2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Witch by Marie NDiaye.

Pages: 144 pages

Length: 1 month (July)

Participants: Lorraine, Valerie, LinaVer

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

Hello ladies. I will be starting this book today or tomorrow. First time with this author.

Hi Lorraine and LinaVer, planning to start this in a couple of days.

I'll start in a week or so, after I finish another book. 😊

I've finished La Sorcière, which I read in French, (view spoiler)[and I have to say I have mixed feelings about it.
At first, I found it interesting that the girls in the family inherited the same powers as their mother and grandmother. However, it didn't take long for me to realize that we actually see very little of those powers being used.
A few days after finishing the book, I'm still wondering what the author was really trying to say—or even what the book was ultimately about. I kept waiting for a clearer direction or a deeper exploration of its themes, but in the end, I was left feeling somewhat puzzled. (hide spoiler)]

Part 1. Not sure what to make of this yet. (view spoiler)[ If anyone’s life could do with a touch of magic, it would be Lucie’s. She seems to be surrounded by the most disagreeable bunch of people possible and her circumstances are decidedly unpromising. Apart from the twins, though, none seems very willing or able to use it, and even they only use it for the mundane. So is this about having power but being too afraid to really use it? Surely that has to change (hide spoiler)].
Let’s see how this all plays out in the second half.

Finished. Short, but definitely not sweet, this was a strange little book. (view spoiler)[ I totally share your confusion, Lorraine, about exactly the writer was trying to say. Was it that Lucie’s lack of belief in her own magical powers left her unnecessarily trapped in a tedious life that everyone else had moved on from? After all, the twins and her mother used magic to free themselves, although how much better off they were is debatable. The lack of magic in the book made me feel rather defrauded- you expect a book about a witch to be a lot more magical - but maybe that’s part of the point?Well written and easy to read, but ultimately extremely puzzling. (hide spoiler)]

Hi everyone. I've started reading it but I'm on my vacation without computer so I can't really comment much comfortably on the phone app. I like it so far but it's written in this very interesting or slightly weird voice and I am not feeling comfortable around any of the characters, not one, which is new for me.

Just finished reading. Like you, Lorraine and Valerie, I share similar opinion about the book. The end left me puzzled and wanting more, wanting to know "so now what?"
For being so well written, it's such a shame that at least for me this will be one of those books I'll forget very soon. I've read "trash" literature, badly written, that stuck with me more than this book.