The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

Book: The Black Witch

Author: Laurie Forest

Series: Book One of the Black Witch Chronicles

Where do I start? There are so many things about this book that I loved, I could probably talk about it for hours. But I’ll start out with a spoiler free overview, and then get a little in depth (mainly on some characters) for those that don’t mind some spoilers.

The book follows Elloren Gardner, a 17 year old Gardnerian who, as far as she is aware, is powerless. She lives in a wonderful (in my opinion) fantasy world of magic. Gardnerians are a race filled with witches and warlocks, often referred to as Mages. Their power is measured by levels, with one being the lowest and five being extremely powerful. Elloren is a level one, though she looks identical to her grandmother, who was the Gardnerian’s last Black Witch- the most powerful Mage alive. Her grandmother died during a huge war between many races, and there is prophesied to be another Black Witch coming who will fight and kill an Icaral (viewed as an Evil One in Gardnerian religion, but are actually simply part dragon) and that will mark the beginning of the Gardnerian’s lasting rule over the other races. Elloren’s politically powerful aunt believes her to be this fabled Black Witch, and decides even if she isn’t, she needs to secure an incredible fastmate, whom another girl of Elloren’s age is trying to get. This girl is believed by everyone else to be the next Black Witch because of how powerful she is.

Forest does an amazing job of writing this story, everything keeps you wanting more. The way she portrays the different races, how they interact with each other, it’s all done realistically. It reflects real world prejudices in a good way, and a way younger readers would understand. This is a Young Adult book, and for the younger teens it would create a good way for them to understand real world issues by providing parents with a comparison.

There is a sort of love triangle, but I gotta say, I really like Yvan. I prefer him to Lukas, but hey, that’s just me.

Elloren leads a life that has its own magical sides, not a normal story book one, but one that I’m dying to read more of. 10/10 I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys YA Fantasy.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Now I’ll go ahead and get a little more in depth on what I liked and didn’t like about the book. I will add as a warning that I’ve already read the first four books in the series, I read them all in about three or four days because they’re so amazing I just couldn’t put them down, so I might be slightly vague in some of my wording to make sure that I don’t accidentally spoil something that happened in The Iron Flower.

I’ll start character by character with the more important ones:

Elloren-

I liked how she, over time, got more and more sarcastic with people when they would mention that she looks like her grandmother. She wasn’t embarrassed about it every time, she just kind of accepted the fact that people would keep telling her about it and just started getting snarky in her responses to it. You go girl.

I also liked that she actually listened to her family members and didn’t just blindly follow her feelings all the time. She had a totally hot makeout sesh with Lukas, loved it, but when Rafe told her she needed to be careful around him and that he wasn’t a perfect dude, she actually listened to him and was wary. Did she still slip up sometimes? Yes, but, who doesn’t? I liked that. And she actually kept her promise to her uncle to remain unfasted because she knew it was important to him. She didn’t decide to ignore it just because he didn’t explain why it was important, she just did it, because she trusted and loved him.

I liked that she actually cared, she stopped wearing the clothing made by slaves and wore the stuff she made herself because she didn’t agree with the Urisk children doing that. On the flip side, I liked that she knew when she should wear the traditional clothes to avoid suspicion or even harm.

One thing I didn’t like is how wishy washy she was in liking Yvan vs Lukas. One moment she was thinking about Yvan like he was her soulmate, and the next she was making out with Lukas. My main issue with this is because I don’t quite like Lukas. But more on him later. I just wish she would pick one (*cough cough, Yvan) and stick with him. However, I will concede that this was all written in a very typical way for love triangles, and I do think Forest wrote it well.

Yvan-

Oh Yvan. Yvan, Yvan, Yvan. When we are first introduced to his character, he absolutely despises Elloren, and he hasn’t even met her yet. However, over time, he grows affectionate. And boy do I start to like his character. He shows such character development over just the single book, with the biggest show of it being how he acts around Elloren. He starts to help her in the kitchen, he starts to like her, and most of all, he starts to realize she’s a good person. There’s a lot of non-Gardnerian people who hate her from first glance and don’t really let up on their opinion. The biggest example of this being Iris and Bleddyn. They hate her and continue to do so throughout the whole book. Iris has an attachment to Yvan, which I hate, and that adds fuel to her fire. Anytime something bad happens to anyone who isn’t Gardnerian, she thinks it’s somehow Elloren’s fault. But back onto Yvan- he doesn’t do this! Considering he’s one of the love interests, it’s not that surprising, but it is written very well.

One thing I like about him is how he isn’t emotional. He doesn’t show his emotions very often, but he’s not very harsh or rude in his manners anyways. He does have a very good reason to keep himself somewhat guarded against people, but he also slowly opens up a little bit to Elloren over the course of the book. He at least becomes slightly affectionate to her, and I absolutely love reading those scenes. I am definitely team Yvan, he is my favorite character (aside from Elloren, of course).

Lukas-

I would like to start with saying that I think Forest wrote Lukas in a way that works perfect with the book and it’s development, all of the critiques that I’m giving are my opinion and led by my emotions towards Lukas in comparison to Yvan unless otherwise stated. That being said, I don’t like Lukas. I am no where near team Lukas. At first I thought he was a good love interest- but then I met Yvan and knew he would be the one I’d pick for Elloren. There’s so little room for developement in Lukas and Elloren’s relationship than there is for her and Yvan. Elloren and Lukas have too much in common, too much that would come too easy; they’re both Gardnerian’s, they’re both “powerful” (status wise), Lukas is magically powerful (and I’m sure Elloren is, but we haven’t been told she is… but I find that wand testing scene with the Vu Trin soldiers to be very suspicious, the whole pain in her arm from trying to do the spell kinda seems to hint that she would have powers- however, I digress), her aunt would love if she fasted to Lukas, everything would just work too perfectly. And Lukas just doesn’t seem right- too arrogant, too perfect, too unattached, just not right for her. Elloren- like every normal person ever- makes mistakes, and decently often. She can’t be paired with someone who is “perfect” (as in flawless, not as in someone perfect for her), it just wouldn’t be right. I also don’t really like Lukas’ personality in general.

Trystan- Trystan is amazing. He does bring in gay representation to the book, but not in a way that takes over the definition of his character, which I appreciate. He adds another layer of meaning to the story- this whole world deals with the struggles of racism, sexism, homophobia and prejudice that happen in real life, but it tells it in it’s own artistic way, which I think makes it an important read as well as a fun one. Trystan helps introdue the fact that homosexuality is something that is punishble in this world. But that’s not his whole character; he also has a large amount of power, he’s Elloren’s younger brother, he’s someone who cares about equality, he’s someone who’s fun and nice and smart, he’s someone who loves a challenge. I love how Forest wrote him and made it feel like he was someone you knew, not just any old character in a book.

Rafe-

I like Rafe as Elloren’s big brother. And I love him with Diana. It’s unconventional for their society, but he’s so open and honest and nonchalant about it, and that’s very much Rafe. He’s smart and he cares about how Elloren is faring, which I really like.

Uncle Edwin-

I love Uncle Edwin, what little we get to see of him. He cares for Elloren, how she’ll fare as a person, rather than what type of match and connection(s) she can make. All the brownie points for Uncle Edwin.

On the book in general, I loved so much about it. I could honestly talk about it for hours on end. The hardcover copy is 601 pages, and I’m not even joking, I read it in maybe 4 hours, but probably less. I just couldn’t put it down, it’s so amazing. Every character is awesome, I love how Elloren acted in the kitchens, how she tried her best and how her and Yvan would interact in the kitchens. If Forest were to write 12 books in this series at 600 pages each, I would be able to read them all in less than a week and be left wanting more. I’m a very picky person when it comes to my books, I have certain tropes that I like, some very specific ones, and this book series not only met my hard to meet requirements, it surpassed them on many levels.

I loved learning about the history of their world, the rise and fall of power for each race, how they all interact with each other now, I just loved it.

I would recommend this book, the entire series, to anyone and everyone who ever liked a book about witches, resistances, fantasy, rebellions, or anything similar. If you’re a fan of Sarah J Maas’ Throne of Glass series, you’ll like this. If you’re a fan of Elly Blake’s Frostblood, you’ll like this. No book series is exactly the same as this, but you’ll get ones that give you the same feeling- you’re powerful, you’re cool, you’re awesome. You’ll cry, you’ll laugh, and you’ll love this book series.