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Rating: 3 out of 5

Genre: Sci-Fi / Fantasy, Horror, Diverse, YA, 

People who should read this: If you want a diverse fantasy read with a dark underbelly perfect for the spooky season. 

Here I am again, stuck in the middle. Neither loving nor really hating the book. 

If you counted up my complaints with my enjoyment, you’d probably end up with a wash. Where the romance was great, the fantasy was lacking. Where some of the characters weren’t flushed out, others rose to the occasion. Where the stage seemed a fuddled mess, the puritanical society was well developed. 

Do you see what I mean now….? 

And I’m not going to be recommending The Year of the Witching to anyone anytime soon after hearing what my bookclub thought. Their take wasn't very far from mine either. 

There was just something missing from the story. I wish I could give you a better reason, but I’m still trying to figure out what I’m missing too. The story feels like Pinocchio, where he’s off exploring the real world, but he’s not a real boy yet. And in that way, my brain wasn’t able to see the story as a real thing. The characters as flesh and blood. 

I don’t know how Henderson plotted her book, but could it be because there’s too much of a formula…?

What does Immanuelle really want in the end? Survival is fine enough. Protecting her family is an easy enough excuse. Everyone wants to protect their family in one way or another. Here she was being handed a piece of her past, but I was never given the strong impression that it was her innermost desire. Could this be the issue? Could it be the fact that I’ve found a book without a strong enough want? Instead of fighting for what she wanted, she was battered around by the world around her until she was forced to make her own decisions (and not in a good story way).

Whew…. I was getting worried that I would be forced to move on without a definite answer.

Thank you friends for letting me work that out on here.

Some say that the romance was a horrible side plot that didn’t feel the least bit real. I agree, Enzo is easy. Except for Leah, he’s the only other person not judging Immanuelle. But if I wasn’t already reading The Year of the Witching for book club, the romance might have been the only thing that kept me going. I could just have easily DNF it. What I struggled with was Enzo’s relationship with Judith. That was the part that felt out of place and unreal. A plot point that was given a quick explanation to explain the issue away. 

The timeline was another issue that created a disconnect with the story. Instead of using certain moments to deliver an emotional punch, such as when she and Enzo were found outside of the forest, Immanuelle explains what happens. Readers are told how she feels. We don’t get a chance to really feel it. Oh, so having such and such happen, a scene that you seem to think is important enough to include, doesn’t matter when it comes to its overall outcome. You’re just not going to help me out when you got my heart pumping. I have to wait a whole three pages, like nothing happened, to see that we’re all just okay. What was even the point?

And then we get to the end which is another flip of the coin on whether I liked it or not. The ending feels real in the struggle, but rushed in the execution. It’s heart pounding while also drawn out to the point of boredom. Couldn’t Immanuelle’s plan have been reasoned out a little better? Some things come too easily while others are equally hard. If you think I’m a seesaw, imagine how my brain feels right now. 

So as you can see, my thoughts are honestly down the middle for The Year of the Witching.

This is turning into one big love hate relationship. I guess you have to decide for yourself if the book is worth the read. 

Happy Reading

Love Kait

Reading Challenge: 149/175