The year is almost half over and if I want to even remotely resemble the previous years, I have to get started on my list of reads to make my Mid Year stats post!
I decided to start with something good.I have read and reviewed the author’s previous work : here
The first thing that hit me and then proceeded to envelop me was how the story was written. To call it lyrical is not enough to convey how it resonated with me. Whether I was following the story within the words or not, I definitely appreciated the writing. When I tried to talk about it to someone else, I equated it to a linked chain; each word held the next in place and so forth, making the entire book a continuous flow.
I started with the best part (for me). I will now move on to the story itself. As the title proclaims, we have witches past, present and the future, but it is the present that concerns us the most because our lead protagonists of the current fight live in it. It is historical fantasy fiction which means their present is our past (sort of). The times are dark and challenging, especially for women and minorities. With a small spark and shared pain, things start to shake and change. There is no conclusive ending here but an ongoing fight. The underlying point, which I think the author successfully conveys, is the concept of ‘seeing’ the other people in your surroundings instead of just passing them by.
The only reason I am not giving it a full five stars despite all the glowing praise is that it felt a little too long. Nothing actually repeated, so I can not say what I would have skipped. Overall, if it had been shorter, the spell the words cast on me would have held on a little longer, and I would not have been able to put the book away the number of times I did (in order to do regular day to day activities). I would recommend it to people who like a little spin in the style of narration. People who prefer a more straightforward approach are not those I would coax into giving this a shot.
The fight and the consequences, the pain and the bonds form the core of the narrative, and I actually enjoyed it even more than the previous work.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the ‘words’ in the book are the only thing that influenced my review.
Superfluous Reading 