses on Aeduan and Iseult, but it is a multiple POV story. If you’re an Aeduan and Iseult stan – and it seems most people tend to be - this series doesn’t have a lot of romance. This was a little disappointing as there are many scenes where the sexual tension and angst are so high between characters – naturally, I was expecting more romance because of it, but it’s a tease. There are a lot of things happening in this story at once which is very entertaining, but obviously creates a couple of plot holes, especially when new elements are constantly added to the story. I’m hoping that all will be answered in the sequel. Other than those two things (romance and plot holes), I enjoyed it and would give it 4.5 stars. I will definitely be picking up the sequel. If you decide to start or continue this series, I would highly recommend reading them back to back though.