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A review by whybeereads
The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon
Did not finish book.
DNF I'm afraid.
Let me preface this by saying that I understand this is a debut novel and every author is going to grow and improve with time. Edgmon isn't without promise, and the concept was strong, but the execution was where the whole thing fell down.
You know the phrase 'show, don't tell?' this book does the opposite, never trusting the reader to read between the lines, never allowing the reader to figure things out organically, just straight info-dumping exposition right up front.
The breaking point for me was when the narrator just flat out informs the reader that the way witches are treated in the fae realm is parallel to how queer kids are treated in the human world. Yes, I got that my dude, it's almost like that was the entire point. Please... Just learn to trust your audience to understand what a metaphor is.
The dialogue was likewise completely unbelievable, exchanges between characters that literally only exist in insular queer pockets of the internet. All the characters spoke with the same voice, that voice being the voice of a Tumblr user with an anime profile pic.
I wanted to like it. We need more literature in the world written by queer authors and for queer readers. But my God I had to DNF at about 100 pages in.
Let me preface this by saying that I understand this is a debut novel and every author is going to grow and improve with time. Edgmon isn't without promise, and the concept was strong, but the execution was where the whole thing fell down.
You know the phrase 'show, don't tell?' this book does the opposite, never trusting the reader to read between the lines, never allowing the reader to figure things out organically, just straight info-dumping exposition right up front.
The breaking point for me was when the narrator just flat out informs the reader that the way witches are treated in the fae realm is parallel to how queer kids are treated in the human world. Yes, I got that my dude, it's almost like that was the entire point. Please... Just learn to trust your audience to understand what a metaphor is.
The dialogue was likewise completely unbelievable, exchanges between characters that literally only exist in insular queer pockets of the internet. All the characters spoke with the same voice, that voice being the voice of a Tumblr user with an anime profile pic.
I wanted to like it. We need more literature in the world written by queer authors and for queer readers. But my God I had to DNF at about 100 pages in.