Alyssa's Reviews > The Near Witch

This book could have been a 5 star read for me. It had a few things going for it: beautiful, poetic writing, an interesting idea revolving around witchcraft, magic and mystery, and raving reviews from fellow Goodread reviewers before the book’s publication date.

But here’s why it ended up a 2 star read instead.

The book is written in the first person, narrated through the protagonist, Lexi. I generally find that first person narration usually works if the voice is witty, engaging and gives the reader insight about the person’s character, their thought process, and how they feel about other characters. With Lexi’s voice, I found no depth or personality other than a stubborn, single-minded determination to protect a stranger she barely knew. She never internalised how she felt about the stranger, no mention of her sense of attraction or intrigue towards him other than her strong conviction of his innocence, which was why the romance part that came out of nowhere at the end felt contrived.

The mystery aspect seemed really obvious and boring. One child after another disappears in the middle of the night from their bedroom with no signs of forced entry. Lexi witnessed her younger sister trying to open the bedroom window late at night in a trance like state but made nothing of it nor told anyone about it. Instead, she goes hunting for physical clues by aimlessly running around at night as if expecting to trip over the culprit when it seemed obvious to the reader that there is something deep rooted in magic going on.

I’m not altogether convinced that Lexi had her sister’s best interest in mind when she went out at night looking for clues considering she has no clear direction or plan of what she intended to do or find. Wouldn’t a better plan be for her to bait the culprit by staying up at night and see who might come for her sister rather than leaving her sister alone at night, unprotected?

This book just ended up being a boring and unsatisfying read.