Name: The Orphan Witch
ISBN: 9781250797377

Paige Crutcher

A deeper magic. A stronger curse. A family lost...and found.

The Orphan Witch

Amanda

Do you love Practical Magic?
Pirates of the Caribbean?
Wandavision?

Then I recommend you go watch those again and leave this book on the shelf.

Here are my notes up to the 60% mark when I just couldn't take it anymore:

I'm reading The Orphan Witch and it's just... Not right somehow? Like it has wonderful elements, but it's told in a confusing way, like not "I can't follow this" but "why is she telling this story in this way?". Also it's an instalove and it's so unbelievable and unnecessary. It's like it's trying to be a more complex version of Practical Magic but missing the heart that made that story work. The lead isn't particularly likeable and the rest of the witches are all idiots letting darkness lead them around by the nose when they should be smarter by now

"a story doesn't reveal every side of itself to every reader all at once" says the hot (questionably) librarian, and that's when the light bulb went on. That's what this author is trying to do. She's trying to tell bits of a story from many different angles and has something BIG planned that she's trying to hide from the reader. She's planning a big gotcha moment for her characters and the reader 🤦🏻‍♀️ (I skipped to the end, the gotcha was not a surprise at all)

Also, she makes a big deal about the power of 3 but then has every single witch in the story be a pair of sisters? Except for the lead (bet a sister shows up later), and never has any of the witches notice that? The witches all have exactly two daughters and this isn't worth investigating? The author is either trying too hard or only a one trick pony when it comes to character creation... or maybe both. The island were literally called The Three Sisters but then every set of sisters is two? Every set, from every family. And nobody ever mentions this bit of weirdness?

The love story is so cringy. Also it was totally unnecessary. This story should have had no men in it and just focused on female friendship and family.

Save yourself the time and effort...its too late for me.

Jessica Williamson

2.25

Who knew a book about witches and family and cute boys and curses could be so damn boring. I honestly considered DNF'ing this multiple times because I just didn't have a lot of care in me for what was going to happen to the characters.

The cover is gorgeous, so it has that going for it at least. I'll also add that if you're more of an "academic" or "literary" reader, you might enjoy this far more than I did. 

The characters were all little cardboard cutouts of one another. It was hard as hell to remember who was who (other than Moira was grumpy and Hyacinth was bubbly) because they were all just . . . there. The other two sisters? Couldn't tell you a darn thing about which attribute belongs to which girl. And it's not that it wasn't mentioned, it just wasn't told well. The MC is a big old "I'm not like other girls" Mary Sue with no parents or family and she must harness this power she didn't know she had to save the world. We've read this story a million times, and it's been done better.

There might have been a plot but it was so far buried under existential BS that I couldn't really find it. Persephone has to go to the island. She has to save the island. Here's some roadblocks. They all mush together and it was just completely lost on me. This honestly felt like a 700 page book for the time it took me to slog through it. And that my friends, is a pacing issue. But because it felt like nothing was happening, it was all just . . . there.

Clearly from the above you'll know this writing style just doesn't work for me. I feel like we just kept being told the same things a thousand times but nothing was happening. And the few times something did happen, it was just this little flash and then everything was pulled back from you. So you were just left wondering about everything. I don't mind vagueness or not getting the answers until much later in the book, but I need there to be something else I enjoy about the book in the mean time. There was no humor, no joy in this book. It was all doom and gloom and that's fine, but I don't think that's what the author was going for.

And the only real "plot twist" was evident from chapter two. I knew exactly what was going to happen centuries before it did. - Wait? It didn't take centuries to read this book? Funny, it sure felt like it. 

I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

cover 4; characters 2; plot 2; pace 2; writing 2; enjoyment 2

"Mystical, magical, and wildly original...If Alice Hoffman and Sara Addison Allen had a witchy love child, she would be Paige Crutcher. Do not miss this beautifully realized debut!"--- JT Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of Her Dark Lies on The Orphan Witch. A deeper magic. A stronger curse. A family lost...and found. Persephone May has been alone her entire life. Abandoned as an infant and dragged through the foster care system, she wants nothing more than to belong somewhere. To someone. However, Persephone is as strange as she is lonely. Unexplainable things happen when she’s around—changes in weather, inanimate objects taking flight—and those who seek to bring her into their family quickly cast her out. To cope, she never gets attached, never makes friends. And she certainly never dates. Working odd jobs and always keeping her suitcases half-packed, Persephone is used to moving around, leaving one town for another when curiosity over her eccentric behavior inevitably draws unwanted attention. After an accidental and very public display of power, Persephone knows it’s time to move on once again. It’s lucky, then, when she receives an email from the one friend she’s managed to keep, inviting her to the elusive Wile Isle. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. However, upon arrival, Persephone quickly discovers that Wile is no ordinary island. In fact, it just might hold the very things she’s been searching for her entire life. Answers. Family. Home. And some things she did not want. Like 100-year-old curses and an even older family feud. With the clock running out, love might be the magic that saves them all.

A Novel

Nickie Mohler

3.5 stars

Persephone has had a rough life. She went from orphanage to orphanage, never finding a true home. It almost happened once, but bad things happen around Persephone. Especially if she looks into your eyes.

I thought this was pretty good. I loved the witchy vibes. Great for spooky season. I liked the characters and the magic. I think my favorite parts were when they talked about the history of their families and the witches that lived before them. 

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a review copy.

The Orphan Witch

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