Not-Struck, It Sucked
Witchstruck
By Victoria Lamb
# Pgs: 320
_________________________________________________________________________________
Overview:
If she sink, she be no witch and shall be drowned.
If she float, she be a witch and must be hanged.
Meg Lytton has always known she is different—that she bears a dark and powerful gift. But in 1554 England, in service at Woodstock Palace to the banished Tudor princess Elizabeth, it has never been more dangerous to practise witchcraft. Meg knows she must guard her secret carefully from the many suspicious eyes watching over the princess and her companions. One wrong move could mean her life, and the life of Elizabeth, rightful heir to the English throne.
With witchfinder Marcus Dent determined to have Meg's hand in marriage, and Meg's own family conspiring against the English queen, there isn't a single person Meg can trust. Certainly not the enigmatic young Spanish priest Alejandro de Castillo, despite her undeniable feelings. But when all the world turns against her, Meg must open her heart to a dangerous choice.
The Secret Circle meets The Other Boleyn Girl in Witchstruck, the first book of the magical Tudor Witch trilogy.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Review:
I'm not quite sure that I liked this book actually. If you've read the book or even the overview above you'll understand that the setting takes place in the sixteenth century when witchcraft was punishable by death; through flames or drowning or hanging. Not quite the pleasant experience I'd imagine. However, while reading the book I didn't feel the torturous suspense or the sense of danger that should've been there regarding the fact that the main character is a witch.
The main character is Meg Lytton, and as I've stated previously, she's a witch. Not quite an experienced one yet as she's just an apprentice to her aunt. Meg is strong-headed, stubborn, careless about just what she has to hide, and at times rude. Her sudden desire for a Priest (who, as you could imagine, would not approve of her being a witch) escalates quickly, so it seems. I say this because throughout the entire book it seemed like the Priest and the Witch, although obviously attracted to eachother, didn't get along, or they were always saying the wrong things. And then at the end when the Priest asks her that ever important question, it just makes me wonder about what romance the author thinks there is. It just seems like desire the entire moment with little to no fluffiness that I think should've been there, if even in the slightest.
In a way I guess it's kind of ironic with, what I had originally thought of as a love triangle before I read the book, the fact that Meg's falling for Alejandro (the Priest) while a witch hunter (Marcus Dent) is trying to get her to marry him. And you might not understand this now, but regarding Marcus and Meg? It isn't what you think; he knows. Sorry, that might be a spoiler if you haven't read the book and can figure out just what I'm trying to say, but I'm not going to elaborate.
Elizabeth is a banished princess, and with every step of the book it becomes more and more obvious just how much she wants to be queen. I'd say she's greedy, but that's not quite it. It's more that Elizabeth hungers to get back that place of power that she could've once had. It's funny, I think, that if you were to consider other books with people of such power to Elizabeth; the desire to be free from the power to make their own decisions rather than decisions for their country versus the desire to be free from the control of someone in control and to take that position instead for yourself; aren't they the same thing? The situations, I think. What I'm trying to say, because I know that I'm a confusing enough person, is that Elizabeth wants to be free from her situation of being watched all the time and to be free to make her own decisions. Wouldn't she still be in the same situation if she were queen?
This book seemed like it was a little too fast paced for me to enjoy, and the setting seemed to jump a lot. One minute it would be now, for example, and the next it would be three months later. Not that there's that huge of a problem with that, it just got too all over the place. I began to wonder when exactly certain events happened and exactly how familiar Meg had gotten to the other characters. Another thing that bothered me was that if we were reading three months or so later after some event or other happened, then why was Meg still hung up over it? I mean, you'd think she'd forget about a little event or saying or something three or so months later, and yet she didn't. This bothered me because it made everything that happened seem repetitive. And repetitive.
I appreciated exactly how much Meg cares for her family, which often enough is problematic to what happens in Meg's life. And as Meg hides her own secrets, she begins to find out more and more just how much her family is hiding from her. Things that are detrimental to her life. Yet when her mother-figure was found out for who she is, Meg didn't seem to take a lot of time to grieve. In fact, after that event, the rest of the book just seemed to go go go- There wasn't enough time to take anything in, or for me as the reader to make a connection to what happened to what was happening. I didn't feel emotionally connected, and I wouldn't say that it was easy exactly, but it wasn't at all that difficult to put the book down and do something else for a time.
Younger teens might like this more than I, me thinks. I've just been learning how to be critical about everything I read after the fact. To me, this book just seemed not quite boring, but close enough that it almost bothered me to read it. Similarly, I'll admit that even with all the problems that I had with this book, I almost enjoyed it. It was almost a pleasure to read, but it wasn't. And in the end I guess "almost anything" doesn't really matter. Just 'cause it was "almost" something, doesn't mean anything about what it was. It's just to say what it wasn't in a gentler way.
Shush, now, me. Now is not the time to psychoanalyze myself.
In any case, I'd rate this book as somewhere between a two and a three out of five, though I'm leaning more towards the two. Thanks for reading, feel free to follow my blog or Twitter, or to just leave a comment below if you have something to say. I really won't mind~ :)
The main character is Meg Lytton, and as I've stated previously, she's a witch. Not quite an experienced one yet as she's just an apprentice to her aunt. Meg is strong-headed, stubborn, careless about just what she has to hide, and at times rude. Her sudden desire for a Priest (who, as you could imagine, would not approve of her being a witch) escalates quickly, so it seems. I say this because throughout the entire book it seemed like the Priest and the Witch, although obviously attracted to eachother, didn't get along, or they were always saying the wrong things. And then at the end when the Priest asks her that ever important question, it just makes me wonder about what romance the author thinks there is. It just seems like desire the entire moment with little to no fluffiness that I think should've been there, if even in the slightest.
In a way I guess it's kind of ironic with, what I had originally thought of as a love triangle before I read the book, the fact that Meg's falling for Alejandro (the Priest) while a witch hunter (Marcus Dent) is trying to get her to marry him. And you might not understand this now, but regarding Marcus and Meg? It isn't what you think; he knows. Sorry, that might be a spoiler if you haven't read the book and can figure out just what I'm trying to say, but I'm not going to elaborate.
Elizabeth is a banished princess, and with every step of the book it becomes more and more obvious just how much she wants to be queen. I'd say she's greedy, but that's not quite it. It's more that Elizabeth hungers to get back that place of power that she could've once had. It's funny, I think, that if you were to consider other books with people of such power to Elizabeth; the desire to be free from the power to make their own decisions rather than decisions for their country versus the desire to be free from the control of someone in control and to take that position instead for yourself; aren't they the same thing? The situations, I think. What I'm trying to say, because I know that I'm a confusing enough person, is that Elizabeth wants to be free from her situation of being watched all the time and to be free to make her own decisions. Wouldn't she still be in the same situation if she were queen?
This book seemed like it was a little too fast paced for me to enjoy, and the setting seemed to jump a lot. One minute it would be now, for example, and the next it would be three months later. Not that there's that huge of a problem with that, it just got too all over the place. I began to wonder when exactly certain events happened and exactly how familiar Meg had gotten to the other characters. Another thing that bothered me was that if we were reading three months or so later after some event or other happened, then why was Meg still hung up over it? I mean, you'd think she'd forget about a little event or saying or something three or so months later, and yet she didn't. This bothered me because it made everything that happened seem repetitive. And repetitive.
I appreciated exactly how much Meg cares for her family, which often enough is problematic to what happens in Meg's life. And as Meg hides her own secrets, she begins to find out more and more just how much her family is hiding from her. Things that are detrimental to her life. Yet when her mother-figure was found out for who she is, Meg didn't seem to take a lot of time to grieve. In fact, after that event, the rest of the book just seemed to go go go- There wasn't enough time to take anything in, or for me as the reader to make a connection to what happened to what was happening. I didn't feel emotionally connected, and I wouldn't say that it was easy exactly, but it wasn't at all that difficult to put the book down and do something else for a time.
Younger teens might like this more than I, me thinks. I've just been learning how to be critical about everything I read after the fact. To me, this book just seemed not quite boring, but close enough that it almost bothered me to read it. Similarly, I'll admit that even with all the problems that I had with this book, I almost enjoyed it. It was almost a pleasure to read, but it wasn't. And in the end I guess "almost anything" doesn't really matter. Just 'cause it was "almost" something, doesn't mean anything about what it was. It's just to say what it wasn't in a gentler way.
Shush, now, me. Now is not the time to psychoanalyze myself.
In any case, I'd rate this book as somewhere between a two and a three out of five, though I'm leaning more towards the two. Thanks for reading, feel free to follow my blog or Twitter, or to just leave a comment below if you have something to say. I really won't mind~ :)
No comments:
Post a Comment