The witches boy might need to be taken off the bookshelves. As of now I am halfway through this book and I've found it to have a plot that, in my opinion, is all over the place. First I will give you an overview of what I've read. It starts off with two brothers that made a raft to go out to sea but while in the water it crumbles and they are fighting for their life in the rough water. Their dada runs into the water but can only save one, the wrong boy, (he was called this because the other brother was much more skilled and like by everyone in the village) so their father brings him to shore while the other villagers get the body of the other boy. This is where it kind of starts to get confusing. The boys mother is like a shaman and is called sister witch by everyone. So what she does is uses her magic to tie the soul of the dead boy to the living one. I know what you're thinking "what the heck is happening" yea that was my reaction too. However this book is split between two characters this boy and another girl from a different village. Her story is that she used to live at sea with her parents but her mom died so she and her father moved to this place called the dark wood. This is where her father returns to his former profession: banditry. So while this is happening there is a group of nine stones in the dark wood that are neither dead nor alive who are waiting for the "wrong boy" to come to them and save the kingdom. So there now you're all caught up. So now I feel obligated to dissect my opinion towards the one person who is probably reading this (Sup Mrs. Black).
I feel as though this book doesn't stick to a good straight plot. The author will go off telling one part of the story and as soon as you get comfortable reading it she switches on you and changes the pace. When this I just find myself feeling jumbled and confused as I try to work my way through the text due to the switch of perspective. I just felt as though the plot is a little too confusing. Also personally I found myself lacking interest and I think this is in part because it's hard to relate to the characters. Like in this quote "as she pierced both soul and boy, as she stitched the two together"
(when sister witch combines the soul of the dead boy and the body of the one that survived). I just find it hard to relate to a boy that's half soul with a witch mother, personally, but who knows maybe
someone else has a witch mother who can sew a soul to them. But along with relating to the character I felt myself not able to relate to the setting as well. The village seems to be slightly medieval with wood cottages and a bazaar type of place in town with fisherman and farmers bartering with one another. I have never encountered such things so I felt I kept struggling to make a clear picture of the setting in this novel. My last discrepancy with this novel is the slow plot development. It explains the boys accident in "The vessel was not seaworthy. Very quickly the rushing currents pulled the raft apart and the boys were thrown into the water fighting for their lives." (2) It continues on from this to explain essentially the quote for two more pages. I feel that the slow plot definitely played a huge part in my sour opinion of this novel.
To wrap up I feel was the perfect storm of dislike for me. With all of the confusing things inside the novel such as the plot or constant direction switching style of the author I just wasn't able to push through this novel. I constantly found myself drifting off while reading due to my lack of focus and interest in this novel. Maybe if the novel was adapted to a more modern vibe I would give it another chance. During the short time I read this book I constantly found myself wanting to put the book down and pull up The Office on Netflix. This is probably the least engaged I've ever been in a book (besides Great Expectations). Lastly as I read this novel I couldn't help but think "Man, I wish I was with those boys drowning in the river right now". Well there you have it, that's what I think of the novel The Witch's Boy so if you ever find yourself having a hard time falling asleep just pick this book up and start reading...I'm sure you'll fall asleep in about three minutes.
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