Ellery’s life has been turned upside down. Her mother passed away, her dad lost his job, and Now they are moving to her grandmother’s creepy old house. A house that has a reputation for being known as the Witch House. She laughs it off, but quickly finds out it’s more than just small town gossip.Skylar has lived across the street from the Witch House his entire life. He even has a reason to … reason to believe the gossip spread around his small town about the old house, but when Ellery shows up, he finds himself constantly entering the place he’s feared, all because of her.
Together will they be able to defeat the evil that lurks in Witch House or will it claim them too?
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This was a an ok read, I liked the characters Ellery and Skylar and the story had some appeal to it but it just didn’t quiet grab me however in saying that I did still enjoy it and happily read until the end.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Witch House reignited my love of young adult horror novels. The story is told in the first person alternating between Ellery and Skylar’s points of view. There are times when the characters seem to drop the fourth wall and speak directly to the reader. The book is fast-paced and the concept is appropriately spooky. I enjoyed the book but felt like characters were a little one dimensional.
This is a fairly good read, but it is the typical witch wants revenge story and kind of predictable. The only thing that irked me while reading this, though, is there is A LOT of teenage crushing going on through the whole book, and I do mean A LOT. The story is told 1st person back and forth between the 2 and then later 3 main characters, and almost every single chapter you get that 1st person opinion of just how much they like so-and-so at that moment or how much that person makes them mad, etc. It felt sometimes like I was really reading a young adult romance book with just a touch of witch house added in the background. There is also a “third wheel” added in to get between the 2 main characters and cause drama, and I very quickly hated his character, even when he supposedly is being helpful later. Some of how the lead female acts with him just wasn’t realistic to me and had me turning against her somewhat also. (I might have even been rooting for the evil witch to win there for a while against those two.) Eventually the story turns back more into the actual witch house story it’s supposed to be, and it does get more action and a faster pace, and you do want to find out what happens. Just realize going in it may be a little slow getting to that point.
This story has a lot of potential. The overall concept was really interesting to me. I love stories that have a paranormal aspect to them in addition to a developing relationship, however, I think more could have been done to develop the plot line in this story, as well as the various characters.
The first character I have a million questions about is Reyna. She is so pivotal to the storyline, but I felt like I didn’t really know enough about her. Why exactly was Reyna haunting the house and town? What is her backstory? What happened to her family? Did what happen to her family cause her to start using her powers to harm others? Was she always inherently evil? How was she able to control Ellery’s body? Has she been haunting the house and using the women in Ellery’s family to do her evil biddings since the 1800s? How has it gone on for so long? There is so much I didn’t know about Reyna and the Witch House and so much I wanted to learn.
I wish there had been more character development for both Ellery and Skylar as well. I didn’t really know who they were as people. I wanted to know more about their pasts. How long did Ellery’s mom have cancer? Did the same types of things happen to Ellery’s mother in that house? How close was Ellery to her mother? What was her life like before the move to the Witch House? So many unanswered questions for me.
I also wanted to know more about Skylar and his family too. You don’t learn much about his sister, other than she died in the Witch House. What was their relationship like? Why was Rebekah so obsessed with the house? Why did people think Skylar was weird and treat him so poorly? How did he become friends with Donnie? So many questions!
The relationship between Ellery and Skylar was sweet, but I think it developed way too quickly. I believe in instant attraction and chemistry, but I don’t believe that people fall in love with each other in a week or less. I don’t feel like they really knew enough about each other to know whether or not they were in love. You can definitely have strong feelings for one another early on, but that may change the more you learn about each other. I also don’t understand how Skylar’s love for Ellery saved her from Reyna’s control. That concept was skimmed over and never really explained. The scene where Ellery comes out victorious against Reyna was explained from Skylar’s point of view, so I never got to learn exactly what happened between Reyna and Ellery. I think the battle between Reyna and Ellery would have been better from Ellery’s point of view. I would have had a much better understanding of how Ellery was able to gain control over her body again.
I don’t completely understand how burning down the house would kill Reyna’s spirit. If her body was under the house (How did that happen if her family built the house while she was still alive?), how was her body burned when the house burned down? I’m assuming you have to get rid of the body in order to get rid of the spirit. Or is her spirit connected to the house instead? Or do both have to be destroyed to get rid of her spirit?
Overall, I rate the book 2/5. More plot and character development would make this story really great. There were just too many unanswered questions for me to really enjoy the story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.