Review: Truthwitch

Publication: Tor Teen

Genre: Fantasy

Format: Hardcover, 416 pages

Add this on: Goodreads

After getting on the bad side of a powerful Guildmaster, Threadsisters Safiya and Iseult are forced to flee their home. Safi has additional reason to avoid capture- she's a Truthwitch, able to tell if anyone is lying, which makes her an invaluable political tool. They end up with a Bloodwitch on their trail, trapped in a tangled political web between kingdoms on the brink of war.

This series is like if Avatar and Graceling had a kid that was then raised by The Grisha Trilogy. Suffice to say I quite enjoyed it. While I didn't particularly enjoy Something Strange and Deadly, this was much more up my alley, and I found I enjoyed Susan Dennard's writing a lot more this time around.

This book launches right into the action- it works well for catching attention, but it didn't introduce the world in a complete way. In a lot of ways, the blanks were never filled in- while it is the first book in a series, it would have been nice get more of a sense of the world going in. That aside, I still did manage to get enough of a sense of the world to know what was going on- and it just didn't stop going, and I'm really looking forward to exploring the magic system.

Both Iseult and Safi are interesting characters, who I like so far and I'm looking forward to seeing forward to getting to know them more. They're both discovering a lot about themselves and each other, and I really like their bond. While I didn't quite connect with them, I still liked them and enjoyed reading about them. They lead an interesting cast of characters, I feel like this first novel has only introduced them, setting up for coming books.

This book is very clearly the start of a series, with slightly more of a focus on setting up the longer story than the individual plot of this novel. Overall, the fast-pacing, interesting characters, and an intriguing magic system make this a strong start to a series, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it!

Kelly

I'm a reader and reviewer from Ontario, Canada, which mean that sometimes library trips take place place through a foot or so of snow. I'm going into my third year of university, studying Environmental Sciences, which I juggle with my almost constant reading. I've been blogging at at my own blog since 2012, and I'll be helping Yani out here on Paper Boulevard as a co-blogger.