witchshadow – GoodeyReads

Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 464 pages
Author: Susan Dennard
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release Date: June 22nd, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Susan Dennard’s New York Times bestselling, young adult epic fantasy Witchlands series continues with Witchshadow, the story of the Threadwitch Iseult.

War has come to the Witchlands . . . and nothing will be the same again.

Iseult has found her heartsister Safi at last, but their reunion is brief. For Iseult to stay alive, she must flee Cartorra while Safi remains. And though Iseult has plans to save her friend, they will require her to summon magic more dangerous than anything she has ever faced before.

Meanwhile, the Bloodwitch Aeduan is beset by forces he cannot understand. And Vivia—rightful queen of Nubrevna—finds herself without a crown or home.

As villains from legend reawaken across the Witchlands, only the mythical Cahr Awen can stop the gathering war. Iseult could embrace this power and heal the land, but first she must choose on which side of the shadows her destiny will lie.

BORDERLINE.

I enjoy this series, I do. And I read a lot of fantasy. This is one of those fantasies that I’m on book four and still feel turned around half the time about the world building and who’s doing what and where. It feels borderline genius or convoluted. And I flirt with that line every other chapter. Which is why my rating is lower. While an enjoyable book, the density of everything can be hard to grasp.

The complexity of the characters and their arcs are something I liked in this installment. There was SO MUCH going on. Honestly not very many dull moments. The continual rotation of point-of-view keep the action moving and the pace steady. Iseult definitely saw the most growth and I love that this book focused more deeply on her story. I did miss some of the general relationships (friendship and romantic) that have been brought up in previous books. Everyone was kind of on their own for most of this one.

I’m curious enough to keep reading the next book in the series. I have plenty of questions and I know the writing will be as great as always. It’ll be interesting to see how this series ends!

Overall audience notes: