Monday, August 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 24, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Bad Witch Burning is a young adult modern fantasy novel by debut author Jessica Lewis.  Lewis opens the book with an author's note, talking about how she wrote this book to deal with her feelings of abandonment by toxic parents who she had tried to love, resulting in a long time internal rage at the world and herself for feeling not good enough.  The book is written as a book for kids like Lewis was, who need guidance to let them know that they do have self-worth, and that the problem is with their negligent parental figures, not themselves.  

So you should not be surprised that Bad Witch Burning can be a difficult book to read, as its protagonist suffers from parental neglect and abuse, but is very very well done.  The protagonist's ability to first speak with the dead and then to resurrect them works is adapted very well into the otherwise normal setting, and the characters involved are really well done, from the protagonist Katrell, to her best friend Will, to the Guidance Counselor Mike, to a bunch of other less likable but still important parts of Katrell's life.  It's not a long book, and some elements are a bit underdone or predictable, but it's still very well done and worth your time, especially if you are one of those teens or adults who grew up in a situation like Lewis.  

Trigger Warning:  Child Abuse (Physical, not Sexual), Animal Cruelty/Murder, Negligent/Abusive Parental Figures, Growing up in Poverty

-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Katrell's life is lousy.  Her mother is unemployed and doesn't pay the bills, and constantly mooches off the small bits of money that Katrell makes from her after school job.  And her mom's rotating set of deadbeat boyfriends only make things worse, especially when they get physically abusive.  The only thing Katrell has in her life that makes her happy is her best friend Will, a girl who got through similarly rough times in the foster system before landing with a loving mother and father that Will can't bring herself to trust.  

And then there's Katrell's special side job: using her strange magical gift to write letters to summon the dead for people to talk to them one more time - a gift she uses to make just a bit more money, money to pay the rent, and perhaps to save up for a car and eventual freedom.  

But when Gerald, her mom's latest boyfriend, kills Katrell's pet dog in a fit of rage, Katrell discovers her magic has evolved to allow her to bring back bodies from the dead.  And with her mom and Gerald leaching off her funds more than ever, Katrell decides that bringing back people for good could be a far more valuable business than just bringing back their spirits temporarily.  

Yet magic comes at a price, and Katrell soon finds the resurrections leading her on a path beyond her control, a path which might consume her in a bit of rage....a path which she feels she might deserve....
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Bad Witch Burning follows Katrell, who is trying to grow up in a real bad situation, albeit one that will be all too real for a lot of people.  Her mother is essentially negligent, not really looking ever for a job to try and support the two of them as they live in their all too poor slum of a neighborhood - forcing Katrell to try to earn money to keep the two of them fed (barely) and off the streets.  Katrell has convinced herself that she loves her mother and cannot say no to her mother's requests to take Katrell's save-up money, despite the fact that from a neutral reader's standpoint, it's easy to see that the affection is entirely one sided.  Even worse, Katrell's mother brings home abusive boyfriends, who also do not bring any money to their relationships....but do bring physical abuse down on Katrell.  

It gets to the point where Katrell spends a lot of her nights over at her friend Will's, a girl who was in a similar situation in the foster system for a while until recently, when Will was placed with adoptive parents who even Katrell can see are genuinely loving and caring.  For Will, her past abuse makes it hard for her to accept this, and she is afraid to speak up and fully embrace her new parents, for Will is afraid if she does so she could lose everything.  By contrast Katrell sees all this and feels conflicted - because she is happy for Will and wants Will to embrace the love she's found but is also so jealous at the same time of that love.  

Her abusive home situation, poverty, and glimpses at a better life make Katrell filled with inner rage, rage she doesn't dare express generally and instead lets boil up inside of her.  So when she begins to exploit her magic to do resurrections for lots of cash, she lets that rage guide her into more and more dangerous situations - getting involved too directly with the local crime-lord, performing resurrections even after some of them clearly seem to go wrong (for reasons I won't spoil), and continuing to do so even after they clearly leave her feeling worse and worse physically - such that even her school guidance counselor, who obviously suspects her of being in an abusive situation, can see it and becomes more and more desperate to help her.  

The result of all of the above is a set of characters in Katrell, Will, and others who are very believable, as well as a plot that is often very hard to read, even if it's rarely too unpredictable and leads to a happy ending you will see coming a mile away.  But it works really well, even if some parts aren't particularly developed (there's a rival girl in school who pops up on page once, is mentioned a few other times as sort of an evil rich girl, and never shows up on page again, for instance).  Definitely a strong debut novel, and one that will be of clear value to those in similar situations to Lewis growing up, who could use a story making clear that people like them, people like Katrell, are worth more than the lack of love their parents show them, and that there is something for them out there beyond their abusive relationships.  

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