The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon Release Date: June 1, 2021 Goodreads Page Author Website Why I love this book: So- this is a hard one for me to answer. There is so much to love about this book. Probably too much to sufficiently cover in a review without going overboard. So I think I'll just laundry list it... - World Building: I've been off reading fantasy for a fair bit of time. I'm been heavy into contemporary books and nothing has really grabbed my attention lately- but this one really caught my eye and I'm so glad it did. I fell headfirst into the world created here and found myself not just wanting to believe in it, but fully acknowledging that this world could very well exist in tandem with ours. - Messy, chaotic characters: I've said before and I will inevitably say it again. I want my characters to be as realistic as possible, and that means I want characters who are messy and who make horribly ill-advised choices. Especially if these characters are Middle School/High School age- they are notoriously selfish and make awful decisions. By and large, they mean well, but they fuck up a lot. Too often we don't get to see that, but I love it, and this book has it in spades. Every character has a purpose to serve, but they are all also complicated and act in ways that are both frustrating and believable. The characters are all wonderful, even the so called bad guys somehow drag you in. - Wyatt and Emyr: These main characters are everything. Wyatt is trans and finds himself in the position of having to return to a place where he suffered an immense ammount of trauma. He has to work with Emyr, who is on the verge of becoming King and is just trying to find his place in the world. You get the sense from the jump that their relationship is complicated and imperfect, but they also do deeply care about each other, they just don't know how to do relationships or fill the roles that are laid out in front of them. They each have the weight of the world (literally) on their shoulders, and that is given space, but they are also both teenage boys pumped full of emotions and feelings and sometimes they just want to get handsy and make out, and that's given space too. It's a really nice balance. You want them to figure their shit out, and when the book ended I was actively frustrated that there is more story to tell about these two and that we don't have it yet. (I'm ready for it!) - Trauma: This book also deals with the abuse and trauma that Wyatt in particular has faced. As a witch he is an outcast, unwanted even by his family. As a trans man he is also on the outside of gender and social norms in his community. Both things make him a target of hate. He sufferes physical abuse at the hands of those who should have protected him. He has scars, both physical and mental, that will stick with him forever. Throughout the book these things are given the time to be looked at and Edgmon does an amazing things here, where Wyatt's experience is easily translated to our world. Where the way witches are treated is paralleled to how we treat marginalized groups, especially here in the US. Through Wyatt's experiences we see ourselves, through the way he is treated, we see how we treat others. It's a mirror held up for us to examine. Some of us are Wyatt, we have trauma and scars, but we keep moving forward, even when we stumble and make bad decisions. Some of us are on the other side of it, our privledge allowing us the ability to ignore the mistreatment of others, the story here showing us the damage that leaves in our wake. This isn't a book about those big issues in the sense that it isn't yelling about it top volume... it is a book about those big issues in that it shines a light on Wyatt's life and asks you to look at your own. It's incredibly powerful. - I cried, a bunch: I'm not a big crier, but every once in awhile a book will hit me in the gut. This book knocked me back a few times. That's how I know it's good, when it comes out of nowhere and suddenly I'm tearing up. I mean, I cried when I read the acknowlegment, so I knew right away I was in trouble. This section in particular got me... While I saw myself in Wyatt in certain parts of the book, this is when I really wished I had an Emyr. Like most people I've made some monumentally bad choices, I've hurt people that I shouldn't have, burned bridges that I wish I hadn't. I've acted out of pain and there are somethings you just can't take back or undo. I do often wonder how people view me, one of biggest anxieties is that people only like me for what I can do for them as opposed to just liking me. So for me, this paragraph hit home. It's a reminder of what I need to hear, but also what I should make sure others hear too.
- Found family: I love a good found family story. I love the idea that no matter how bad your family is that there are other people out there just waiting to be found who will have your back no matter what. The found family in this story is great, again, not because it's perfect, but because it's so realistically done. That Wyatt could step away and find a home, even with all his baggage, speaks to the fact there is hope, that you aren't stuck with what you were given, that there are poeple out there who will hold you together when you can't do it for yourself. It's not perfect, but it's good, and I loved reading about all of them. Anyways... this got long, despite my attempt to keep it short and sweet. This is a great book. I really was actively annoyed when it ended because I wasn't ready to set these characters aside yet. I'm already primed for what might happen next. In the meantime I'll just be hyping The Witch King up in as many places as I can!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About
Home of the ramblings of an avid reader. In my spare time I also run, ride, teach, go on adventures and get into shenanigans. Find me here: Goodreads Etsy TikTok Categories
All
Archives
October 2022
|