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A review by luthereadingqueen
Hazel and Holly by Sara C. Snider
2.0
2.5 stars
TW: Claustrophobia
Hazel and Holly, our main characters, are these two witch sisters whose mother passed away and their father left without explanation, not before getting the spirit of his exwife trapped in a geas thanks to a dark magic that is forbidden in town called necromacy. Now, the sisters need to find their father to set free the spirit of their mother but to accomplish that they'll need to work with two warlocks, Hemlock and Hawthorn.
The first thing I have to tackle about this book is that I was expecting it to be a middle grade read, I don't honestly know why because the character's age is not specified anywhere but it turns out most of the characters are well over 20. This is important because this book totally reads like a middle grade in the way is written, in the characters' behaviour, everything has a childish tone to it. I didn't have a problem with it because it was what I was expecting - kind of at least - but I know that if I had known it was an adult book before getting into it, I probably wouldn't have been able to like it.
Moreover, the plot was really strong at the beginning of the book and it slowly lost impact as the story went on. The main problem stopped being engaging enough for me so at the end of the book I didn't honestly care how everything was going to be resolved.
I think the issues for me started when the villain's redemption arc started to take part in the book. I honestly hate the villain in this story and the horrible things he did to get his way so when the story started to try and show him on a "good light", I didn't buy it. We didn't get explanations with the depth that the situation deserved therefore my lack of empathy towards that character.
On the other hand, I really liked the relationship between the sisters. They weren't perfect but the love they had and how they'd do anything to protect each other was evident all throughout this book. Plus, the magic system was quite interesting with different deities, elements and history - we did get a bit of an info dump at the end on that matter but it wasn't the biggest issue -.
TW: Claustrophobia
Hazel and Holly, our main characters, are these two witch sisters whose mother passed away and their father left without explanation, not before getting the spirit of his exwife trapped in a geas thanks to a dark magic that is forbidden in town called necromacy. Now, the sisters need to find their father to set free the spirit of their mother but to accomplish that they'll need to work with two warlocks, Hemlock and Hawthorn.
The first thing I have to tackle about this book is that I was expecting it to be a middle grade read, I don't honestly know why because the character's age is not specified anywhere but it turns out most of the characters are well over 20. This is important because this book totally reads like a middle grade in the way is written, in the characters' behaviour, everything has a childish tone to it. I didn't have a problem with it because it was what I was expecting - kind of at least - but I know that if I had known it was an adult book before getting into it, I probably wouldn't have been able to like it.
Moreover, the plot was really strong at the beginning of the book and it slowly lost impact as the story went on. The main problem stopped being engaging enough for me so at the end of the book I didn't honestly care how everything was going to be resolved.
I think the issues for me started when the villain's redemption arc started to take part in the book. I honestly hate the villain in this story and the horrible things he did to get his way so when the story started to try and show him on a "good light", I didn't buy it. We didn't get explanations with the depth that the situation deserved therefore my lack of empathy towards that character.
On the other hand, I really liked the relationship between the sisters. They weren't perfect but the love they had and how they'd do anything to protect each other was evident all throughout this book. Plus, the magic system was quite interesting with different deities, elements and history - we did get a bit of an info dump at the end on that matter but it wasn't the biggest issue -.