Title: Sightwitch
Author: Susan Dennard
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release Date: February 13th 2018
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Synopsis: Set a year before Truthwitch, Sightwitch follows Ryber Fortiza, the last Sightwitch Sister as she treks deep underground to rescue her missing best friend. While there, she encounters a young Nubrevnan named Kullen Ikray, who has no memory of who he is or how he wound up inside the mountain. As the two journey ever deeper in search of answers, and as they brave one close call after another, a tentative friendship forms between them—one that might one day grow into something more.
Sightwitch is told through Ryber’s journal entries and her sketches, as well as through supplementary materials (such as other journals, pieces of songs, clippings from history books, flashbacks, etc.). Though meant as a companion novella, this story serves as a set up to Bloodwitch as well as an expansion of the world.
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My Thoughts
I received 118 pages of this story (the book is projected to be 208 pages) so I will need to revisit this review after I complete it, but I wanted to post my initial thoughts on Sightwitch. I was very excited for it. I really like the books in the Witchlands series, and need more! Bloodwitch, if you don’t come out soon, I will be very disappointed… Sightwitch was good, but I got confused a lot and kind of felt like things were moving way too slow. I really only read a bit more than half of the story, but even then, the action really only picks up when you’re 50% through the book. The story talks about Ryber, missing Sightwitches, Eridysi, and a bit of Kullen, but the preview ended before we really got to meet him.
I really like Ryber and Kullen. I wanted to know more about them when we met them in Truthwitch. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see them in the preview at all, really, but my anticipation is just heightened. I can’t wait to read the rest to see the two of them together.
I would really recommend reading at least Truthwitch before picking up this story. While it expands on the world and focuses on characters before the events in Truthwitch, I think you might get lost if this is your introduction to the Witchlands. I know I needed to flip through my copies to remember certain characters again. And I don’t think you’ll understand why certain information is important without reading the other books first. Or maybe you should read this then the rest right after.
I received this as an eARC, so my assessment of the digital copy might not be accurate for the final version, but I would recommend purchasing the physical copy. This is told through journal entries, clippings, and a lot of other material that are added to the book as digital images. I noticed that in the kindle edition of the eARC, I couldn’t see the images or they weren’t where they should have been. However, I could see the whole page as it was arranged through the BlueFire app. Even then, however, the text was tiny to accommodate everything on one page, and it made me confused at certain parts. Again, because this was an eARC, it could be different when the story is published, but I would recommend the physical version.
I think my rating will change when I read the whole story, but for now, it was a three star book. Since the third book has been pushed out so far (maybe not that far, but I feel like it’s been forever!) I have high hopes for this companion story. Things were starting to pick up when the preview ended, so I think it’ll get better. However, there wasn’t a lot of action and I got lost many times, due to the story, the format of the eARC, and probably just my own interest dwindling. I’m kind of annoyed that certain events took so long to happen, and the action didn’t really pick up until I got near the end of the preview. I mean, it worked on keeping me interested in reading the whole of Sightwitch, but I’m still frustrated. I’m going to reread the other books before reading all of Sightwitch. I would recommend doing the same if you’re like me and need a refresher more than you thought you did.
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ARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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