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 

 

The Witch King is a hilarious, powerful, and enjoyable read. There was incredible world-building, astounding humor, and the cast of characters all had unique, loveable, and flawed personalities which left them feeling very real. Wyatt’s anger was such a refreshing character trait, which I don't often see so blatantly in main characters, and while he spoke his mind and took no bs, it rarely, if ever, made me dislike him or disagree with his anger, and the side and minor characters were all well fleshed out, given lives, wants, and needs, outside of their scenes, not to mention the representation throughout the book left almost no stones unturned.

While the writing shines in some places, in others it doesn’t land quite as well. The amount of time spent on character description often took me from my immersion, and the dialogue towards the beginning, at times seemed a bit awkward. I feel a couple of the twists near the end had not being given quite enough foreshadowing which led the reveals to feel out of place or out of character. The messages and points the book covered, at times, also felt a bit too blatant, being almost spelled out for the reader, rather than letting us come to the conclusion ourselves.

While there are moments in the writing that took me from my immersion, Edgmon’s talent shines during the more lighthearted scenes, as well as the twists that were properly foreshadowed. I loved that when plots came together I was able to pat myself on the back for noticing a detail earlier leading me to a conclusion, or a larger mystery that I had theories about and anticipation of discovering which one is correct. 

While I had a few mainly minor and personal critiques of the book, The Witch King was an absolute delight to read and I cannot wait to pick up The Fae Keeper to see what happens next.

 

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 :(

I am the biggest simp on the planet for Wyatt and Emyr. oh me oh my.

This is a pretty solid fantasy story with some pretty impressive world building for a teen book, even though a lot of the language definitely feels like Youth Speak that will probably age very poorly. I really enjoyed the characters, it has all the best tropes, and the conflict was pretty solid for the most part. I've never seen a fantasy-world-hidden-in-modern-world story where the narrator wonders how the outside world has affected the fantasy society, whether racism and homophobia have leaked in where they otherwise wouldn't have away from our world, and I thought that was a really unique and interesting thing to see as part of the story. 

There's a couple plot things that made me wonder if I wasn't paying enough attention to catch the foreshadowing or if it was just random, so I can't say if that's the book's fault or my fault lmao. All in all not bad. It opened pretty strong and had me interested and invested pretty quickly, and the few bumps in the road didn't completely derail my enjoyment of the story. I'm curious where the second book will go.