Rewitched - Lucy Jane Wood - ★.½

AUTHOR: Lucy Jane Wood

SERIES: Rewitched, #1

GENRE: Cosy Fantasy.

PUBLICATION DATE: September 17, 2024.

RATING: 1.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A cosy fantasy with an immature lead character who never acts her age. Decent plot intent but too padded out. More of monotony than magic. This was a slogfest for me.

Plot Preview:

Belle, a witch who hides her magical powers from the humans around her, used to enjoy working at Lunar Books, but her new boss seems intent on butchering any customer-friendly ideas under the guise of corporate efficiency. To add to her troubles, just before her thirtieth birthday, there is a summons from her coven: there will be a trial to test her worthiness, and if she fails to pass the test, her magic will be stripped away. Belle has no choice but to prove that she deserves her magic, even if it means interacting with a mentor of questionable integrity and an intrusive “watchman” sworn to protect her.

The story comes to us in Belle’s third-person perspective.

Let’s begin with a hypothetical situation. Suppose you learn that you have a secret magical talent, and someone more experienced hands you a book to help you hone your skill. You ignore the book and use your magic as you wish for personal benefit. After more than a decade, the person comes and says that your prowess is going to be tested within a few days, and if you fail, the consequences will be severe.

Question 1: What would you do?

A. Pick up the book and study as much as you can within the limited time to be well-prepared for the test?

B. Hurriedly peruse through the book for a couple of hours and try your best to wing your way through the test?

C. Ignore the book and go to the superiors *demanding* clemency, claiming that you had no idea that you would be tested?

Question 2: What would the senior who gave you the book do if they learnt that you weren’t aware of the test?

A. Offer an extension on the deadline but with a firm warning about not taking it lightly again?

B. Strip away your talent with no sympathy because you should have been prepared better?

C. Acknowledge that it was their fault for not telling you about the test (despite the fact that the book mentions it) and give you a special mentor to ace it on a future date?

If your answer is (C) for both questions, this book is for you.

My answer was not C.

While many readers don’t prefer unlikeable lead characters, I actually enjoy the complexity such characters bring to the narrative and the growth that we see in their personality as the pages go ahead. (Would ‘The Christmas Carol’ have been as impressive if Ebenezer Scrooge were a good fellow from the start?) However, there’s unlikeable, and there’s stupid! Belle firmly falls in the second category.

Belle is a paradox: entitled and wishy-washy at once. She has the tendency of being aggressive with some people without justification, and she also allows others to walk over her. She’s opinionated, but is also wary of other’s opinions. Can’t forget the biggest contradiction, which tears a big fat hole in the base premise: Belle is a book lover but she doesn’t even read the book gifted to her about her magical talents. (Why on earth would a bibliophile not read a book about magic!?!??)

It is next to impossible to accept that Belle is thirty! 🙄 At no point in the narrative does she behave in a mature, adult manner. Her only reaction towards issues is to throw a tantrum and either cry or yell about the unfairness of the situation. (Yeah, right! Welcome to adulthood, Belle!) I can’t even say that she behaved like a teen because my teen has more common sense and self-respect in her fingernail than Belle had in her entire body. No matter how the protagonist is, you should be able to root for them. But if I were in the panel that was testing Belle, I would have taken the opposing side because I found all the arguments against Belle legitimate.

One character says to Belle at one point in the narrative: "You sure have a lot to say for someone who doesn't really know that they're talking about." That sums up the main problem. And as a major chunk of the book aims to make us support Belle’s quest of saving her magic, I simply couldn’t enjoy the story.

It's not like Belle was the only problem area of this book.

😒 It is mostly repetitive and boring in execution.

😒 The pacing is terribly slow.

😒 Barely any scene development, with most of the progression happening only through conversations.

😒 A pile of descriptions (beautifully written in many cases) and hardly any story. If I had to crunch the plot to its bare essentials, the book would last just fifty pages or so.

😒 The lacklustre worldbuilding that doesn’t even explain how the interconnection between witches and “non-wicches” came to be. (On an aside, can someone please explain to me why witch and “wicche” couldn’t be spelt the same way though they mean the same thing and are probably pronounced the same way? What new fantastical nonsense is this?!)

😒 The budding relationship – I just didn’t see the connect! Why was the poor fellow so interested in a girl who didn’t ever speak a kind word to him? (To be fair, the romance is just a minor subplot and doesn’t steal away focus from the core story, which I appreciate.)

😒 It doesn’t take a genius to see how the story will end. So guessable!

😒 Oh, and a womb, aka the uterus, isn’t round like a bowl. 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️ It is shaped like an inverted pear. Issued in public interest!

On the positive side,

🥰 The cover: perfect for the genre

🥰 I do like the idea of seeing a protagonist who hasn’t figured out everything even at thirty. Even though I found her mostly annoying, this factor was refreshing.

🥰 Nice to see an older mentor instead of seeing a typical young guy who ends up being the romantic interest.

🥰 Ariadne, Belle’s human roommate. A bit overenthusiastic but still a delightful character.

🥰 A couple of the reveals in the climax.

As is clear, the skew of my feedback is heavily tilted towards the negative, and the five positives are for relatively minor reasons. Nothing about the book feels like it was written for adults. In fact, it seems childish even if read as a NA novel. The core content is so diluted that it could have worked far better as a 100-page novella.

This is the debut book by an established influencer. I wish I had known this before. Nothing against her, but influencer books tend to have bloated ratings because of their fan base. As someone from an older generation, I do not get this new trend of online influencers and don’t follow anyone in this category. I avoid books about and by influencers, so this entered my TBR only by fluke.

Sorry, but I cannot recommend this. YMMV. So please read other reviews and take a better-informed call.

My thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and Ace for making the DRC of “Rewitched” a ‘Read Now’ title on NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.