Let’s all drown in The Demon Tide, with all the dragon divorce and tree grudges that entails. Together.

★★★★★

(4.5 stars)

The Black Witch Chronicles is my special little beast. Despite being (with this book) a bestselling series, I never see anyone talk about them, or acknowledge them- good or bad. Yes, there was the ridiculous fit when book one came out, but the series has been developing now for five other books without much vocal discussion.

That’s where I come in, evidently: my most viewed reviews on this blog have always been of The Black Witch books, and I’m on some twisted mission to draw every single of the too many characters in this epic YA fantasy quintet. It’s my burden, one I deeply enjoy. Actually. Can you imagine that? Me, noted hardass, loving something? But I do.

For all its weird lore additions and cheesiness and too-much-romance and dragon marriage, I greatly enjoy The Black Witch Chronicles. It’s earnest and imaginative and all about love. It doesn’t rely on ‘Fantasy! Real country’ like so many others, living entirely in a very magical, weird world. It focuses on culture, religion, and social divides, with a message clear about the need for empathy across all of that. It’s about love in a time of a fascist reign that doesn’t care about infighting, only hate, and how we need to stay together and fight that. Yes, it’s ‘that book about fantasy racism’, but it’s really ‘that book about fantasy hate, and fantasy love and fantasy war’. And Dragon bereavement.

Especially now, four books in, this series has come into its own, able to tell a compelling story with nuance and care that at times before it faltered against. It’s a really fun book that never left me bored, despite being a veritable brick at 700 pages hardcover. It was a joy, and I loved it, I really did.

Okay, who wants to now get spoiled on every aspect? Ready?

The Shadow Wand pulls you into darkness and gets lost from there

★★★★☆

(3.5 stars)

A fun fact is that my most viewed review on this blog is, for some reason, my Iron Flower review. I can’t fathom why or how this has happened, but clearly the public want Black Witch Chronicles long reviews. And boy, am I here to help. Ready for a review where I sound like I hated a book I enjoyed?

The Shadow Wand, book three of the Black Witch Chronicles by Laurie Forest, is a book that makes some choices. I think some less favorable reviews have said it feels like an entirely different book than the last two. I highly disagree. The Shadow Wand is what the Black Witch was leading towards the entire time, and we just hit the riptide. Get ready to drown.

Spoilers (many!) and plot details ahead.

The Black Witch isn’t as bad as the twitter drama made it seem

★★★☆☆

(2.5 stars)

(second read 2020: 4 stars)

Hold on- you’re telling me book twitter drama was actually over-the-top, misjudged, and unfair? What sort of nonsense is that?

Yes, you may not have been around for it, but I was active on twitter when the Black Witch was about to release, and controversy was swelling. Head of it was now-disgraced Tristiana Wright (author of a book that ironically has the same issues), and one particularly long (good) review. People were rating it one star without looking at it. We all kind of took it at word, and well, quote- there’s plenty of unsavory quotes to take from this book.

I didn’t preemptively rate it like some folks I knew, but I did reference it in a school essay about ‘genre fiction and the dangers of allegory.’

I’ll break down the short of it here, then do the book review proper: this book is vehemently hated and rejected because of racist views. The worldbuilding is heavily based on various fantasy races, and the main character belongs to one that is strict about ‘purebloodedness’. She begins racist, as is her whole society, and learns very slowly over the course of a long book. The world is also sexist and homophobic.

However, the book itself is aware of all this. It’s aware these are all bad ideas, and is very clearly a story about unlearning prejudice and ingrained ideas. It could have done a lot of things better, but it means the opposite of harm, and has been judged far too harshly.

“You haven’t followed politics because you haven’t had to. And it shows.”