The Lost Witch by Melvin Burgess
Thirteen year old Beas’ life goes through a rapid change when she suddenly starts to see and hear things that others can not. Confused and a pretty scared, she seeks comfort from her parents, that, convinced that she’s mentally ill, wants to take her to the hospital. At the same time, Bea is being approached by a group of witches that says that her visions is a sign of her special powers. They also state that she’s now in danger, because of the evil Hunt, wanting to destroy everything good and bright in the world with their dark magic. Conflicted and scared, torn between the (maybe not so safe) safety of her family, and her want to help out the other witches, Bea is soon (literary) dragged into a dark story of conflicting magic and straight on abuse.
Rating 🐖
I don’t often write a straight forward bad review, but folks, this is it. Even if I dislike a book, there’s often something to the story or the writing style that I appreciate. In The Lost Witch however, this is not the case.
The story balances somewhere between MG and YA, which I think adds to the odd writing style. Almost all of the story is explained and spelled straight out rather than figuratively told, which adds up to no feelings being felt during the reading. The magic and the way this whole fantasy world is working seems random, and I just don’t get it. There’s also a ridiculous amount of exclamation marks.
The biggest problem is though (surprisingly) not the writing style or the construction of the fiction universe. It’s the events of the story itself. The story where thirteen year old Bea, alone and scared, gets kidnapped, physically and psychologically abused, and then put on trial and blamed for it all. Without any form of hint from the moral in the story, the authors way of depicting it, or the after word that this is the wrong way to go about it. It’s not just conflicting, its distasteful, at the very least.
Dr. Bea does NOT approve
If you wanna read something about magic and witches, but without pedophile sex scenes and victim blaming, I recommend The Magisterium-series instead.
