I’ve been a fan of Amber Benson ever since she first appeared on Buffy. I was heartbroken when Tara got killed off, sad that I haven’t really seen Amber act much since then, but thrilled to discover she was writing novels!
I read her first book, Death’s Daughter, and wasn’t very impressed with it. I liked the concept and the characters, but the first person narration was overly explanatory and that kind of drove me nuts. Also the main character was a little slow, so there were times I had already figured something out and was just waiting for the main character to catch up – and explain in agonizingly slow detail how she put the pieces together.
BUT!
This book is way better.
I still follow Benson on Twitter, so when she started promoting this new book around the end of last year/beginning of this year, I was intrigued. The witches in the title instantly grabbed my attention and I thought “She’s written several more books since then. Maybe she’s gotten better.”
She has!
As promised by the title, the witches living in Echo Park (the east side of Los Angeles) take center stage. The main character, Lyse, has no idea she’s a witch, or that witches exist, much less that the woman who raised her (Eleanora) is a witch and the head of the local coven. So Lyse has to deal with that, and also deal with the fact that Eleanora is dying of cancer.
Actually, I hesitate to call Lyse the main character. She’s certainly the one who does the most growing in the context of the story, but it’s Eleanora and her horrific past that really kick everything off. She’s the one who brings everyone together and she’s the only one who knows the full extent of everything that’s going on.
The story is told from third person limited POV and it switches between characters, so we get some scenes from Lyse’s point of view, some from Eleanora’s, and some from other members of the coven. I really prefer this method of story telling because that way I’m not completely immersed in one character’s head (which can get boring pretty quickly). Benson also did a superb job of switching between characters and scenes so that we get some events from multiple viewpoints, but there’s never any overlap. She never shows us something we’ve already seen. Instead, she picks up where she left off and continues with the new character. It’s not easy to do, but Benson made it look easy, and that takes talent.
At just under 300 pages, this book is a super quick read. When I was about two thirds through it I wondered how she could possibly wrap it all up in 100 pages. The answer is she couldn’t and she had no intention of doing so. There’s a sequel coming out in January and I will be the first in line to buy it!
What did you guys read this week? Anything you couldn’t put down? I want to hear all about it in the comments!
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