Review: The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

"The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. "

"If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. "

"And there are no strangers in the town of Near." 

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. 

But when an actual stranger--a boy who seems to fade like smoke--appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.
 
The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him. 

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know--about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy. 

Hardcover, 282 pages

Published August 2nd 2011 by Hyperion Books CH 

(summary grabbed from GoodReads)

When I started reading The Near Witch, I thought I was getting into a scary mystery type ghost/witch story appropriate for Halloween.  Ha…well, I was surprised.  The Near Witch takes place in a imaginative and fairy-tale-like middle Earth world where witches and humans live together, though not always happily.  Witches basically are people with special abilities and are feared, but not directly persecuted.  The two witches in the town of Near prefer to isolate themselves than deal with the fear of the townspeople.  The town of Near itself is an isolated village surrounded by moor and newly shaken by the appearance of a stranger. 

Our heroine, Lexi, is one of the strongest female leads I have ever read.  She strives to be like just like her father, a brave hunter who trusted the witches in town and wanted to learn from them.  Her bravery and intuition make her a great tracker, much to the dismay of her uncle who has taken over as man-of-the-house with her father’s passing.  He wants her to be a normal girl doing normal girl things -- get married, stay in the kitchen, and have babies.  I greatly enjoyed how the author had the character deal with these expectations.

Victoria Schwab’s prose and world building created this whimsical dreamy land for the town of Near.  It added to the experience of reading the story and gave it that little extra something.  The novel had a very different feeling than any other that I’ve read.

Lexi and Cole’s relationship had very little build up.  Her initial intrigue made sense, as she’d never seen a stranger before, but their feelings escalate very shortly after meeting.  In other words… insta-love.  It didn’t seem completely out of left field and wasn’t twu wuv at first sight, but it was rather sudden.  I forgave it, as I usually do.  Ultimately, I felt that there was room for growth in the love department.

Everything aside, I feel that The Near Witch is worth reading for the prose and main character alone.  That said though, the story was pretty good, but not totally amazing.  The mystery of the book was pretty easy to figure out, honestly.  I’d recommend it for light reading for when you’re feeling mysterious…

Final Thought: 33 out of 45 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Dust by Devon Ashley

4. The number of times my delicate wings have been broken and clamped behind my back.
68. The number inked upon my skin, marking me the sixty-eighth pixie to be stolen.
87. The number of days I’ve been wrongfully imprisoned.
88. The first day the faeries will regret stealing me.

Healthy. Cheery. Vivacious. All traits Rosalie has before becoming enslaved by the faeries to make an endless supply of pixie dust. Now that Rosalie has been traumatized by slave labor, extreme desolate conditions and multiple deaths, this hardened pixie is anything but. When this rebellious teenager attempts an escape, she’s isolated in cramped quarters until she learns her place. Just as she begins to let go of all that hope, she finds an unlikely friend in Jack, the faerie assigned to guard her. Interspecies dating is forbidden in the fae world, so their growing attraction is unacceptable. And even if Jack can find a way to free her, they know the prison is the only place they can truly be together.

Clean YA Fantasy.

Official Book Page: http://devonashleywrites.blogspot.com

(grabbed from GoodReads)

Disclaimer: I’m rather hungry, so I’m going to use a lot of food analogies and metaphors.   Dust was delicious.  I was taken in at first bite and it left me licking my plate clean, ravenous for more.  I need more fae on my plate…okay that came out weird, no more food talk.

From the first page, we are vividly introduced to Devon Ashley’s world of pint sized fae.  We get a sense of the true freedom Rosalie has as she flies through the forest canopy that is painted in such detail that the reader can just feel the wind rushing through her hair as Rosalie dives through the sky.  But! these feelings of weightlessness are ripped away from Rosalie and the reader; she is stolen from her home, has her wings bound and broken, and is forced to make pixie dust for faeries (who in this book are their own race along with pixies and spriggans).

Rosalie’s account of survival in the faerie’s work camp is heart-wrenching -- working long days with very little food and in miserable heat.  I found myself very emotionally involved in Rosalie’s journey; I would despair with her at her situation and cheer for her as she tried to overcome it.  I may have even audibly ‘wooted’ when she repeatedly insists on being called her name by her captors, and not the number they assign her.  Within the camp, Rosalie and the reader learn bits about her world together, and along with that, find Rosalie’s inner strength.  Watching her grow into the survivor she didn’t know she was at first was beautifully and expertly done. 

Dust is the first fae book I’ve read in a long time that was told by a fae.  Not one that didn’t know what it was yet, not a half faerie, not a human who half-wittingly stumbled into the faerie world -- no, Rosalie is a normal pixie.  Standing tall at six inches, it was pleasure to read how her small stature changed the normal forests we know into a brand new world.  For example, a berry was almost a whole meal and a raccoon, instead of just being a menace, was an actual threat.

As I awkwardly noted above, I am desperate for the sequel.  I need it.

Final Thought: 9 out of 10 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

This was my first ARC tour ever!  Yay!  This tour was with The Book Babe’s Blog Tours.  Also, if you’re interested in the book, the Amazon link is right… here.

Review: The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published August 16th 2012 by Dial Books

 

A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.

(provide by GoodReads) 

It's not too often that when I stop to take a short break from reading, glancing at the cover as I close the book, that I actually think to myself "what an appropriately titled book." It is about just that: the treachery of beautiful things. That being said, this book also has couple things to one-up other faerie books: it is not corny and it starts immediately. No random and useless character development here. For example, Jenny introduces the reader to her parents within her own thoughts, but in a way where it develops her character (not the other way around). One thing I particularly liked was that the main character was not immune to getting hurt. Bad things happen to Jenny, giving the story an overall dark feel to it. I've read other books where the character ends up in faerie land, has something terrifying and awful happen, and then ends up with barely a scratch in the end. It's simply unrealistic.

That being said, there are a few things to keep in mind. There are two types of stories: ones that advance because of the characters and events that follow their actions, and those that are propelled by events with the characters adapting and reacting to these events. This book was the later. We are more used to character based stories, so this has a different (refreshing, for some) formula. However, with the characters constantly reacting, the romance part of the novel didn't feel as real. With them constantly reacting, where was there room for feelings to grow? I felt that aspect was under developed.

If you are looking for a great love story with happy faeries thrown into the mix, look elsewhere. But if  evil faeries are your thing (or you're not quite sure if they are) and you want a different kind of faerie tale (with some old English lore thrown in), this will be a great book for you.

Final Thought: 6 out of 8 toadstools
Review also available on GoodReads