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A review by librarymouse
The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
There were some aspects of this book that I really enjoyed and others I did not. Aspects of this novel relied heavily on romance tropes and scenes very familiar to digital natives and those who've spent any significant stretch of time familiarizing themself with Tumblr in the 2010s - this is most overtly recognizable in the tattoo scene in which Lottie calls Marigold a good girl. That scene and dialogue is taken almost word for word from a Tumblr post inspired by a tweet from Twitter user @FloralSappho (https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/p8w33h/r_tattoo/?rdt=62663). I think in some ways this is an ingenious move, especially in new, sapphic romance, to bring in new and more relevant tropes than what is used in straight romance novels and romance novels aimed at an older audience. However, the pacing of the novel and Marigold's characterization are wildly inconsistent. It remains hard to track the movement of time as events in the novel progress, and throughout the events of the novel, Marigold oscillates rapidly between being a highly sympathetic character to being insufferably entitled and in some cases actively unkind.
The introduction to the novel sets up an interesting magic system and mysteries with a lot of promise, only to throw those away the moment Marigold leaves with her grandmother. The curse is explained in the beginning of the novel in a way that is quite different from the actuality of what the curse means for Marigold. Initially, it's explained as if Marigold is unable to fall in love, admit it, and give into it without sacrificing her powers. However, as the novel progressesthe actual impact of the curse is to cause immediate, and in some cases fatal harm to her true love. People can love her and she can love them, but they cannot act on it. This isn't how the curse is explained to Marigold at the start of the novel, and Marigold spends the whole novel believing that she's literally unlovable because of the curse, only for Lottie to be stupidly devoted and ready to kill herself to sleep with Marigold The foreshadowing for the uses of different types of honey is very heavy handed. The writing does get better as the novel progresses, but do be warned that the last quarter takes a hard left turn away from cottage core romance into explicit description of torture, kidnapping and severe fire injury.
Overall, I don't regret reading this book, but the poor structuring and inconsistencies of the magic system were disappointing for me. The formality of the language was also striving for the beauty of something like Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, but ended up mostly just being in dire need of some contractions to make the dialogue sound like something real people would say.
The introduction to the novel sets up an interesting magic system and mysteries with a lot of promise, only to throw those away the moment Marigold leaves with her grandmother. The curse is explained in the beginning of the novel in a way that is quite different from the actuality of what the curse means for Marigold. Initially, it's explained as if Marigold is unable to fall in love, admit it, and give into it without sacrificing her powers. However, as the novel progresses
Overall, I don't regret reading this book, but the poor structuring and inconsistencies of the magic system were disappointing for me. The formality of the language was also striving for the beauty of something like Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, but ended up mostly just being in dire need of some contractions to make the dialogue sound like something real people would say.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Torture, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol