Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

Synopsis:

"Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch."

About the Book:

Truthwitch, written by Susan Dennard, is a Young Adult Fantasy novel first published in 2016. It is the first book in The Witchlands Series which, at the moment, contains 4 published books: Truthwitch, Windwitch, Sightwitch and Bloodwitch. The next installment of the series, Witchshadow, is to be released on June 22nd, 2021.

Truthwitch follows the story of best friends Safiya fon Hasstrel and Iseult det Midenzi as they are forced on an adventure through the lands and sea of the continent, making hesitant allies and being tracked by their enemies along the way.

Without spoiling much of the book on yourselves, my rating of the plot of the book is 8/10.

Initial Impression:

I began reading this book as my friend has recommended it to read. Knowing she has a good taste in series' and standalone novels, I said I would give it a go - even going so far as to make a bet with her to see who would finish the series first! Keep in mind, she was already halfway through the second book! So, that same evening, I bought and downloaded Truthwitch onto my kindle and began reading.

My first impression of this novel was a notion of confusion. The novel begins in the middle of something happening, offering in depth descriptions of the characters while telling the reader what is currently going on with our two protagonists. Due to this, I was ever so slightly confused as to what was going on, and it did take me a few pages to get a grasp of who was who and what was currently happening. However, I still found that I could not put the book down. The story picked up right from the first page of the book, setting up our characters, their relationships and parts of their history. I have to admit, I was impressed and could tell that a lot of effort went into the creation of this world, this story and the characters involved.

The Characters:

Now, while we're on the topic of our characters, let's go into a bit more detail. Throughout the story you meet many new and old faces. Where some may not seem as important initially, you'll quickly realise that that is not the case. So of course, we have our two female protagonists, Safiya and Iseult:

• Safiya fon Hasstrel is the centrepoint of the story. After all, she is the Truthwitch in which the novel is named. Throughout the story, Safi is written in such a way that she feels real. She's the blonde, fiesty, loud, quick-witted character that, in cliché terms, is found in a lot of books and movies. But hey, who doesn't love a good blonde? I'm totally not biased!

• Iseult det Midenzi, the true opposite of her Threadsister - Safiya - is the dark-haired, quiet, anchor to Safi.

• Merik Nihar of Nubrevna follows as an important character, with the story sometimes being told from his perspective. By all accounts, Merik is a family-oriented man, though not in the traditional term. Merik values his crew on the Jana as his own family, always looking out for their safety throughout the book, even if it may contrast to what readers think is right. He is well written, along with the other characters of the story, and we can see his world from his point of view.

• Aeduan, an enemy of Saifya and Iseult from the book's beginning, is mysterious. Throughout the novel we learn bits and pieces of his life - his personality - though the character and his story stays mainly shrouded in mystery. Admittedly, this is very clever of Dennard, as she can set him up for the novel surrounding his own story.

Each character of the novel has their own traits, livelihood, family, history, bonds and story to tell. Susan Dennard has created each character meticulously and it most definitely worked in her favour. Readers have the ability to connect, understand, love or hate each character that is presented in this story, each with their own personal story to tell. Personally, I loved Iseult. She was just the best character for me. The book was written in such a way that we get to see the perspective of all protagonists and important characters throughout the book, offering a complete insight to the story from all perspectives.

Thus, I have rated the characters 7/10.

The Writing:

I will admit, in my opinion, the writing in this book is spectacular. Not only did Dennard do explicit research and planning for the multiple aspects of this world, the characters, the religions, the people and empires, but she also wrote it all in such a way that it is easy to follow. She doesn't use overly complicated words, making it difficult to follow along with the traditions, titles and members of each empire. Instead, she writes in such a way that everyone and everything is specifically distinguished from one another. Finishing the book, I could come out telling you who was who and where they were from, if they had a witchery or not and who they were linked to. I wish I could come out of my college lectures with the ability to retain so much knowledge off-hand!

Throughout the novel, the perspective of the story changes to each main character presented: Safiya and Isuelt (our protagonists), and Merik and Aeduan (our main ally and enemy). However, much to my pleasure - and I'm sure to many of you too - the novel is written in the third person narrative. I personally prefer the third person narrative, as it allows us to see so much more than one person's perspective throughout a story. However, Dennard writes this story in such a way that, even though it is being told from a third person perspective, we can still tell exactly whose perspective it is. We can also tell exactly how that person is feeling, their emotions and views on particular topics and their own thoughts. Also, the perspective doesn't change randomly within the book. An easy way to identify that a change of perspective is ahead is to look out for breaks in the paragraphs - so where there is a noticeable gap in a paragraph. The perspectives may also change at the beginning of a new chapter.

The writing was very well and beautifully done, easy to follow and understand and told the story in the best way possible. Due to this, I give the rating of 10/10 in this area. I acknowledge that some of you may be skeptical in this area and that is fine, but for me, the writing had no errors - grammatically or regarding punctuation - and it was well done.

The atmosphere:

The atmosphere of the world within Truthwitch is definitely one to behold. Reading the book, it's hard to forget that the continent in which the story takes plays is entirely fictional. Each empire; the Cartorran empire, the Marstok empire, and the Dalmotti empire all become real in your imagination throughout the novel. And each smaller nation, such as Nubrevna, take on a life of their own. You can vividly imagine what the streets of the city look like, the woods where the Nomatsi clans take refuge, the vast lands of Nubrevna.

Each person within the fictitious world knows their place and where they belong. Dennard creates an array of races, cities, beliefs and traditions that bring the atmosphere to life, leaving no corner untouched. The atmosphere and the lands play an important role in the story, as many witcheries relate back to the elements; firewitches, tidewitches, windwitches, earthwitches etc. The way in which each person with these specific witcheries can change the atmosphere around them ensures that it is ever changing and there is never a dull, boring moment.

It is for this reason that I rate the atmosphere in Truthwitch 7/10.

Logic:

The logic of the story is an interesting topic to discuss, though it is probably one of the most important aspects of any novel. In saying that, what I mean is that nobody wants to read a book - or a series of books - that doesn't make sense logically. It is probably one of the more annoying things that readers come across when reading books they'd usually enjoy.

So, with a heart of joy, it is my pleasure to tell you that this story does logically make sense. In a world where the rules are different, the people are different, where everything is different, Dennard applied logic throughout. Every action that the characters make does make sense, i.e. it is not done at random and it most definitely does not leave the reader asking themselves what just happened. Honestly, I must praise Dennard for that because it is hard to create a fictitious world where still, everything is logically completed without the reader asking why a certain even happened. My rating for this aspect of the novel is 8/10.

Intrigue:

I'll keep this part short as I don't want to spoil any of the events of the novel. I was not able to put this book down. I finished it in a total of 4 days. All 416 pages, while attending college lectures 5 days a week. This book lives up to the name of this blog: Books 'Til Dawn, because every time I finished a chapter I wanted to read another one, ultimately nearly being up from dusk 'til dawn. I give the intrigue a rating of an astounding 9/10.

Enjoyment:

Finally, did I enjoy this novel? Well, given the amount of praise this novel has received thus far, you can bet I did. I enjoyed this novel from the moment I read the first sentence until the moment I read the last. Truthwitch had me smiling, laughing, concerned, happy, curious, intrigued, and shaking my head in disbelief through all 416 pages. And truthfully, I bought the second book the next day. Susan Dennard has created such a strong introductory book to The Witchlands Series that's bound to get anybody who's interested in YA, Fantasy and/or Romance falling in love with the characters, the world and the story itself. It has become one of my top favourite books, and that's saying something. I'd rate my enjoyment of this book a solid 9/10.

Overall Rating:

If it wasn't already obvious, I highly enjoyed this book. The plot was well planned out, it was action-packed, the characters were well developed - along with the world - and it was very enjoyable. Thanks to a friend's great planning skills, she shared a system of how she rates her book, and all of my ratings have been added together to form a proper overall rating.

So without further adieu, the overall rating of "Truthwitch" by Susan Dennard is 8.43 out of 10 and a total of 4 stars.

To everyone who decides to give this book a go, enjoy!