The Near Witch [January 7, 2021]

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

This is a Buddy Read for The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab starting January 7, 2021.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I might have shot myself in the foot on this Buddy Read... I signed up because it's available on Hoopla...

But my library card expired at the end of 2020... can't call library for another 30 minutes... worried I might be unable to renew immediately, and have to wait for a new card to be mailed to me... don't think they do curbside library card renewal... hope they do, tho...

EDIT: Nevermind... 5 minute call, mostly transferring and waiting for them to get to computer, and they renewed me for 2 more years...

Hoopla already let me borrow, 2 minutes later (gotta get on that early... dunno about you guys, but the daily limit for my library is hit by noon usually)...

All Set

[Soo]

I think my library has almost all of Schwab's books. =)

I'm in! I'll probably start this one tomorrow.

[Vuk]

Glad to hear you're both in for the ride! Thanks, Niki, for setting this up. See y'all tomorrow!

[Soo]

I think this one is probably better in print than the audio. For some reason, the narrator is kinda stiff for regular narration and only sounds non-robotic when doing dialogue.

I like the sister dynamics. =)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "I think this one is probably better in print than the audio. For some reason, the narrator is kinda stiff for regular narration and only sounds non-robotic when doing dialogue.

I like the sister ..."

Britishy, maybe... just starting, and it looks like the audiobook includes the prequel short story, as well..

[Soo]

Yeah, different tone but along the same lines of fairy tale style.

[Vuk]

It's pretty interesting so far! (Also, merry orthodox Christmas!) I really like the way it starts with - "a crack, a sputter, and a spark". It's also nice to read because compared to her newer writing, you can really see how far she has come?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I liked the foreword from the author, about how the opening of this story mirrors her writing career a bit, and how she can see the core thread of most of her work, even in this early one... I guess it was out of print for awhile...

I'm about halfway through already, and I'm definitely comparing it to other fairytale-like stories I've read in recent years... I've had to start limiting myself, because I get burnt out on the style/genre...

But I'm enjoying this one well enough, and having an easier time with this narrator than Litter of Bones (@Soo)...

[Soo]

Narrators: Angus King's accent is not that strong. You just need to slow down the narration speed. He's pretty good!

On the other hand, what's her face for Near Witch: She has great character voices & inflection during dialogue, but the narrative sounds like a dead robot.

I'm generally not a fan of most of the narrators for Schwab's book. That's why I'd recommend reading vs listening.

Side Note: I have a totally new setup for my work/writing area & I'm juggling two mice, two computers and one keyboard. It's weird. lol

I wish the Author's Note was a the end and not the beginning. It influenced how I took in the story.

To me, it seems like Schwab writes pretty good male characters but her female characters continue to be a hit & miss or feel like they're not fully formed to me.

I thought this one was enough like a fairy tale to make it work, and different enough to stand on it's own.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I don't really have much to say about the story... having read quite a few in the past couple years, it reminded me of many of them...

The Bear and the Nightingale
The Sisters of the Winter Wood
etc...

What's kinda funny, is the blurb kinda warns you that's the case...

All in all, I'm rating it 3-4 stars... leaning 3, since I'm harsh on fairytales these days...

[Vuk]

Okay, it's been awhile, but I didn't have a lot of time to read recently. Very impressed y'all managed to read it so fast.

I have to agree with Iain – I definitely enjoyed it and I like seeing how much Schwab's skills have grown but it's a three/four star work, just because of some little things. I did really enjoy the first sentence? IDK why but it's really good? I also like the way the story of the Near Witch is told lil by lil through out the book?

I also might listen to the narration by Angus King but we'll see.