Jilo (Witching Savannah, #4)

by J. D. Horn

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

5 ★ Audiobook⎮ In my mind, J.D. Horn saw how unhappy the ending of The Void made a lot of his fans, so he decided to bless us with Jilo to make up for it. That probably wasn't the case, but if it was, I only have one thing to say: Apology accepted. This story was not only historically, but also extremely culturally enriching. Jilo ended up being my favorite character from the first three installments of this series. Being able to see her life in a full and proper installment only expanded my love for the character. Horn has a way of making me love all of his characters. My love for Mother May (Jilo's grandmother) in this installment rivaled that for Mother Jilo in the first three installments. There's something about the way Horn writes the Wills matriarchs that just endears me to them. Who needs those uppity Taylors, anyhow? This installment was so incredible. I'm almost speechless after finishing it.

This installment is more like a novella in the sense that its events are not essential to the understanding of the Witching Savannah series (Mercy's story; installments 1-3), but it still provides a whole lot of beneficial "filler" information regarding Jilo's upbringing and young adulthood, as well as extremely interesting first and secondhand information about her ancestors. I believe I can now definitively say that the Wills are far more interesting to me than the Taylors. I am so glad that this deserving character and her captivating family finally got the attention they deserve. If Horn would like to continue doing singular installments like this and devoting entire books to telling the background stories of each of his characters, I am completely here for that. He creates such dynamic characters and fleshes them out so well that a strong plot is hardly even necessary. It's hard for me to say in absolution, but I think that one could possibly read this installment before beginning The Line. In fact, I kind of wish I had. I like reading things in a chronologically linear fashion (because I'm a square like that). I'm no re-reader, but this book makes me want to go back and read the first three installments all over again.

Narration review: Overall, Mia Ellis did a fine job of narrating this story. There were some stumbles and awkward pauses throughout, but the thing that most significantly stands out to me about her narration was her talent in voicing the characters. I was nearly floored every time a new character was introduced with his or her own distinct voice. At one point I wondered "How many voices can she do?!". Ellis' talent seemed boundless. The timbre of her voice was very pleasant and I thoroughly enjoyed her performance. ♣︎