Truthwitch (The Witchlands, #1)

by Susan Dennard

The first in the Witchlands series, Truthwitch by Susan Dennard is a brilliantly imagined coming-of-age story perfect for fans of Robin Hobb, Victoria Aveyard and Trudi Canavan.

In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate in their hands.

Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.

• ISBN13: 9780147523754
• Publish Date: 5 January 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 25 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Random House US Audio
• Format: Audiobook (UK Trade)
• Pages: 1
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Truth isn't always easy The treaty has held for many years but now it's crumbling and at the centre of this is Safiya and Iseult. Two friends who want some adventure but not as much as is heading their way.
Iseult is a truthwitch and that skill is rare, now she want to try to hide this and have some freedom but a ball and the handsome Merik might make her wonder about possibilities. Then there's kidnapping, chases, a seemingly deathless bloodwitch and a lot of shennigans.
 
It was an interesting read with interesting characters. It's did have some moments where the story stuttered a bit but overall I want to read more in this series.
 
With a little stretch this could be Creepy Crawlies (between the bloodwitch and the Sea Foxes) much of the adventure occurs at sea so it could be Fear the Drowning Deep if I hadn't used that one already, it also falls into Spellbound, but I've also used that as well.  Ah well, I'm going to regard this as a miss for the game.

[abookishblether]

Update: I re-read this book over the past two days, and I really really enjoyed it. I think this series is a top YA series for me. And I still stand by my reasoning behind not giving a full five stars in my original review. Onto the next few books so I can pick up Bloodwitch!!

If I was the type to give half stars, this would be 4.5 stars.

Truthwitch is a fantastic tale of friendship between two young women as they face to save their own lives. And I adored it. I don't really read YA because it doesn't keep me guessing enough, but this book had enough going on that I loved every second.

I have only two complaints. Firstly, there wasn't enough world building for the world to feel clear. I had absolutely no clue what a thread witch was for the longest time or why they needed to keep emotionless. I think the story would be vastly improved if the different aspects of the world and it's history had been introduced more carefully.

Another complaint would be regarding the dramatic use of language. It was not a common occurrence, and I'm quite sensitive to melodrama in my media, so it was a forgivable sin in my case. However, what on earth does "stasis in my fingers and toes" mean? Because stasis means inactivity and unless the character is hoping for paralysis I have no clue what she means.

[Katie King]

Got a little confusing at the end. Still not sure what really happened. A lot of the culture/magic still unexplained and confusing. I also feel like some sections weren't quite connected...Iz spends that time at home but she never really brings it up again to the point where I forgot it happened.

[paperbackjedi]

“I hate this. Both the storm and the plan. Why does it have to be ‘we’? Why not just me?"

“Because ‘just me’ isn’t who we are,” Iseult hollered back. “I’ll always follow you, Safi, and you’ll always follow me. Threadsisters to the end.”

Truthwitch, at its core, is a story about unconditional friendship. We meet Safi and Iseult as they’re trying to claim their freedom and build new lives. Their friendship rings heartily and true throughout the narrative and it’s refreshing to see both characters acknowledge their own flaws and each other’s and just be like, this is what we’ve got and what we’ve got is good, even with the messiness that sometimes comes from our actions and choices. They have very much chosen each other and continue to choose each other and will always choose each other at the end of the day. I particularly like how they complement each other; Safi being the impulsive, sometimes bordering on reckless, whirlwind of a girl and Iseult with her careful eyes and analytical quiet assessing their escape routes. It’s gorgeously rendered and a good anchor for the heart of the story.

It also features a strong and impressive cast of secondary characters (who actually feel like main characters with all the attention and love their given) with their own subplots, arcs, and narratives. In fact, I’m sure a few of these characters who dart in and out of the paths of Safi and Iseult (or sometimes doggedly pursue them *cough* Aeduan *cough*) will capture your heart just as swiftly and completely (*cough* Aeudan *cough*). Truly, this cast of characters is both rich and beautifully-rendered. It’s very rare that I care about every character in a book/series, but Dennard left me with little choice in the matter here and I expect you’ll find yourself in a similar situation.

Truthwitch is masterfully crafted with Dennard weaving multiple plotlines that come in and out of scope at the exact right time, rewarding the attentive readers with moments of AHA! that come back to tie up threads left dangling for a purpose. It’s incredible how seemingly insignificant things end up tying together nicely in future events. The tension builds slowly as the world and stakes unfold in front of us, watching two girls realize their destinies are much bigger than they had imagined try and figure out how to survive the danger of them.

The world of The Witchlanders is ripe with history and culture, which is a daunting task for any author, but Dennard handles it with grace and precision. At first, readers might be a little intimidated and confused at the sheer breadth of it; the different types of witches and the magic that accompanies them, the political conflicts and intrigues playing out across the landscape, and the references to events that create the history of the universe can be a lot to take in, but I promise if you take your time and let the story breathe with you as you learn it’s shape, you will have taken the exact journey Dennard intended for you to take at the exact pace and it’ll be a truly rewarding reading experience. And that ending? Will leaving you reaching for the next volume stat. All in all, this is an excellent book that begins a series that will blow your mind and tug your heart. Don’t let the dense beginning stop you from experiencing the world of The Witchlands. It’s a complicated, magical, smart, difficult beast, but one you will love and recognize in ways that will haunt you for months after you finish reading. Good luck and enjoy, my friends, you’re in for a ride.

[girlinthepages]

I finished Truthwitch just in the nick of time, about 4 hours before I saw Susan on tour for Windwitch's release. I am so happy to report that despite procrastinating reading Truthwitch for a literal year (due to hesitation regarding how much insane hype surrounded its release and not wanting to forget everything before its sequel came out) I really enjoyed Truthwitch and love Susan's writing just as much as I hoped I would.

Truthwitch is a high fantasy YA series starter that yes, you guessed it, focuses on main characters who are witches. At the forefront of the novel is the incredible friendship between Safiya, a Truthwitch, and Iseult, a Threadwitch. The story starts with them attempting a heist that goes awry, and the rest of the book is back-to-back-to-back nonstop action as they set off on the run from the domino effects that their failed heist sets in motion. Woven into the narrative of their friendship are two other POV characters, Merick, a Windwitch and prince of a destitute country, and Aeduan, a Bloodwitch monk (I actually really loved Aeduan, perhaps because Susan's describing him as a "Hufflepuff who thinks he's a Slytherin"). Once I was able to get a bit oriented in the world with the details gleaned between the constant fighting and escaping scenes, I found that I really enjoyed Susan's take on witches and their powers.

I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I struggle with high-er fantasy because there's so man new names, locations, settings, etc. and there's only so much a map can help with. While at times I found myself a little confused and had to reference the map or earlier passages in the book to remember what country or character was being referred to, I found that my fascination with the witchery more than made up for my confusion. I love how there are witches who have powers derived from elements and the elemental Origin wells. (Windwitches, Waterwitches, etc.) and witches who's power are more based on emotions/non-elemental (Truthwitches, Threadwitches, etc.). While I did wish there was perhaps a bit more clarity or a guide on the types and sub-types of witches (for instance, a Waterwitch vs. a Tidewitch) I LOVED getting to know more about each type of witchery that the POV characters possessed, especially Iseult's power as a Threadwitch. Threadwitches can see the threads that bond and bind and even break, and each thread is connected to an emotion, which is associated with a specific color. I've always been super intrigued by the color spectrum and color theory, and it was utterly fascinating to me to see which emotions/threads were associated with which colors in the book.

One of the more engaging plot points for me personally was the political and racial tension between the Nomatsi (the nomadic-type people that Iseult's descended from) and the major empires. Iseult suffers from blatant disgust to downright violence because of her background and physical features, and her return to her original birthplace for a brief duration in the book doesn't fare much better, as she's seen as out Outsider for leaving. There's a whole political plotline wrapped up just witin the Nomatsi that is going to be interesting when it starts interacting with the larger empires and impending war at play.

Another aspect that I feel sets Truthwitch apart from many other YA novels is the true and honest focus on frienship at its core. Yes, there are romances that build throughout the novel, however Safi and Iseult's friendship never feels like it becomes the second-tier focus of the story. It's flawed and has its issues (AKA Safi's impulsiveness often getting them into pretty bad situations) but it's ever-present and is literally just friendship goals (it's funny because Susan and Sarah J Maas are super good friends and I can personally totally picture Susan as Iseult and Sarah as Safi! But perhaps that's just me ;)). I will say that sometimes it was a little difficult to discern between Safi and Iseult's POV shifts because there voices felt really similar at times, but they are Threadsisters so I suppose that's to be expected!

Overall: Even though I was hesitant over the hype Truthwitch received upon its release, I really enjoyed it! It scratched the surface on a lot of really interesting fantasy elements and I hope that there's a deeper dive into the world in Windwitch (which is sitting on my bookshelf staring at me right now). I think this series shows a lot of promise and I'm excited to continue the character's journey within it!This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 4.5 Stars

This book is filled with action, adventure, and at its heart, and epic friendship.

Safi and Iseult have a friendship everyone should be jealous of. One dark, one light. One impulsive, one level headed. One a Truthwitch, one a Threadwitch. Both independent, but interdependent on each other for love and support. I just adored these two together, and cheered for them as they set out on their mission.

Yes, I loved Safi and Iseult, but the book has many characters to adore. There is Prince Merik. His tangles with Safi were quite amusing. I loved how these two danced around the obvious, but I also loved Merik's commitment to his people and his crew. He had such a strong ethos, and when I was given the opportunity to see him through Safi's eyes, I could not help but fall in love with him.

Another standout character for me was Evrane. She was as strong as all the other females in the book, but she was also very wise. There was just something really special about her, which is apparent when you consider her connections to other characters in the story.

All that physical training, Merik had said, plus a witchery men would kill for. Think of all you could do. Think of all you could be.

This book kept me throughly entertained, was filled with engaging characters, a captivating story, and some really strong messages about female friendships, girl power, and choosing your own destiny.

Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

Truthwitch was a book I wanted to read because leading up to it's release, everyone was going crazy about it. Once it was released however, a lot of people changed their minds about it, so I put it on the back burner for a while.

My Thoughts

Truthwitch was an interesting story, yet at the same time I feel like it didn't quite reach it's potential. The world building lacked the consistency I was after, it was sparse in places and I found it hard to figure out what the surroundings looked like. A lot of the time I also couldn't figure out who was talking, or which character the part of the book was about.  Safi and Iseult both had such similar voices and thought patterns that I found it difficult to distinguish the two at times. This led me to re-reading paragraphs or pages because I got confused and the story stopped making sense.

The Romance

There's a little romance in this book between Safi and the prince. I really liked their scenes together because they were explosive around each other as if neither could hold on to their composure around the other. Their relationship was rocky and violent at the start, near the end it was all tension and you're waiting for the release to happen.

The Witches

I wanted to know more about the witches! How did they come to be? How does each type of witch use their power? What are they used for? How does cleaving happen? The whole concept sounded really cool, but I found myself constantly asking those questions. There wasn't enough back story. And when there was a back story it was info dumped at the beginning of the book.

Safi was a Truthwitch meaning she could tell a lie from the truth, under circumstances. For example, if someone was saying something that they genuinely believed to be the truth, then her power would automatically think it was true. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's true. Being a Truthwitch was rare and the synopsis makes it read that everyone would want a piece of Safi if they found out what she was. Throughout the story however, I didn't feel like her being a Truthwitch was that much of a threat. She would reveal to people she was one and they wouldn't be that surprised. But I can see how the plot was shaped around this fact, and I can see how in the next book Safi is going to be used. So it will be interesting to see where this idea goes.

The Story

I found the story started off rather slow. The beginning was info dumping and memories and I was getting bored because nothing was happening! Everything was being explained and right then at that moment none of it made sense because I had no idea what the story was referring to or what it was even about. I was lost right from the beginning.

It was disappointing, I had to go back and re-read the beginning once I had read more of the story and had context to refer to. The story also jumped around a lot, there was so much happening that it got a little hard to keep up.

Overall

Truthwitch was interesting in places, there were a lot of badass scenes and I definitely want to see where the story goes from here. But there were also a lot of things I had problems with and it was a little hard to get through this book which was disappointing.

Always,
Jordon

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift

[anne]

Continuous action-tick. Female protagonists-tick. Engaging characters and plot-tick. Deep and meaningful-unnecessary. Literary merit-good enough...

[ladygrey]

This is one of those books I liked but didn't love. I like Susan Dennard. She's friendly and nice and it makes me want to like her books.

It's clear that she's grown as an author since the [book:Something Strange and Deadly] series. She's adept with plot and keeping the story interesting.

But there was something removed about the whole story. First, it took me a while to get into the world because there were a lot of new nouns and those nouns turned into adjectives and figuring out the difference between a person's country and their surname was far too difficult more than once. It's was a lot in the beginning and kept me from falling into the story.

And there was an artificial formality to some of the language. Every time she started a sentence with "For" it felt like Amy March quoting something she didn't really understand so that she'd sound smart. "For as they say..." It just felt like she was trying too hard.

Then the characters were good and all but I never really loved any of them. I never felt much of anything as I was reading. And I think that's because it's the sort of book where things are told. They're told well and with some obvious craft. But still they're told. Especially the climax for Safi's character where she shifts - it's not something we see in a decision she makes or in a conversation or reaction. It's spelled out in internal monologue. "I've always [cut for spoilers] and I don't like that about myself or how it turned out. I need to [this] instead." And then we see it play out through the remainder of the story. Everything about the characters felt like it was spelled out in their internal monologues and... it kept me from being really engaged by any of them.

Which isn't to say I didn't like them. I liked the four main povs and wonder if they'll be our four books.

And I will totally give her credit for a very good ending. I was sure there weren't enough pages left to do everything and I'd be stuck with a cliffhanger but she wraps up all the character development well and keeps it opens for the next one and didn't leave me feeling that it was rushed or unsatisfying.

Overall, it was almost a fun read and I'm looking forward to the next book to see what comes next in this world and where Merik's character goes.

[cornerfolds]

DNF @ 25%



That was disappointing. Truthwitch has been on my to-read list for MONTHS! For the longest time I couldn't go anywhere without seeing this book on every kind of social media, other blogs, even Amazon wouldn't shut up about it. I even bought a hard copy of this! But I was running short on reading time and decided to grab the audio from my local library. You know, I love audiobooks. LOVE THEM. But man... when you get a boring one it is actually painful to pay attention. And this one was painful.

This book has no plot. I made it 25% of the way into Truthwitch and the only thing I know is that Safi and Iseult are being chased by a Bloodwitch for... reasons? Literally nothing is explained in the first 25% of Truthwitch and the reviews I skimmed through have told me it probably wouldn't have gotten much better. There is no world building. Random words are thrown at the reader and EVEN THE CHARACTERS don't know what they mean! The two female characters were so dull I kept mixing them up! Their special magical powers were literally just them sensing things. This book was a mess.

Honestly, Truthwitch struck me as a total ripoff of The Grisha Trilogy (and a badly done one at that). At least from the audiobook, I got the feeling that this was written with a Russian(ish) setting in mind. A few of the witches mentioned are Tidemakers Waterwitches, Squallers Airwitches, and Heartrenders Bloodwitches. Alina Safi is a Sun Summoner Truthwitch, the ONLY one of her kind. The love interest, Sturmhond Merick is a prince who is also a pirate ship captain whose brother sister thinks he's weak and not capable of ruling a country. I mean... Does this author not know about Leigh Bardugo? Honestly? Are other people not seeing what I'm seeing??

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I just couldn't force myself the other 75% of the way through this book. We all win, really. I don't have to read anymore and Susan Dennard doesn't get a 1 star rating on Goodreads! Hurray!