Angie
Written on Jan 4, 2014
I was very excited for Witch Finder, because finally, a witch book that is not about the witches saving the world from evil. Luke is out for revenge after his parents are murdered by a witch. Now that he's old enough, he decides to join the Brotherhood--a group of men who hunt witches. Luke passes the first two tests to become a member, and then he's assigned the third and final test. He randomly selects a witch from the list, and has one month to kill them. He hopes he gets the man who killed his parents, but he winds up with Rosa, a young woman who is no threat at all. Luke hates witches so he sets about his endeavor anyway, and looks forward to becoming a full member of the Brotherhood so he can hunt his parents' killer. Easier said than done.
Witch Finder was oddly both interesting and boring. Unfortunately, boring won out in the end. I found the whole idea of a group fighting against witches interesting and refreshing. For the most part, the witches aren't good people, so it's no wonder they want to be rid of them. However, nothing really happens. It's obvious that Luke will have a change of heart about killing Rosa, but his dilemma wasn't engaging at all. He just sulks about how he doesn't want to kill such a sweet girl, but he has to because of vengeance! Meanwhile, Rosa is the picture perfect woman of the time aka boring. She has no personality whatsoever, and is just a delicate flower who can't stand up for herself. Yawn.
The witches of Witch Finder aren't very witchy at all. They pretty much only remove stains from their clothes, fix tears, and other mundane tasks. Rosa's mom does a spell to be able to hear through a wall once, and Rosa mends a paper. Really? This is what witches do that cause men to tremble in fear and want to eradicate them? They even do a few...healing spells! Gaps! Healing, the horror! Well, Rosa's fiancé does do some pretty horrible stuff with this magic, but that doesn't come out until the end. Up until that point, the witches were super dull.
The best way I can describe the overall plot of Witch Finder is convenient. Mostly nothing happens for the majority of the book, but whenever something does, it's...well, convenient. Luke needs a way to kill Rosa that won't draw suspicious on him? Oh look, a rickety old bridge that can't support a person and a horse, and Rosa is riding a horse! There's a few other things that had me rolling my eyes, but they're spoilers. But really, one of these events at the end wasn't even explained how it was possible. It just happened. Probably the power of love or something.
Witch Finder was quite disappointing. I was hoping for lots of evil magic, based on meeting Rosa's family and fiancé, but nothing came of that. Luke's powers as a witch finder are barely touched upon. They're just another convenience, but not really, since it served no purpose. The plot switches from "let's kill the witches" to "let's save the poverty stricken people of London" and I just didn't care. Rosa was down right dull, so I couldn't get behind the romance. I doubt I'll be reading the rest of the series.
Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.
