In 2019, I went to YALC, the ‘book con’ as I had decided to call it, of England. It was in the middle of a heat wave, my friend and I had to buy a fan for our hotel room but we were determined to not only survive the heat and the convention. On the Saturday, we met V. E Schwab and even though my friend had brought A Darker Shade of Magic and, I, the Archived, Victoria was promoting the relaunch of her first novel, The Near Witch. At the time, I didn’t want to buy it at YALC, mostly because it was full price and I’m not made of money. But when I saw it was on for buy one get one half price, I picked it straight up with Raymond. E. Feist’s King of ashes.
This is what the Near Witch is about:
The town of Near doesn’t get strangers. But when Lexi wakes one night, drawn to the window only to see a shadow, or a boy, standing on the outskirts of the village. When children begin to go missing from Lexi’s village, the only thing that can be to blame is magic but the only question is who’s? Convinced that the strange is innocent, Lexi takes to the save the children of Near and find the answers of the wind.
Maybe one day the words will pour out like so many others, easy and smooth and on their own. Right now they take pieces of me with them.
I’ll say it now and I’ll probably say it again when I read another of Schwab’s books: there’s just something so magical about her writing style. It does more than just transports you, it consumes you. I make’s her books treasures. I loved Archived and The Near Witch is definitely a close favourite. The way that Schwab described Near was beautiful.
Taken by @samthefangirl_
The plot was so interesting. I think the only thing that I wanted more of was a twist. It all was a bit straight forward apart from the occasional bump in the road that didn’t really impact the overall ending. I think if there had been a plot twist that I hadn’t seen coming I would have loved it even more but alas. Overall, it was a kind of remedy to my reading slump, it was enough fantasy, enough coming of age, enough mystery to keep me happy for the moments I had to escape and just read.
The characters were just amazing. I have to give it to Schwab, what she does with characters is outstanding. Already I’m missing Lexi and her fiery soul!
Thank ya for reading! Hope you enjoyed!
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