An Epic Fantasy Novel (The Black Witch Chronicles)

Don't believe the negative hype. This book is fierce in its lessons and understanding of racism and prejudice. It narrates the growth and philosophical insight of a privileged youth as she learns that peace, compassion, and understanding are much more important than power and privilege.

*Original Review On Goodreads & My Blog*

This book was fan-freaking-tastic! Even though I wanted to beat about 1500 people ?

I love about 15 people in this book! They were so d*mn awesome!

First off, Elloren, Rafe and Trystan were all brought up by their uncle Edwin. And good ole uncle brought them up to be good peeps. They were all still tarnished by untrue beliefs but it all comes out in good time ladies and gents!

They are all descendants of The Black Witch and uncle is keeping some things hidden from Elloren

Then ole evil auntie comes and takes Elloren off to university where her brothers go. There is a lot in between that storyline but you can read that yourself. Evil auntie wants Elloren to marry this mage named Lukas. When Elloren refuses, auntie makes it hard for her at university.

You see the Garderians think they are the better race. We have elves, werewolves, selkies, dragons, etc. They are called The Evil Ones, which is cr*p. Well, auntie sets it up where Elloren has to work with some said Evil Ones and bunk with some said Evil Ones. Little did evil auntie know, this is the best thing that could have happened to Elloren because she eventually finds out the truth about these creatures and makes friends with many and so do her brothers. There is even love in the air ❤️ But none of this is supposed to happen so a lot of stuff goes down.

I seriously hope we see Elloren come into her own in the next book. I know she has to be all powerful damn it and I want to see her fire up the world!!!

****SPOILER QUOTE****

Sweet Ancient One in the Heavens Above, what a mess we're all in.

I've stolen a Selkie. Yvan's plotting to steal a military dragon. Both Rafe and Aislinn are in love with Lupines, and I'm becoming increasingly close friends with a shunned Elfin Icaral.

This has actually gone way beyond a mess. We're all threading on increasingly dangerous ground here.

What on Erthia are we all going to do from here?

****END QUOTE****

Like I said before, I love so many of the characters but the werewolf Diana is my favorite. She's just bad to the bone!

Mel ❤️

Started 'The Black Witch' last night and would have read through the night, but the battery on my kindle died... So I reluctantly went to bed.
Came home from work and jumped back into this fascinating novel to the end - but it's not the end & I want more!!!

I enjoyed stepping into Laurie Forest's fantasy world and experiencing the magic, setting, and demographics along with naive Elloren.

The high points of the novel for me were

(1) diverse cast of characters, each with her own agenda, some obvious, others not so obvious.

(2) a world and University where different races interact, each with its own beliefs and customs.

(3) an imaginative magic system and set of abilities (telling the origin tree from touching an object or material) that made Elloren a unique protagonist.

(4) combating the old guard, which mirrors in many ways young adults having to fight our parents' generation's outdated ways of thoughts.

The weak points were few, mostly production-related:

(1) the writing isn't always of as high a quality as you'd hope. The description goes on too long at times. First-person present tense limits the amount of sophistication in the writing, and restricts suspense. First person present POV occasionally makes the telling seem infantile and too immediate. Third-person past would have been more appropriate, given that this is an older audience (characters are all in their late teens, nearly college-age and above).

(2) excessive politics. I hate politics in real life and don't want to read government intrigue in fiction either. As a first book in the series, Laurie Forest would have done better minimizing all the talk of government roles, who's who in the adult mage rankings, and other rather boring diversions. I thought Mage Marcus Vogel's rise happened too fast to be believable, and Elloren simply hears about it one day, like a convenient plot device sprung too suddenly. Stick to the school, the fantasy, and the immediate plot surrounding Elloren, and the book would have easily been five stars.

(3) lusty description. Elloren's repeated sensual descriptions of her physical and mental obsession with Yvan really took away from the novel. I didn't buy Black Witch for chick lit-level romance, and it did feel blatantly directed at a female audience much too often. Elloren's attraction to Yvan was clear from the start, and relentlessly pounding that into my head almost made me want to put down the novel at several points later in the book. His strong jaw, intense gaze, muscular body, warm touch, ... these were all way too overdone for a fantasy YA novel. Way too sappy, way too sensual, way too distracting from the novel's main plot. Even Lukas, who strangely disappears halfway through the novel, is presented too sensually, making me question whether the author wanted to write a fantasy novel or a steamy romance.

(4) protagonist inactivity. I kept waiting for Elloren to gain magical powers, but we see almost no sign of it until her magical accident in the last few chapters. Even then, it is clear she has little control of her powers, and almost all of the plot events happen because of other characters intervening. Lukas saving her from the kitchen assistants. Assassins saving her from Fallon Bane. Yvan attacking Damion Bane before Elloren can swing her skillet. Yvan saving her from the dragons. Professor Kristian saving Tierney. In MG/YA, the protagonist needs to be a prime catalyst for overcoming antagonistic forces, and even though I have full confidence Elloren will one day face down Fallon Bane, her lack of action did nothing to help the novel. Even if she didn't yet have control of magic -- despite her learning at University -- I wanted her to at least grow, learn, and show something: magic, attacking with the skillet, any kind of physical intervention instead of always fleeing and letting her friends do the dirty work. She's the protagonist!

(5) the book is available only in hardcover (even the UK doesn't have paperbacks yet), and the pages are all of differing lengths with fringed edges, like the printing machine just torn them apart. This makes the book seem of a much lower quality than it really is, and it makes it harder to turn the pages, even as the story keeps me reading fast. The cover is also plain and easily torn.

(6) the map also seems needlessly plain to the left and right of the spine, devoid of important geography or towns. Ironically, all of the important towns, cities, and landmarks all cluster around the central spine of the book's binding, making it hard to see the most important places. Since so much of the story takes place in University, a closer-up map of the University grounds, much like J.K. Rowling includes with Harry Potter's Hogwarts, would have been more appropriate.

Overall, relating young girl school life to a world of high fantasy and magic makes for fantastic reading. It is much more exciting than Tolkien and other high fantasy where little to no action happens, and where teens can't relate to characters because the background is too foreign. I can relate to Elloren, and her friends and foils all have believable personalities. Well done!

This book preaches diversity not racism. I first heard about this book from an NPR story about the blogger who sparked a social media backlash before the book was released to the public. The blogger must have not read the second half of this book.

LOVED! Initially got it because I heard it was being trashed as racist. Awesome book about overcoming prejudices and stereotypes and learning to make your own path. Easy read. Can't wait to share with my kids.

Hard to believe this is the forest's first novel. Great plot, good structure, comfortable flow, and broad vocabulary. One can tell that Forest put a lot of time and love developing this captivating storyline.

4.5 stars

The Black Witch is Laurie Forest's debut novel, and I envision a promising career ahead for this new author. I was initially daunted by the length of the novel, thinking that I didn't have time to fit it in my schedule. But all the controversy (more on this later) made me want to read this book for myself - and once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I read it over the course of a day and late into the night... and got killed by the cliffhanger! I got busy tweeting today to the author telling her to write fast because I need to know what happens... luckily she advises that the next installment is already written, so hopefully we won't have a horribly long delay.

This is one of the more provocative young adult novels that I have read, set on the fantastical world of Erthia. Erthia has various races (species? / cultures?) of mages, sorcerers, elves, fae, lupine and wyvern shapeshifters, etc. Each culture has its own strict religion and belief system which sees non-members as impure, demonic, or otherwise inferior. As you can imagine, there is a multitude of prejudice in this fantastical society, and the author does not pull punches when showing just how horrid some of these belief systems are.

Our heroine and narrator of this tale is Elloren Gardner, a seventeen year old girl of the Gardnerian race of mages. She has been raised in a small town sheltered environment by her kindly non-violent uncle, and her worldview is limited to what she has been taught by her family, and what she has read in the Gardnerian's Holy Book. So Elloren is in no way prepared for what she will face when she enters the integrated University (magical boarding school) for the first time. Through difficult experiences, multicultural integration and education, Elloren starts down a tumultuous path of enlightenment where her worldview evolves and expands. While I found Elloren to be incredibly naive (through no fault of her own), I admired her opening her mind to other opinions and beliefs. It was not always easy for our heroine to change her way of thinking, particularly when she was hated and bullied by others, but she challenged herself and sought answers instead of sticking her head in the sand and taking the easy way out.

Elloren was not the only character broadening their beliefs, she collected a variety of allies and victims during her short time at the University. As these students were drawn together into their small resistance group, the author demonstrated how team work (even from a small group) can work to make a change. I liked that Elloren was not the only character who needed to challenge and change her beliefs. Through an examination of holy books and histories, we saw that each society had some aspect that would not be considered politically correct in today's society. From racism to sexism to homophobia - this was a book that made you think, explore and analyze multiple points of view. Doing this while becoming embroiled in the angst, drama and action made for a very busy brain and that 608 pages flew by very fast.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received from the publisher, Harlequin Teen.

As to the controversy surrounding this book, it really saddens me to see fellow readers calling for the censorship and banning of books. I, in no way, think that this author was condoning any prejudice or homophobia or misogyny, but instead showed the evolution of our heroine and her friends breaking out of that mold, changing their worldview and joining the resistance. And honestly, the societal situation in this book is not uncommon in fantasy, paranormal and historical stories. If you don't like to read about these issues, don't read the book. It's simple. But the majority of the people who I see blacklisting this book and/or rating it poorly, have not even taken the time to read the story for themselves. Instead they have joined a hivemind to bash an author and publisher. Listen, its fine if you read and don't like it... write a review and state your reasons why. Don't just start bashing authors and publishers and then link to someone else's review without forming your own opinion. That reflects poorly on you. As of the time I wrote this review... I only saw 2 negative reviews from people who actually read the book. The other 700 one-star ratings were from the hive mind who admitted that they did not (and would not) read the book. So I urge everyone to read the story for themselves before forming your opinion or bashing an author.

I really enjoyed the message of this book--that racism can happen on all sides and the importance of education in fighting misconceptions, stereotypes, racism, ect. And not just to understand others better but to understand your world better. This really is about the main character learning how to combat her own prejudice through education, by truly listening to other people and hearing their stories, and reading and absorbing ideas not given by the historical winners. This is such an important message and it needs to be heard.

Started out really interesting and i enjoyed the different characters. Storyline a tad predictable, and i was frustrated that she still knew nothing of her powers by the end of the book hence the 3 stars. Some characters a bit one dimensional. I will probably still read the next installment though.

I am a white nationalist. I bought this book because it was loudly criticized by leftists, on the theory that anything condemned by leftists must be worthwhile. I'll expand this review after I've read it.

If you like clichés and writers whose whole story line and characters depend on them you are going to love this book. The author does not miss any group in popular culture, both those perceived persecuted and those perceived dominant, to use as a model for her characters and racial groups. And the innocent, sheltered main character, Elloren is, of course a member of a rich and influential family from the most dominant and most powerful racial group. She discovers, at a liberal university, of all places, that people from other racial and cultural groups are really nice and just misunderstood. The teeny bopper audience for this young adult genre of literature will absorb the author’s themes like limp, wet sponges. There is ample romantic, sexual tension, fraught with forbidden love, to keep them involved in the story. You can see the ending of this series coming like a locomotive speeding down the track. After a holy and brutal war the enlightened will emerge victorious and a utopian society will emerge where everybody gets along and true love conquers all. Religion will, of course, be banned because it is based on false premises and is filled with hate, A different group of dissenters will be silenced but they will be defined as evil so it is OK. Oh well! It is a wonderful thing to be naïve and filled with self righteous indignation and have a word processer on which to vent your immature thoughts. And it is a financial advantage to have a young, naïve audience ready to read the claptrap. Save your money and your time; this book is worth neither.

This really is a great read. The world and characters are really well developed, making it somewhat of a page turner as you want to see what they do next. While the book is definitely fiction there are parallels to our reality that we can draw and learn from, which is always a plus in a book for young adults. I personally give this author a lot of credit for creating a book my teen actually enjoyed reading (it's actually a very rare occurrence) and it is also one of those books adults can enjoy as well so a good book if you're looking for a story to discuss and bond over with your teen. I usually don't give full five star reviews to books but I honestly can't think of one thing I'd change about this so this is joining the handful of titles that have ever gotten five stars from me. Highly recommend.