Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Near Witch

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

12 reviews

saracat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

It is no surprise to me that I loved and adored this book. So far everything I've read by Schwab I have adored. Sometimes when I read books that authors wrote much earlier in their career, I can sense that they are still coming into their own. But in this book, she already feels to have an understanding of her craft and I would not have guessed this was written so early in her career without the forward saying so.

As with some of the other books I have read by her, I adore, love, and root for the main characters with everything in me and feel intense dislike and disgust at those who seem to give no effort to hear and understand what is being said to them.

This audiobook version includes at the end the story of Cole and it was painful to hear the full extent of what led to his coming to Near.

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alhargrave1's review

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is FILLED with beautiful prose. Each character is well thought-out and fully formed. throughout it, I felt the main character’s range of emotions as though they were my own (a plus, for me). This book is beautiful and complex and exactly what I was looking for!

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snapeygan's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

As always, VE Schwab doesn’t disappoint!! I’m a big fan of all her work, and her first novel isn’t different from all her other books!

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kathrynleereads's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

While I really enjoyed The Near Witch, I thought the ending was a bit abrupt.

I wish she would've mentioned how long it actually took for them to get from the village to the grove of trees out on the moor. Once it was a half-day trek, then she ran all the way there and back.

It was also frustrating that they kept making it all the way out there, only to turn and return to the village before finding anything.

While children are being kidnapped it seems as if there would be a bit more of a rush than trying to fix the problem on three separate days.

Why not just hide from the men that followed them and then continue their search instead of trekking all the way back to Near to just start completely over the next day?

Also, as a tracker who should be fairly adept at listening, she sure did get followed a lot. And the men left to watch her and keep her from sneaking out of the house really just did not learn.

•

The first half of the book detailed only a day or two of Lexi digging into the mystery, while the second half of the book covers multiple days of action, seeming to flit from day to day a lot faster.

It felt like it should've gone in the opposite direction.

In the final scene, Lexi runs all the way from the clearing to Near with the basket of bones, only to not get there in time and for the Near Witch to come alive as she does at night.

Cole and Otto then run out from the stone wall (which is in the opposite direction of where she left them), seemingly having beat her there or caught up to her, despite the fact that they supposedly had a whole hashing-out of their issues (which couldn't have been quick), and the fact that Lexi ran the whole way back.

Then after beating Lexi up for a minute, the Near Witch sees her old garden and just kind of floats into the grave the sisters had conjured there and went back to being dead.

It felt a little lacking to me, like after all the build-up, the ending should have been a little more drawn out.

•

Character-wise I loved Lexi, her parents, the sisters, Cole, and Wren.

Mrs. Thatcher had some good moments and provided good insight into the mindset of the village.

Master Matthew seemed to be alright but then told the other council members where Lexi and Cole were going and what they were doing, despite saying that he believed Lexi was correct and the Near Witch was to blame.

Otto seemed like deep down he was a decent person, but he was a pushover and should never have been granted the title of Protector, because he honestly sucked at it. He was very well-written, though.

Bo was a truly awful human.

I'm curious to know what happened to him, as it's never mentioned.

The character that is still stuck in my mind though? Tyler.

Sexist, misogynistic, piece-of-dirt pig.

He was not worth any redemption and deserved the same as Bo.

He thought he deserved Lexi and completely ignored her protests and requests.

•

Besides the abrupt ending to the story, I thoroughly enjoyed The Near Witch, and was very enthralled by the story while reading it.

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saint's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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chris_reads's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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takarakei's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This one is real hard to review because I didn't like the narrator for the audiobook. They spoke. Very. Stunted. Without. Any. Flow. ...I don't believe that is how the book was written as that is not my experience of Schwab's writing. I do think you can tell this is early on in Schwab's career as her writing really has improved with her subsequent novels. It is a very typical YA kind of romance between characters (a bit insta lovey).

Overall it was hard to get through with the narrator, and if I wasn't reading it for a book club I might've switched to a physical book or DNF'd.

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tkatt20's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I loved this book. Its a really quick read if you're looking for something with a relatively simple magic system and high tension. I thought the pacing was wonderful for it being a standalone (accompanied by a short story) partially because it had such an interesting writing style and I felt like I could really connect emotionally to the characters which kept me reading. It also didn't feel like too much of an info dump which I run into sometimes with standalones and all the characters had depth and personality outside of the main character. My only complaint was the romance seemed to be very insta love which I'm not a huge fan of but considering that isn't the main plot, this book was great. Gave me major salem witch trial vibes too which I loved!

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