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lizziew7's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Car accident
letsgolesbians's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent
mari1532's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I listened to this book through my library on Libby.
Brief Summary: Logan is a witch...at least that is what she tells herself. She is hoping that by attending Mesmortes Coven Academy she will learn to better control her powers. What she doesn't expect is that the Red Three (Iris, Jailah, and Thalia) will quickly take her under their wing and show her the ropes.
Iris, a death witch, has designs on breaking the town curse and thinks that befriending Logan might be the key. However, Jailah, the school's most powerful witch, and Thalia, a nature witch, are not so sure that Logan will prove useful. As the girls integrate Logan into their group and work on breaking the town curse, they must also learn who they can trust before events turn deadly.
Thoughts: I realize how annoying it is to start a review by saying I wish a book was longer, but I wish this book was longer, but I am happy that there is a second book in the series. While I enjoyed this book it felt a bit rushed at certain points and wanted more of each character. That being said, Isabelle did an excellent job of weaving multiple main characters and a complex plot into a single book without making anything confusing.
I think that Iris was my favourite of the four main characters. I thought that the way that she was learning to navigate her powers as a death witch as they grew was interesting and I was immediately on board with nearly any plan that she suggested throughout the book. Although, I did find the growth between each of the girls and their friend group the most compelling part of the story.
Also, the mysterious aspect of the town curse added such an interesting layer to this book and it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Isabelle is an excellent writer and I cannot wait to read more of their work.
I would highly recommend this book.
Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
alex_wordweaver's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Death, Violence, and Death of parent
kananineko's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
The characters were hit or miss for me. I didn’t like Logan at all and her dynamic as the “baby witch” was kinda annoying and i didn’t really get why the others invited her into their group? I actually did really like Iris, and kinda wish she was the main character. I loved what we saw of Jaila but I wish we got more or her—I feel like her story was underdeveloped. And I didn’t really like Thalia either although unlike Logan I couldn’t really tell you why. Both of the male characters were bland AF and I didn’t really care about them at all. None of the romances were compelling either, the only one I was semi invested in was Iris and that guy (forgot his name) but I only grew into caring about them a little bit (but not enough to read the next book lol).
The plot was pretty weak imo. I feel kinda bad giving 2.5 stars bc tbh I still enjoyed the book overall and I read it pretty quickly, it held my attention. But tbh it was much worse than some books I've given 3 stars... Someone said it was like a bad CW show and I agree. So if you like those kinds of shows, if you like YA fantasy and stuff, I think you’ll like this. I also kinda hyped this book up in my head a lot bc the description sounded so cool to me and it took me like a year to actually get my hands on it, so the disappointment factor is there too.
One last note, the word “witchy” was used wayyyy too often and annoyed me so much. Like literally everything was described as witchy, like a “witchy book” rather than a “witch book” or "witch's book" idk why but that annoyed me? Def a personal pet peeve but just wanted to say it lol.
Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Cursing and Fire/Fire injury
msradiosilence's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
- How exactly does the school work?
- How does magic work, exactly? Be specific, please.
- Why do Thalia and Lilly have familiars but not anyone else?
- Is there a limit to the magic witches can perform? How do they know the limit? Is there a way to increase the limit?
- Does everyone have a Pull? If they don’t, what happens? Are people with Pulls rare?
- What exactly do witches as a group do out in the rest of the world? How has the world changed from what we know irl?
- Are tethers a thing everyone has? Is it rare? How often are witches and mundanes tethers? What does it entail for a witch and a mundane to be tethered?
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
thatbookishwriter23's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Perfect for Halloween and black witch rep
Honestly this book kinda of surprised me, I wasn't feeling it at first, beavuse of the writing style, it took me a minute to used to it but I pushed past the 6% mark, I'm so glad I did.
This is the first book I've read featuring witches and I liked it. I can definitely see it as a series on Peacock similar to Vampire Academy. I really liked it was a great introduction to the theme and aesthetic.
I don't how to describe the writing style but with it being in third person as well, it's not for everyone and it may takes some getting used to.
Jailiah and Mathew was my favorite, I see myself most in Jailah and Mathew was kind and supportive.
Logan was the worst. Her chapters were full of self-deprecating and "woe is me". Then she, one of the only white characters of the main cast, was suppose to be this super special powerful Proxy witch. She never accepted anybody encouragements or compliments. She withheld information just because she wanted to prove herself first.
"She didn’t want to hide this, but she couldn’t tell them, not until she felt like she could be the witch that they wanted her to be."
I hate it when characters in books withhold information from everyone else for reasons that don't make sense. Especially when the info would be super helpful.
She really got me with these two lines:
"Not only was Logan terrible with a wand, but she wasn’t even special in her awfulness."
Like, what? I was literally baffled when I read this line. Like you want to be awful and special, what?
"It was easy for Logan to detach herself from the heirloom’s grip. It wasn’t like with Iris, all violence and horror, maybe because as a necromancer, those things were already in her. Or maybe it was Logan’s ability to proxy that protected her.
[Thinking] Maybe I’m more special than even Iris."
More special? *Eye roll*👀
I could go all day about Logan.
Anyway, I loved the magic, like most of the characters, and loved reading a story about black witches.
In my opinion, this book should have been a duology, it felt a bit long for a standalone and it could explore it's characters a bit more. Hopefully we get a novella or something. Looking forward to it.
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Racism, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
Minor: Toxic relationship
kingrosereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
The books follows four witches and two “mundanes” as they set to break their town’s hundred year curse. The curse causes an annual “Haunting” where supernatural wolves awaken and spend two moon cycles killing witches and mundanes alike. Our young witches and their mundane friends set out to end the curse once and for all. But with everyone keeping secrets and centuries of animosity between witches and mundanes, can they trust each other and come together to defeat the true evil in their town?
I really enjoyed this book and hope there’ll be another set in this universe. I really liked the magic system and the characters were written well. It feels like we’ve only scratched the surface with this world and these characters though! I was happy to see BIPOC witches just basking in their Witchery while still recognizing that POC have additional struggles. I was disappointed that this was advertised as lgbtqia+ when only one character was identified as queer (it wasn’t specified if she was gay/bi/pan/etc) and she just has a really problematic ex, and there’s also a side character that was non-binary.
I was also disappointed that the build up had inconsistent pacing and the climax and resolution felt rushed.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I REALLY want more! Not at all bad for a debut!
Graphic: Self harm and Blood
Moderate: Child death, Death, and Death of parent
bookish_afrolatina's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting with this novel because there were too many POVs. Or maybe it just felt that way when I listened to the audiobook. The plot had so many directions that adding the multiple POVs made me feel lost sometimes. The narrator for the audiobook also didn’t do a good job with the Southern and British accents. That made me even less into the book.
As I’ve seen many other folks say, Logan annoyed me multiple times, but the ending was meant to explain that.
At any rate, it was a good book.
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Blood, Car accident, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcohol
caseythereader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail