Review of 'A Modern Witch (A Modern Witch Series: Book 1)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Something I never expected to see in a standard novel format: A Modern Witch is a light slice of life story, a technique far more common in shorts, graphic arts, and television. The book is defined by characters and their conversations, relationships, and evolution, not actions or external forces. No one saves the world at the last minute. There is no acrimony or betrayal or teen angst - the worst conflict is a bit of initial uncertainty - just love and self-discovery and the slow and steady day to day changes of life. The biggest climax is meeting the whole clan and casting a random spell, the final climax is entirely about family. Naturally, it all revolves around women.
If that sounds incredibly dull, stop, don't torment yourself when something you'd love is already out there.
It's very hard to create a compelling slice of life that will keep you …
Something I never expected to see in a standard novel format: A Modern Witch is a light slice of life story, a technique far more common in shorts, graphic arts, and television. The book is defined by characters and their conversations, relationships, and evolution, not actions or external forces. No one saves the world at the last minute. There is no acrimony or betrayal or teen angst - the worst conflict is a bit of initial uncertainty - just love and self-discovery and the slow and steady day to day changes of life. The biggest climax is meeting the whole clan and casting a random spell, the final climax is entirely about family. Naturally, it all revolves around women.
If that sounds incredibly dull, stop, don't torment yourself when something you'd love is already out there.
It's very hard to create a compelling slice of life that will keep you interested for even a two hour movie, let alone a 200 page book. Debora Geary pulls it off, with some rough edges and perhaps a bit of excessive exuberance, but an incredibly strong depiction of a strong all-encompassing family love. I'm a jaded old bastard and even I found myself enjoying the story, if not quite the intense yearning Nat feels.
My main turnoffs were that the beginning was so stilted (keep at it, the writing gets better) and how everyone kept gushing over Lauren and Aervyn, to the point that she felt like a Mary Sue and he like a messiah figure; the alternate awe and fear became so repetitive and by the two thirds mark I could hardly stand more. Something similar goes for the prodigy child programmer, Ginia, the instantly entranced Buddha Sue Nat, and the way Jamie, the only real man in the story, is such a chill yet gentlemanly dude, nearly perfect in every way. Basically, everyone is pretty one-dimensional and unflappable, and since the reader can't see growth from anyone, she's constantly told how much they've grown instead. The omnipresent ice cream among the entire cast also felt like a writing crutch at times, and was a good metaphor for the sugar overload of the story.
Ultimately, it's feel good fluff, a girl's pulp, but that doesn't make it bad. Once it picks up it flows smoothly along, skipping time where appropriate and documenting the sensations that make up the journey to California and into a very mellow sort of witchcraft. For a first novel it's well executed, and I look forward to the sequels after a bit of a break. We'll see if the characters and settings start to get a bit deeper as they evolve, as the relationships between them overwhelmed everything in this installment.
