Book Review: The Malan Witch
“Naught remained of their bodies to be buried, for the crows took back what was theirs”
Happy (late) release day to this book! I had the book read in time but didn’t make it to the review until now. It’s an understatement to say things have gotten busy since school started back
SUMMARY: An idyllic coastal cottage near a sleepy village. What could be more perfect? For Robyn Crowe, borrowing her sister’s recently renovated holiday home for the summer seems just what she needs to deal with the grief of losing her beloved husband. But behind those pretty walls lie many secrets, and legends of a malevolent sisterhood—two witches burned for their evil centuries earlier. Once, both their vile spirits were trapped there. Now, one has been released. One who is determined to find her sister. Only Robyn stands in her way. And the crow has returned
I’ll be honest, I haven’t read a lot of books about witches but they (at least the bad ones) terrify me. The dark and unpredictable power they hold over normal people is frightening, and everything about the setup for this book led me to believe I was in for a thrilling ride. It has an isolated cottage on a remote cliff, strange occurrences right from the beginning, and a back story about burned witches looking for revenge.
Unfortunately, the story I got was less exciting than anticipated. Lots of crows, but not much in the way of scares. Loads of exposition dumps when I wanted more character development. And an ending that left me wanting and a little frustrated.
Despite its flaws the story kept me turning the pages to see what would happen. I liked the emphasis on spells/hexes/totems, and there were moments when I was genuinely concerned for Robyn’s safety. I also thought it was really neat that Robyn gains a powerful ally in the last third of the book. There were some cool ideas here, like the haunting of Robyn’s niece, but many weren’t fleshed out enough to fully enjoy.
Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Special thanks to Silver Shamrock Publishing for sending a copy in exchange for an honest review. If you want to learn more about Catherine Cavendish and her work then check out her website (https://www.catherinecavendish.com/) or follow her and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/catcavendish/) and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Cat_Cavendish).
Reading Vicariously 