Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Year of the Witching

I’ve read a couple of books that use a theme of fear of witches and the associated religious persecution, and unfortunately, this one is not one of my favorites.

While Immanuel does well to understand that the religion that Bethel operates her forces its black population to the outskirts, allows men of religious standing to take advantage of young girls, and cultivates a culture of fear and distrust, I kept expecting there to be more empathy for the witches of persecuted past or for Immanuel to come to see magic isn’t just something violent. There was potential for it too since her grandmother is a witch, but her magic is never spoke of, so there’s lost potential in letting Immanuel see the misinformation of the understanding of magic perpetuated by the church. Instead, magic and its witches are… just as bad as Bethel has always taught her. There’s no sympathy for the fact that a young girl and two queer women died, and no chance for Immanuel to even understand them more as people instead of purely monsters.

What I do enjoy about this book is the strong relationship and respect Immanuel and Ezra have together, how even if their ideas of what should be done clashes somewhat, their care for each means they wanna see each other live and thrive. I think Henderson does very well to show how even in someone as well meaning as Ezra, he still has ideas that he needs to rethink and challenge but he never puts Immanuel down for her own ideals.

Some other issues I have is I felt this book was quite a bit slower than I would have liked, and I wish Immanuel had more time to understand other things in the book namely: the outskirts and its culture and the history of magic, but maybe this will be touched upon in the sequel.

Content Warnings

skelleybean's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark sad tense 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

3.75

This book was so dark and raw, and I loved it all… until it tripped at the finish line and kind of turned into an after school special.

Content Warnings

michaelttay's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The pacing in the book was sometimes odd and the battle moments needed more energy but I couldn’t stop reading.

Content Warnings

manicpixiedreaming's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes

4.5

didn't like the ending.

Content Warnings

aortiz09's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

ladydianna1600's review

Go to review page

dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book started out rather slow for me, and to be honest, if I were not listening to an audiobook, I would have DNF'd it. As it were, sometimes when I started the audiobook up again after the previous day, I thought maybe I missed part of it but then I rewound and realized I hadn't. I just wasn't that interested in remembering what happened. The plot picked up, however, about half way through, and I was more invested. It was an overall enjoyable read but not sure I was really invested in any of the characters other than HATING the prophet, but that is because that character reminds me so much of religious leaders in our "church" who I grew up with. I haven't decided if I will read the second book yet. I have so many other things on my TBR to get through first.

Content Warnings

gogotheque's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed this book and it had few emotional tearful moments but the ending sort of lacked something. Technically there was a grand finale but it wasn't enough for me. I guess I expected more? It was very proper typical plot..nothing too exciting but still enjoyable.

Content Warnings

More...