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Witch Spelling
A fictional tale of witches, warlocks and wizards trying to fit in with the mundane way of life but always fearful of the consequences of being found out, especially after having already been persecuted and driven out of another town previously.
An accidental skirmish between two differing species, (both of which were once witches and warlocks) banished to adjoining worlds in an alternative dimension.
An accidental skirmish between two differing species, (both of which were once witches and warlocks) banished to adjoining worlds in an alternative dimension.
Kindle Edition
Published May 24, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 7, 2020
I want to start with how wonderfully creative the world of Witch Spelling is. From the very start, you have a clear understanding of the life and rules of these witches and warlocks. You can envision the life they live, and the sorts of dangers they face should they risk exposing their magic to the mundane.
We start off following the three Witch sisters, Lusia, Sadie and Petra, as they grow up. From their early childhood into adulthood we follow them on their journeys through life, from being protected with cloaking spells to moving out and finding love.
While the world is well laid out and the book is very well-written, I was expecting a bit more of a storyline. The book feels much more based around the world as opposed to having a definite plot. The world of witches was entertaining and did hold my interest to the end, but it did feel like I was reading a bunch of connected short stories about characters I just had no connection to yet. As such, the book probably would have been a very nice “connecting” book. Something written outside of another story to give more depth on back stories or something. As a standalone, it was very difficult to feel any sort of connection. But that’s my own personal opinion.
On another note, while there wasn’t much of a “system” in place for it, I liked the use of magic and how it worked, be it spells, cloaks or charms. It was all wonderfully whimsical in its own way. I also loved the consequences for the more villainous witches and warlocks. They were well thought out and had every reason to be a feared punishment.
In summary, it was a cute book, but felt like a bunch of connected short stories meant to serve as backstories. I liked it, but would have liked to see more of a plot.
We start off following the three Witch sisters, Lusia, Sadie and Petra, as they grow up. From their early childhood into adulthood we follow them on their journeys through life, from being protected with cloaking spells to moving out and finding love.
While the world is well laid out and the book is very well-written, I was expecting a bit more of a storyline. The book feels much more based around the world as opposed to having a definite plot. The world of witches was entertaining and did hold my interest to the end, but it did feel like I was reading a bunch of connected short stories about characters I just had no connection to yet. As such, the book probably would have been a very nice “connecting” book. Something written outside of another story to give more depth on back stories or something. As a standalone, it was very difficult to feel any sort of connection. But that’s my own personal opinion.
On another note, while there wasn’t much of a “system” in place for it, I liked the use of magic and how it worked, be it spells, cloaks or charms. It was all wonderfully whimsical in its own way. I also loved the consequences for the more villainous witches and warlocks. They were well thought out and had every reason to be a feared punishment.
In summary, it was a cute book, but felt like a bunch of connected short stories meant to serve as backstories. I liked it, but would have liked to see more of a plot.
October 6, 2022
A. Woodley has penned a magical and humourous peek into the regular lives of a family of witches and a warlock, the Brodens – lives and a family not all that different to ours, it seems! It was fun living in their world for a while, and I hope we see more on the Broden family soon one day… I enjoyed the unusual writing style, and recommend this book (also with its enticing cover art) to anyone who enjoys witchy stories.
April 30, 2023
A very enjoyable read!
First of all, I love the creativity of the book cover. Secondly, this was an enjoyable and fun read. Perfect if you just want something quick and we’ll written. The plot was interesting, and overall I’d really recommend ‘Witch Spelling.’
First of all, I love the creativity of the book cover. Secondly, this was an enjoyable and fun read. Perfect if you just want something quick and we’ll written. The plot was interesting, and overall I’d really recommend ‘Witch Spelling.’
October 12, 2022
When I first began this novella, I soon realized that 95% of the text is narration. An omnipresent narrator that breaks the 4th wall describes a witch family with a mom, dad, mischievous twin daughters, and a final daughter. It also explained that a great wizard acts like the unofficial head honcho of the witch-world, nicknamed Wiz (because apparently knowing a wizard's real name can make you garner some sort of control over the wielder and vice-versa a la Voldemort). A brief description of a sort of wereman with limited intelligence and grotesque body features called a chongun is presented out of the blue with no initial connection to the witch family.
Omnipresent 4th wall narrator stories tend to be more common in satire and dark comedies to offer the reader a laugh (Vanity Fair anyone?), so it was strange seeing one in a slice-of-life witch family story where they are trying to keep their magic secret while living in an ordinary village in England among humans. Even stranger, the narrator seems to be the only voice for more than 90% of the book.
I would not know if this stylistic choice was initially a creative writing challenge where the author purposely tries to create a 4th wall narrator telling pretty much 100% of the story as it happened with zero interference. Some readers might like the results, whereas others may frown at such a huge risk. I would have liked the book to have increased dialogue between the characters (at least show us something) and use the telling technique as a sort of satire recounting what will happen when you are a bad witch and anger Mr. Wiz. Think of this as one of those Grimm storytales as a life lesson.
Stylistic choices aside, the book does feel a bit all over the place by infodumping the minuscule minutia of the witch family that doesn't really bear any importance in the chongun plot (I suppose it wanted to pass the Beschel test even though the MC is supposed to be a guy named Luke?)
I had a hard time telling whether the plot of this book wanted to focus on the way the witch family got discovered by humans, ridiculed, and endangered by having their identities revealed (why didn't they ask Mr. Wiz to erase everyone's memory?), and then end up living in England under a new name while trying to keep their daughters out of trouble. I say this because while 70% of the book talks about the witch family's slice-of-life story trying to pretend to be non-magical, we are suddenly thrown into Luke's story as he is turned into a chogun as punishment for his crimes. One possibility that could have been explored was to have Luke's girlfriend (a member of the witch family) take a more central role as she misbehaves using magic in public while her parents freak out for unexplained reasons. We could then have the narrator offering us tidbits of infodumps about the satire of the real reason why mom and dad behave in such a strange manner. At the same time, the daughter tries to defend or humiliate Luke upon discovering he has been subpoenaed by Mr. Wiz. This way, we could have had a better balance between the narrator telling us the black comedy story akin to Vanity Fair. At the same time, we get our Beschel seal of approval due to the daughter's interactions with her family. This would make the transition from the daughter's story to Luke's imprisonment feel more natural than so out of the blue.
I also don't understand why Mr. Wiz offers serious punishments to some poor warlock, asking him a question when he is busy. In contrast, his daughter's twin siblings don't even get a slap on the wrist for enchanting unsuspecting humans to sell their homes on the cheap. The narrator lost a golden opportunity for giving us a left hook of satire here!
While the writing style could have flowed more seamlessly, I did enjoy the story and thought with some changes and less infodumping, it would have been quite an endearing story with a black comedy non-lesson learned that Mr. Wiz doesn't punish misbehaving witches equally or something of the sort. I also don't understand why witches are supposed to wed off their children so quickly at 18. Especially since it seems like the book hints witches live much longer than regular humans, so there is no inherent need for reproduction.
The scant moments of dialogue are all right. I didn't see typos, but the Oxford comma is on steroids here, where some commas seem to be used even in sentences that don't seem to be needed. I also spotted one comma of narration BEFORE a continuous dialogue sentence. It might have been just a typo, though.
In a nutshell, the unusual writing style of this book will have its audience. I liked this world's general concepts and the chongun punishment system. If it had been handled differently with more dialogue and a better-connected storyline, I would have given it 4 stars. From the positive reviews, it seems like other readers like the book as it is, which is proof this odd writing style has its fans out there.
Omnipresent 4th wall narrator stories tend to be more common in satire and dark comedies to offer the reader a laugh (Vanity Fair anyone?), so it was strange seeing one in a slice-of-life witch family story where they are trying to keep their magic secret while living in an ordinary village in England among humans. Even stranger, the narrator seems to be the only voice for more than 90% of the book.
I would not know if this stylistic choice was initially a creative writing challenge where the author purposely tries to create a 4th wall narrator telling pretty much 100% of the story as it happened with zero interference. Some readers might like the results, whereas others may frown at such a huge risk. I would have liked the book to have increased dialogue between the characters (at least show us something) and use the telling technique as a sort of satire recounting what will happen when you are a bad witch and anger Mr. Wiz. Think of this as one of those Grimm storytales as a life lesson.
Stylistic choices aside, the book does feel a bit all over the place by infodumping the minuscule minutia of the witch family that doesn't really bear any importance in the chongun plot (I suppose it wanted to pass the Beschel test even though the MC is supposed to be a guy named Luke?)
I had a hard time telling whether the plot of this book wanted to focus on the way the witch family got discovered by humans, ridiculed, and endangered by having their identities revealed (why didn't they ask Mr. Wiz to erase everyone's memory?), and then end up living in England under a new name while trying to keep their daughters out of trouble. I say this because while 70% of the book talks about the witch family's slice-of-life story trying to pretend to be non-magical, we are suddenly thrown into Luke's story as he is turned into a chogun as punishment for his crimes. One possibility that could have been explored was to have Luke's girlfriend (a member of the witch family) take a more central role as she misbehaves using magic in public while her parents freak out for unexplained reasons. We could then have the narrator offering us tidbits of infodumps about the satire of the real reason why mom and dad behave in such a strange manner. At the same time, the daughter tries to defend or humiliate Luke upon discovering he has been subpoenaed by Mr. Wiz. This way, we could have had a better balance between the narrator telling us the black comedy story akin to Vanity Fair. At the same time, we get our Beschel seal of approval due to the daughter's interactions with her family. This would make the transition from the daughter's story to Luke's imprisonment feel more natural than so out of the blue.
I also don't understand why Mr. Wiz offers serious punishments to some poor warlock, asking him a question when he is busy. In contrast, his daughter's twin siblings don't even get a slap on the wrist for enchanting unsuspecting humans to sell their homes on the cheap. The narrator lost a golden opportunity for giving us a left hook of satire here!
While the writing style could have flowed more seamlessly, I did enjoy the story and thought with some changes and less infodumping, it would have been quite an endearing story with a black comedy non-lesson learned that Mr. Wiz doesn't punish misbehaving witches equally or something of the sort. I also don't understand why witches are supposed to wed off their children so quickly at 18. Especially since it seems like the book hints witches live much longer than regular humans, so there is no inherent need for reproduction.
The scant moments of dialogue are all right. I didn't see typos, but the Oxford comma is on steroids here, where some commas seem to be used even in sentences that don't seem to be needed. I also spotted one comma of narration BEFORE a continuous dialogue sentence. It might have been just a typo, though.
In a nutshell, the unusual writing style of this book will have its audience. I liked this world's general concepts and the chongun punishment system. If it had been handled differently with more dialogue and a better-connected storyline, I would have given it 4 stars. From the positive reviews, it seems like other readers like the book as it is, which is proof this odd writing style has its fans out there.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews