Review: Truthwitch

Review:

There comes a point when I have to just accept that a popular author is just not for me. Truthwitch has been one of the most hyped up books on my book feeds, particularly my twitter feeds since BEA last year. I love the author, I think she's a wonderful person, and I really do admire her social media presence and the time and dedication she has to her fans. She seems like a really lovely person. However, it would appear I just don't get on with her books. This is the second book by the same author that I have found only okay and mediocre at best. Which really sucks when I really want to support the author.

 

I entered every give away I saw for this title, I've had it on pre order since May 2015. I even considered applying to join the street team on this one. The enthusiasm and hype surrounding Truthwitch has been amazing. Now at the point where I have muted everything Truthwitch related from my twitter feed.

 

On finally getting to read it, it would appear I am a black sheep. I did not love this book. I didn't like it much at all really. I will certainly say it's very creative in its characters and world-building. However, the world building I found to be lacking in description and confusing as hell. I didn't get much of a sense of place or any sort of background or history. You're pretty much thrown into the setting and away we go. It's certainly vivid and colourful and definitely original. But, I just didn't connect to any of it.

 

Partly I think because I just could not stand the main character. For most of the novel Safiya drove me up the wall. Didn't like her much. I didn't get invested in the barely there romance much at all. Stepped up quite a bit at the end, but still didn't really work for me much at all. Starting this novel I was under the impression that Safiya's power - she can tell a truth from a lie in anyone - was pretty much the most sort out and desired type of witchery in the novel.

 

However, her power isn't as awesome as it seems. Very early on she looses all her and her friend's money in a card game. Which had eyebrows arching immediately - if your power is to discern who's telling the truth and not surely you should be able to know who's cheating in a card game? Apparently there are ways Safiya's powers can be fooled. (This point does actually come up at some point towards the end of the novel).

 

Certainly fast paced and full of action. I liked most of the supporting cast. Particularly the best friend Iseult. Who was pretty awesome. One thing I really did like was the two female protagonists, Iseult was not just regulated to a BFF side character. She had a huge roll to play in the story and the friendship between her and Safiya is one of the best things about the book. The rest of it... still just okay. 

 

The second half of the novel was a lot easier to follow once they were out of the city and onto a ship. The plot picked up quite a bit and started to make a lot more sense. Some fairly interesting character interaction. But once you get past the ship and onto the next destination, there's another plot twist thrown in involving some sort ancient prophecy and the role Safiya and Iseult are supposed to play. But again - there's no background or anything to explain this! It's tell and nothing to even give much history on this prophecy or anything. It's pretty much from those who know about it we've known about this forever and this is it, it's happening now. Very confusing. I'm assuming this is something to be explored in further books. 

 

 

Not entirely convinced it's a series I want to continue, really. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1332161/review-truthwitch