Reviews with content warning for Racism - Witch of Wild Things

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

7 reviews

httponyo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Sage spends her entire life being emotionally neglected by her Aunt while having to pseudo raise her two younger sisters after their mom abandons them. This ofcourse leads to a BOAT load of trauma for all parties involved and as always , the eldest sister is the scapegoat for everyone's pain.

I don't agree with some people's assessment of this book. I think Gilliland is a great writer , this book is written beautifully and the information about plants didn't feel forced to me. I liked the way there was a flip back and forth to the past & present with the messages and I found Sage and Tenn to be cute. They communicated pretty well , for the most part , and work really well together. Now the part where everything resolved a little too quickly ? Yes , I do agree that it happened WAYYY too fast ,

especially when Skys body was found , alive & well. i think if Nadia had communicated better and everyone had mourned properly than Sage wouldve been told them about the ghost thing. Sky also felt MUCH less traumatized than i feel is reasonable, she spent so much time as a ghost & lost so much of her life.

Other than that , I feel like the complaints of Sage's personality is unfair when you think about all she's gone through.

Personally , I feel that the depiction of grief is realistic and fair. Some people run away , some blame everyone else & themselves and some don't move on at all. The resolution came a little fast for me but it's still worth a read.

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onegalonelife27's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Sage Flores is born into a family of magical women, it'll take more than magic to try to reconcile with the past. Years after her youngest sister's death, Sage Flores comes back to set her life in order long enough to get out again. So eager she'll take a plant hunting job with her old crush from high school to get the money. Yet when the ghost of her sister asks for Sage to reconcile with their weather endowed sister, who's been angry at Sage all this time, Sage finds herself trying to make peace with everything that's happened in her life.

I highly appreciated the complicated dynamics going on, not just inside the family, but between Sage and her friend Laurel as well as her old high school crush Tennessee Reyes. Sage makes mistakes, lashes out and so do others which I felt was realistic. The slow reveal of what happened with her sister's death and what happened with Tennessee all those years ago really adds tension since we don't have the full picture of what went down until crucial moments happening in Sage's life now. Plus I'm a sucker for anonymous online friendships, courtesy of AOL Instant Messenger of all things.

I highly recommend for those fans of more grounded fantasy stories with plenty of emotion packed in!

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platinum's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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? Yes

2.0

The romance plot sucks, but I like the magic system and the characters are nice.

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yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted mysterious sad fast-paced

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? Yes

4.0

This book was fine. It got better toward the end which bumped it up for me. Also, I know this is marketed as a romance and a love story but for me this was a book about grief and difficult times and how grief manifests differently in people and can cause destruction. The romance felt like a subplot which is fine I actually liked the book better seeing it through this lens.

I loved the idea behind it and the premise but the characters were very frustrating. At times many of them were immature (Sage at least acknowledges it). I think it’s also important to take into consideration that because we think we know best for characters these characters are going through a lot emotionally so their judgement is cloudy. Tennessee was honestly my favorite character. I really loved him.

I really felt for Sage and all the shit she had to go through. She never was allowed to feel or break. Robbed of a childhood to take care of her younger siblings and blamed for everything. Very reminiscent of how many Hispanic eldest daughters feel. I think that was done very well and although frustrating, very real. I was a little surprised by Sky’s return but I think she handled it well. I thought it was interesting they didn’t talk about the mom more but I didn’t mind it so much

.

As I was writing this review I realize I liked this book more than I originally thought. I keep finding more positive things to say and the rating got bumped up again. I really think the ending made up for the beginning.

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starrysteph's review against another edition

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Really mixed feelings on this one. I loved the magical realism elements, loved the complex family relationships and exploration of generational trauma through curses, and loved the playful botanical magic and ghosts.

And the trauma of being the eldest daughter was captured really brilliantly. Oof.

I didn’t love the immaturity of the narrator and the overabundance of misunderstandings.

How can you turn away from your sister who is in an abusive relationship? (And then return to impulsively expose the abusive without any consideration of how that could impact your sister?) How can you squarely place the blame of your little sister’s accidental death on your older sister, and treat her with such cruelty (not to mention that the reason for the blame was so nonsensical)? How can you hold a petty grudge against a high school crush so fiercely that 10 years later you can barely even speak to him?

There were some emotionally beautiful moments, and the romance was sweet at times. And look - families can be petty and cruel and complicated. But it felt like this was tonally inconsistent, especially since the writing and dialogue often felt juvenile. The 74 year old great aunt was bickering and throwing around callous remarks like a teenager.

I was more into the relationship between the sisters - and wanted to dive more into the grief & healing arcs - versus the second chance romance. It was also a bit confusing because there were multiple romance options at the start. I think we needed to stick with our main guy and develop that as much as possible over these 300 pages.

There’s also just SO much crammed in: environmental destruction, cheating, misogyny, domestic abuse, grief, messy and destructive family dynamics, racism, etc. I think that’s a lot to try to accomplish eloquently.

But this story had its moments. Some beautiful nature language, some sweetness around love & healing in romance, and some lovely sisterhood.

CW: grief, death, abandonment, toxic relationship, domestic abuse, infidelity, gaslighting, racism, sexual content

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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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sarahsbookstacks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

This is easily one of my top romances of the year.

Sisters, magic, grief, humor, heart, plants, and swoonworthy romance that has me believing in soulmates?????

I LOVED IT.

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beccaontheinternet's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a wonderful book. It was so unique, heartwrenching, heartwarming, and beautiful. The book addressed some very hard topics in a really creative yet realistic way. I loved that this book was as much about love between family and friends as it was about the love story between the man and woman. Also the magic was really cool. Would recommend this to anyone.

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