4.75, rounded up.

Before I start, I would just like to say: afab people using binders, do NOT use a binder the way Wyatt does. He contemplated sleeping in one and I nearly had a stroke. Don't sleep in your binder, don't exercise in your binder, don't wear it for more than 8 hours, take it off if it starts to hurt. Be safe.

Normally when I like a book, I don't bother with a super detailed review, because I'm lazy. In light of the extremely mixed reviews on this one, however, I've decided to take a different approach. THE WITCH KING isn't for everyone. It's unabashedly queer, it's written in the voice of a terminally online abuse survivor who's difficult to love at times, and the humor can be a little--to quote some of the 1 star reviews--cringe.

All that being said, I ADORED this book.

I think if you were raised on MG/YA books like Percy Jackson, like I was, you may have been a little spoiled. Despite all the magical bullshit and no therapy, Percy and his friends remained lovable, relatable, quirky kids we could find ourselves in. Wyatt is not that guy. I didn't really start to like him until about 70-80% of the way through, and even then, it was frustrating to keep reading in his pov because it was so clear that his dynamic with Briar was not sustainable and that Emyr loved him, but he wasn't doing what he needed to do to get better. But that's life, isn't it? You go through some terrible shit, and sometimes you don't rise above. The self-hatred makes you a worse person, unable to see what's in front of you, unable to see who you are and what you can do. And so, you lash out. You make the wrong choices. You depend on other people to take care of you when you really need to take care of yourself.

To tell the truth, I think a lot of the reason I didn't like Wyatt at first is that he reminded me too much of me. Not the parts of myself that I like, not the parts of me that are lovable and relatable and quirky. The hard parts. The parts of me that build codependent friendships and push away love and make deals with the devil. I read to escape that, not to confront it. I think it speaks to Edgmon's skill as a writer that even though I didn't like Wyatt most of the time I was reading this book, I got him, and I wanted to know what would happen to him next. Moreover, I think Edgmon deliberately putting forward a difficult protagonist (and admitting that he felt very close to this character!) speaks to their courage. It would have been far easier (and probably more profitable) to write a story with a bland, vaguely likable protagonist in which the heroes upheld the status quo and saved the monarchy. That's not what Edgmon chose to write, and I'm immensely grateful. By the end of the novel, Wyatt has conquered (most of) his demons and made a commitment to love and to be better, and while it was a long journey to that point, I'm so happy to have been a part of that. I really think Edgmon is going places. With everything going on in the world right now, we need writers who encourage their readers to heal themselves and dismantle these systems in the process.

And they did it so well! My jaw was on the floor when Spoiler he revealed that Briar was part-witch and had opened the door to Faerie. I truly think that was some of the most masterful writing in the book. Wyatt's voice contributed so much to the effectiveness of that twist: he thinks of Briar as this perfect angel who can do no wrong, as a fragile human he needs to protect, and so we as the audience are lulled into this way of thinking along with him. The illusion breaks, and we see her, really see her, at the same time he does. Absolutely fantastic. THIS is the kind of writing I want to see from up and coming authors.

To briefly touch on what I didn't like: the book dragged for a little bit after the crew got to Asalin, there was one part where Wyatt describes a Black woman's hair as looking like an "elegant bird's nest" which I'm sorry, no, unacceptable, and Spoiler the twist with Clarke was not NEARLY as well set up as the one with Briar like Clarke was saying "oh everyone's already pieced it together" bestie no I did not because you being evil came COMPLETELY out of left field . But overall, I'm really impressed with this, and I'm excited to read the next book!

My feelings about this book are definitely complicated.

There were a lot of things that I liked. The dialogue was fun. Wyatt’s narrative voice was incredibly entertaining (though I can definitely see why some readers wouldn’t like it). Every scene that was just characters hanging out and bantering was extremely enjoyable. 

I loved several of the side characters, especially Briar (though I’m not sure how I feel about the twist regarding her character, even though it was totally unsurprising). 

The politics and the ruminations on oppression were interesting, but more on that later.

But then there were a LOT of things that didn’t work for me. Here is the list, in no particular order:

Anyway, I guess I’d recommend this book if you’re looking for YA low fantasy with a soft magic system and a trans main character. It does those things well. It just also has a lot of issues.

What an incredible and beautiful story focusing on a complex and layered main character. I love the world building, the language and the characters 

One of the things I really appreciated about this story is that the author went all out when it comes to diversity. There's a wide range of characters with different genders, sexualities, races, and there's even a (very minor) hijabi fae character. Definitely haven't seen that before, and even though she barely had any page time, I still appreciated that she was included.

I enjoyed Wyatt as a character overall, but he didn't always feel consistent. One moment, he'll profess not to care about something, and 50 pages later, it's suddenly a problem. He's angry at
Emyr one moment, and horny for him the next. Being in his head is a roller coaster, but I didn't mind it for the most part. I enjoyed his interactions with Emyr and his relationship with Briar, which was really sweet. I do think we're never really shown the depth of either relationship though, just told about it, which is unfortunate.

The two weakest parts of this book are the plot and the writing. The initial premise is already pretty shaky: Wyatt strikes a deal with Derek, Emyr's enemy/rival for the throne, to make such a mess of things that everybody will be against Emyr marrying him. And then he proceeds to supposedly cause chaos, but in a way that he's never caught at it, so nobody actually knows he's messing anything up. Wyatt definitely didn't understand the assignment.

There's also no sense of urgency; even big events get swept away under the rug in a very anticlimactic manner that makes one wonder why it was included at all.

The ending doesn't make any sense, even after it gets explained. I still don't understand what exactly happened, or how the explanation we're given matches with the actual events that occurred.

The writing doesn't really leave room for the reader to interpret anything by themselves. Everything is spelled out for you, from how Wyatt feels about what's happening now, to the parallels we're supposed to see between the human world and the faerie world.

There's also a lot of overexaggerating. For example:

The story is written in first person POV from Wyatt's perspective, which is common enough for YA. However, lines like:

make it feel more stream of consciousness, which isn't really my preference when it comes to fantasy. I'm not interested in every single thought Wyatt ever has about everything, but that's kind of what I got. 

Great ideas poorly done. There’s so much I wanted to love about this but I was so disappointed. I hate to say that I’m glad it’s over so I don’t have to read anything more about you tongues flicking over lips, wings shooting out, more mouth stuff constantly over and over again. I didn’t even mind the meme-y writing, I think that’s actually fun. I just cannot with these descriptions repeating what easily has to be at least 100 times. 

It also feels like the story needed some rearranging and adjustment of length of various scenes. There was so much potential :(

This was such a fun book. Wyatt is so dramatic and probably needs a life coach to help with decision making, but I love him. Emyr was a great surprise and idk, he can be my king any day. I love how supportive the main group in this is. Also, the ending - RUDE. Off to buy the sequel. XD

I loved the book. I loved the vast amount of representation we see, the way fantasy tropes are exposed for it's colonialist background, the anti-establishment evident in many characters. The childhood friends-to-enemies-to-lovers was a slow burn I loved. All very good stuff!

Wyatt is an angry mc (for good reason) but doesn't process that anger in productive ways, so I could get frustrated with him at times. I also recognize he grew up in a very restricted environment and has only a few years in the human world to deconstruct - so wyatt overlooks his white privilege in some of his monologues. He also 

has to be warmed up to the revolutionary ideas of his friends, and i almost come to count on his friends more than him - i guess that’s why the plot twists work so well 

But overall I loved reading it and I think you will too!