A review by charloforce
These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

To be fair to this book, I think it's targeted towards the age of its protagonist or younger (I'd say 14-18). To call it juvenile without that qualification would be unfair, due to the intended demographic and the age of its characters. But older readers should know there are a few strong eye-roll moments plot-wise, due to extreme-teen behavior. However, I did like the protagonist overall, especially the way that she consistently stood up for herself and cared about her family and community. 

This book suffered a little bit from tell-over-show, with a thinly-veiled info dump here and there, but since the book was otherwise fairly fast-paced and is overall pretty short, I didn't mind.

The queer representation was very satisfying - as a reader I felt like it was purposeful, but not heavy-handed. It was nice that the story was full of queer characters who embodied their queerness, but none of the plotlines (besides romance, obviously) were centered on their queerness. There were a few passing moments of homophobia but it was by no means a major element.
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