Review: The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

I was so worried about this book. When I first heard about it, I wanted to read it very much. So many others were excited about it too. But then reviews came in. And they weren't that positive. And I got scared. So I did not read my eARC from Netgalley. Sigh. But I still pre-ordered a hardcover copy of it.

And then today I finally decided to give this book a try. And, well. I didn't love it. I didn't love it at all. But my feelings are a bit complicated right now. I sort of hated the first one hundred pages. But the rest was a bit exciting. And the writing was pretty great. But still. I'm going to give this book two stars.

Which is all kinds of depressing. Because I did want to love it. But there was so much about this book that bothered me. And I'm going to try my best to describe it all, yet not talk that much about this book. There will be spoilers. Because I can't not mention this one plot point. And it is spoilery. Yet obviously not even a big part of the book, which is why it annoys me so much. Ugh. But even though I had some big issues with this book, and even though I'm giving it just two stars, I did enjoy the last half of the book. It was a bit exciting and interesting. Yet too silly as well, so that annoyed me. But it wasn't bad. Just not nearly good enough for me, so I did not love it. Yeah. Trying to explain all my feelings :) Which might be way too many. Ugh.

This book is about sixteen year old Elizabeth. Whom is a witch hunter. We get to know some things about her. But not nearly enough. So I never felt a connection with her. I liked her, a little. Until I found out that she had sex with the king before the book begins. It was rape, yes. But it disturbed me a lot. Because it isn't talked about. She thinks she deserved being killed for having herbs not to get pregnant. I hated how this book did not talk about what happened with the king. At all. Just, ugh. Very annoying.

First it bothered me, because I thought the king was all kinds of old. Then I found out that he is only nineteen. And that bothers me even more. Seriously. Why was it even included in the book? I hated it. And it made me not like Elizabeth very much either, which did not make me happy. Sigh. But it isn't a big part of the book. Which is why I hated it so much, hah. But yes. Very annoying to me. But even so. I did like Elizabeth. Sometimes. I just felt nothing for her. I wanted to like her, though. Wanted to so badly.

Especially because of her friendship with Caleb. I mean, it could have been a great friendship to read about. Except she was in love with him. And he was not in love with her. And it was so so very silly to read about. And I won't say more than that. I didn't think of this book as a love triangle. Considering he didn't seem to ever feel anything for her. Then there was John. I liked him a lot, but knew too little about him. The romance was way too fast; they didn't spend nearly enough time together. Not good.

I'm not saying much about the plot at all. Just that I did like it, somewhat. But it was also so silly and I didn't understand much of it. Why Elizabeth seemed to like these new people so fast. How they all seemed to like her so well too. How John basically fell in love with her the moment he saw her. I liked the part about the witches. I was curious to know more about all of that. But of course, not much in this book was about witches. Hmph. Not much about hunting either. So yeah. Could have been much better.

This book is set in a different world from ours. And while I liked that, it spent way too little time telling us about this world. I didn't know nearly enough about it. Just about nothing. Ugh. Just that there are witches. And witch hunters. And that Elizabeth is one of those. I thought she would end up being a witch. I was wrong. So that disappointed me too. I just, I wish this book had been better. But it wasn't. And that hurts my heart a bit. But yeah. I did like some things. But not nearly enough to enjoy this book.

There is this, you know, climax at the end of the book. The big fight with the bad guy, or whatever. And my gosh, it sucked. Truly. First, I couldn't tell if it was real or not, and that is a big no-no in books for me. Be more sure what is real and not real while writing, please. I need to be able to tell. Sigh. And then that fight thing was so silly and overdone and I didn't like reading about it at all. Which was a bit weird, as I had liked most of the things that happened before the fight. Hmph. Disappointed me so very much.

I just read that there is a novella from John's point of view. I think I want to read it. I'm not sure yet. I'm considering it. As I did like John a lot. But I felt like the romance didn't make much sense at all. Ugh. It could have been written so much better. Sigh. Yet I did like John. And I am curious about the sequel. But considering it is so far away, the chances are not big for me reading it. I probably won't. But I do wish to know what happens next, though I found the ending to be so silly. Which truly bothered me.

I don't know what else to say about The Witch Hunter. It disappointed me. But to be honest, I knew it would. I had hoped it would be better, but it wasn't. It still is gorgeous, though. And I did like the writing a lot. I just couldn't stand the story. Ugh. Which just hurts my heart a bit. I'm not really sure I would recommend this book to others. But I am curious to know what other people think of this one :) So you should read it, and then let me know. Because I didn't hate it. Truly. But I did not like it either. Hmph. Thank you oh so much to Hachette Children's Books for letting me read this book via Netgalley :)

 

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