Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker Trilogy, #3)

by Josephine Angelini

[ladygrey]

I picked Witch's Pyre up seconds after finishing Firewalker so the two kind of blend together for me. I'd acclimated to the different focus two and three have compared to one (a lot more plot and action, a lot less characters and magic).

Essentially, my review for both two and three is that they had a few good lines but not really any great moments. I wanted to see where the story went and now I know. But there's nothing in them really that would make me want to go back and read them again.

That being said, lots of things in three were a little too convenient for me. Like how she learns to jump everyone anywhere. The pyre burns her but the nifty tattoos (and they were kind of cool) make it essentially effortless and painless and she can literally jump 100,000+ without breaking a sweat.
Also, EVERYONE in our world has magic. In the alternate world it's this rare thing but in our world everyone single person they talk to has the potential to be a mechanic or a witch and is therefore drawn to Lily. Like, really? Everyone? By the sixth person I was bored with it.

The other too convenient piece was the villain. Lillian stepped out of that in Firewalker (even though she was still somewhat antagonistic in both two and three). Then there was the evolution of everyone's understanding of their world after the Big Reveal. Which should have then created this complicated and messy problem. Except that it didn't. It was plug and play villain - Lillian's out, someone else is in. This is the bad guy. These are the good guys. If you're not the bad guy then everyone is a good guy so let's all be friends. Which works fine for a big battle and needing someone to fight. But, really, it was too easy and too simplistic.

And not just convenient, there’s a couple of plot holes that annoy me. When she takes over the coven’s willstones she’s not REALLY possessing them. Because she isn’t controlling them in any way - directing their movements or manipulating their thoughts or emotions. She’s using their willstones as a tool, the same way she did Rowan’s in Trial by Fire. And I get that it’s Angelini’s canon. I’m just saying, her explanation of possession doesn’t align with her explanation of the other thing.
Also, when Lily is on the pyre in her backyard and wont transmute the energy to worldjump without her mother, I get that. But why not transmute it into force to given to her coven fighting Carrick and the others until she claims her mother? They’d be stronger and she’d burn less.
And maybe most of all the whole thing with Tristan. Why would Tristan 1 be the only one who knew Rowan was going to free Lily and go with them? Why would Rowan rely on Tristan 1 to tell Caleb and Tristan 2 instead of telling his stonekin himself in mindspeak?

Part of the reason 2 and 3 blend together so much is because of the narrative thread that happens in two but pays off really in 3. The whole thing with Tristan 1 is just... ugh. Because it's totally sad in two when he dies. Like, I can't believe this really happened. I kept waiting for it to be a trick or to be undone or something. I get it, the story needed him out of the way but still it was a blow. But then when Tristan 2 tells her how her escape all went down and you realize just how selfish Tristan 1 really was, it's hard to mourn him. He totally brought on his own death and hurt a lot of people along the way and... it provided good character growth for Tristan 2 to see that potential in himself. But it's like all of the sudden I don't mind so much that he's dead.

Also, the thing I liked about Trial by Fire were the characters and their dynamic interactions. Those are less in two and almost nonexistent in three. Again, I get it. She's sad about Tristan 1 and Rowan won't tell her the truth and tarnish his memory. And it creates some conflict between them. But still, keeping the most interesting characters estranged isn't that much fun. And the other characters - Tristan and Una and Breakfast - they serve a purpose in the story but there's a lot less of their interplay between them and the emotional connection and conflict. And the magic she was learning and the rules around the different social perceptions and expectations of that magic where part of what made Trial by Fire interesting. There is basically none of that in Witch's Pyre and not enough other parts of magic or something interesting in its place. It's all war and claiming EVERYONE (like, by the end 2/3 of the entire population has been claimed by Lily) and too easy, too convenient magic.

But is it a terrible book? No. It's perfunctory, ties off all the threads pulled in Firewalker and ends the story. It does its job and I guess that's enough.