Season of the Witch (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, #1)

by Sarah Rees Brennan

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from BookCon 2019 and Scholastic Inc. in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Nope, nope, nope.

Let’s be honest here, media tie-ins are always a risk. First of all, most the time they make the assumption that you’re already a big fan and that’s why you’re reading the book. I personally believe they’d be a more effective resource if the two could stand alone, and make you want to seek out the other. Season of the Witch made me want to avoid The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

I think it’s in part because of the complications of this story. Season of the Witch is being marketed as YA because Sabrina is fifteen and the subject matter is too mature for middle grade, but the characters are too immature for adult. In this, it’s fair to say that Sabrina is probably a true YA heroine because she acts like a kid. Unfortunately, YA as a genre is saturated with flowery writing and mature characters probably better suited for the New Adult genre which still (somehow) does not exist. Therefore, reading Season of the Witch left a weird taste, as though it were oversimplified and not quite right.

The simplicity of the writing wasn’t all that bothered me. The book is written in pieces. Every other chapter is Sabrina’s, written in first-person past-tense on white pages with black text. The chapters in between are each given to an individual character, written in third-person past-tense on black pages with white text. The change in voice and formatting threw me every single chapter, bouncing out just enough that I couldn’t get immersed in the book. Additionally, most the even chapters added nothing. Instead, the book became a novella of one of Sabrina’s adventures and nearly glimpse of her love story, peppered with short stories about her co-stars. It never felt cohesive.

As for the characters themselves, they’re super flat. Having not watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix, I’m not sure if the author was relying on readers to be fans and know characters inside out? I felt like even with the even chapters, there were too many characters without any depth. I didn’t feel emotionally attached to anyone, and there was a lot of telling and not a lot of showing and that style of writing just… bores me.

This book is an easy read – I read most of it in one sitting. I do think it’s going to be a weird one to market, because I’m not sure how many YA readers are going to be content with the simplicity of the writing, and I certainly hope middle grade readers are not picking this one up. Unfortunately, I really don’t feel like Season of the Witch will translate over to an adult audience.

Fans of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will either love or hate this one, but I don’t think there will be much in between. For those who are not watching the show, I don’t think I’d recommend this book, even though it’s a prequel. There aren’t spoilers, and I don’t think anyone would be confused… I just think you need to be a fan to enjoy it.