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A review by catsteaandabook
Witchlings by Claribel A. Ortega
2.0
Witchlings starts with the young witches of this world being sorted into covens. Our main characters get sorted into the “spare” coven, which is from the get-go shown to be the least desirable coven. When the girls are unable to bond their coven, they decide to take on an “impossible task.” They are tasked with killing the Nightbeast, and they will either succeed, die trying, or be turned into toads. An interesting enough premise, unfortunately it really failed on the execution.
Originally, our main character thinks spares are just not treated very well. They can’t get as good of jobs and people generally ignore them, but we quickly learn that their oppression is much worse than that. One character is shown to use magic to yank on the spare that works for her and literally drag her home on the ground. Later, a character proposes a law where spares are either imprisoned or enslaved. Okay, so we are in a world with a class of extremely oppressed people. Are we going to show how oppression like this thrives on corrupt systems and internalized prejudice? No. It is shown to be upheld by only a few extremists while the majority of people are opposed. If that’s the case, why is no one doing anything? I get that the main characters are children and unaware, but their parents are shown to be very aware of what’s going on and opposed to it. They’re supposed to be good guys. So why are they doing nothing? Why are they at the very least not even educating their children on this?
The parents. Oh my god the parents are useless. These children are on a quest where they will likely die, and their supposedly “good” parents don’t seem to care. If my child was required to do this thing where if they failed they would be turned into toads or likely die, I would be doing absolutely anything and everything I could to help them. Literally one of the big problems in the book is that they can’t access certain information on the Nightbeast because they’re children. Okay! I’ll get it for you! I know that the parents aren’t allowed to actually kill the Nightbeast for them, but they could do WAY more to help.
The ending also bothered me. The villains turn out to be spares. While the discussion of racist oppressed people is a worthwhile one, and one I think can be had with children, the fact that so far the only bad people in the book have been extremely racist, having the villains be the people they’re being racist towards is a poor choice imo, especially when that reveal is too close to the end to really have a discussion about it.
This book was entertaining and had good messages for kids, unfortunately it just really failed on the execution for me. It reminded me a lot of The Owl House, (I love that show) but I think The Owl House is executed infinitely better.
Originally, our main character thinks spares are just not treated very well. They can’t get as good of jobs and people generally ignore them, but we quickly learn that their oppression is much worse than that. One character is shown to use magic to yank on the spare that works for her and literally drag her home on the ground. Later, a character proposes a law where spares are either imprisoned or enslaved. Okay, so we are in a world with a class of extremely oppressed people. Are we going to show how oppression like this thrives on corrupt systems and internalized prejudice? No. It is shown to be upheld by only a few extremists while the majority of people are opposed. If that’s the case, why is no one doing anything? I get that the main characters are children and unaware, but their parents are shown to be very aware of what’s going on and opposed to it. They’re supposed to be good guys. So why are they doing nothing? Why are they at the very least not even educating their children on this?
The parents. Oh my god the parents are useless. These children are on a quest where they will likely die, and their supposedly “good” parents don’t seem to care. If my child was required to do this thing where if they failed they would be turned into toads or likely die, I would be doing absolutely anything and everything I could to help them. Literally one of the big problems in the book is that they can’t access certain information on the Nightbeast because they’re children. Okay! I’ll get it for you! I know that the parents aren’t allowed to actually kill the Nightbeast for them, but they could do WAY more to help.
The ending also bothered me. The villains turn out to be spares. While the discussion of racist oppressed people is a worthwhile one, and one I think can be had with children, the fact that so far the only bad people in the book have been extremely racist, having the villains be the people they’re being racist towards is a poor choice imo, especially when that reveal is too close to the end to really have a discussion about it.
This book was entertaining and had good messages for kids, unfortunately it just really failed on the execution for me. It reminded me a lot of The Owl House, (I love that show) but I think The Owl House is executed infinitely better.