From the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Witching Savannah series comes the story of a young witch’s quest to uncover her family’s terrifying history…Magic is seeping out of the world, leaving the witches who’ve relied on it for countless centuries increasingly hopeless. While some see an inevitable end of their era, others are courting madness—willing to sacrifice former allies, … sacrifice former allies, friends, and family to retain the power they covet. While the other witches watch their reality unravel, young Alice Marin is using magic’s waning days to delve into the mystery of numerous disappearances in the occult circles of New Orleans. Alice disappeared once, too—caged in an asylum by blood relatives. Recently freed, she fears her family may be more involved with the growing crisis than she ever dared imagine.
Yet the more she seeks the truth about her family’s troubled history, the more she realizes her already-fragile psyche may be at risk. Discovering the cause of the vanishings, though, could be the only way to escape her mother’s reach while determining the future of all witches.
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Good start to a new series. Would recommend for those who love dark fantasy.
This book has a slow, steady pace. While I enjoyed the story, I can see how it might be a turn off for those who aren’t expecting it. With that being said, the story itself is a combo of fantasy mixed with real world authenticity- magic, witches, clairvoyant, New Orleans life style, young lovers, old lovers, betrayal, mystery, and more! The details are phenomenal. It has a darker tone and a certain creep factor to it (it’s a good thing).
The only problem I had with the book was the many characters. Perhaps it’s because I listened to the audio book vs. reading? I plan to listen to the story again as I know I missed some things in the beginning- the book is full of details, big and small, so pay attention. The story is told through the different viewpoints of the characters. The narrator for the audio book was great- easy to listen to voice.
This series has a more serious tone than his Witching Savannah series, so if you’re looking for something similar to that, you might be disappointed. This is not a book for the kiddos or faint of heart- contains violence and death.
I will be reading/listening to the next book in the series as this series is full of potential that I hope will unfold in the second book. I would recommend this book if you are into dark fantasy.
August 3, 2020
Very wicked and convoluted.
I not big on evil in my books, and I don’t believe witches need to be evil either. This was a bit too complicated for me to follow easily.
This is a strange mix of magic and horror, and the author jumps POV from chapter to chapter, which I don’t always like. But I had to stick through it to see how things would happen. I like Alice, Lucy, Daniel and Hugo. I’m still a bit on the fence with this series, to be honest, but I finished book 1 and have moved on to book 2.
I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I LOVE the title and the cover! I was so excited to start reading this because they seemed to promise a great story.
I like this book. I liked it enough to consider reading the sequel. But it’s definitely a solid 3 stars for me. It had lots of elements I liked, like witches and magic and French and history. It exposed me to new things like voodoo and New Orleans. And I enjoyed the characters a lot. There is a rich personal and interpersonal history behind all the players here, major and minor.
But I was left at the end of the book with a feeling of…..ambivalent confusion. I’m confused because I’m not sure I really understand what happened. I’m ambivalent because my confusion prevented me from investing in the story and what was happening to the characters. There were too many questions left unanswered – or only vaguely answered, or answered in such a convoluted fashion – that I didn’t have energy left to really care about the characters.
I also took issue with parts of the actual storytelling. I love a good story with an unreliable narrator. I adore plots with lots of twists and unexpected turns. But for those techniques to be effective, the reader needs to believe they know what’s going on and what’s going to happen next. We need just enough breadcrumbs for us to happily lead ourselves in one direction when BAM! we’re met with a twist that throws us off the course we’ve come to expect. With this, I felt like I never had a strong enough grasp on what was happening for the plot twists to have the intended impact. I didn’t have enough breadcrumbs; I was always playing catch-up but never actually got there. It was a bit disappointing.
I’d recommend it but it probably wouldn’t be my first recommendation.
The book moves along slowly but it keeps moving and keeps you wanting more. I will admit that at times I was confused but that was because some of the names are similar. I look forward to reading the second in the series
I love JD’s books. I have read them all. I found this book should be read in the daytime because when reading at night like I do I found it’s pretty hard to follow. So I read it much slower than I have his other books. [Thankfully, the index of characters from the other books helped me alot].
Also,I read on my kindle so I appreciate the “Dictionary”, as JD has taught me many new words!!
The story is superb, the characters believeable and the author……well I love tis mans work!!
I am unsure of my feelings for The King of Bones and Ashes, the first book in the Witches of New Orleans series. While the storytelling is fantastic and the writing is awesome, I felt like I chased the climax and then the ending of this story.
It reads very slow.
It’s not just the first five or six chapters either. It didn’t start to pick up for me until halfway through. This book almost lost me so many times.
Don’t get me wrong. J.D. Horn lays out the foundation for this series very well and he’s thorough in his telling. The characters were great, though there are many. There are lots of moving parts to this story with a lot of depth. Without any doubt, the author captures them wonderfully.
The pace was just not for me.
People who have the patience will really enjoy this story. There is plenty of it.
I am undecided if I will move onto the second book of this series or not.
There are some books that gradually introduce you to their world and some that drop you into the middle of them. This is in the latter category. In some ways, I find those more challenging. We never meet a person from the beginning, do we? Or understand why there are grudges between people until later if it is explained to us. That is how this book is. A slice of life I call it. As we meet different people and how they are tied to each other. Slowly the arc of the story begins to emerge and once it does all of it makes sense.
Now I know for some they may find this is not for them. But I challenge you to try them more. For I believe you will find them to enhance your reading enjoyment even more than before. The characters are rich and real as you get to know them just as you would get to know a new neighbor. I look forward to the next book.