Truthwitch (The Witchlands, #1)

by Susan Dennard

[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.