The Black Witch

Laurie Forest

May 2017 · The Black Witch Chronicles Book 1 · Sold by Harlequin

About this ebook

The New York Times bestselling series!

“Maximum suspense, unusual magic—a whole new, thrilling approach to fantasy!”
—Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Powerful magic. A deadly legacy. A world at the edge of war. Prepare to be spellbound by fantasy series, The Black Witch Chronicles.

Elloren Gardner is the spitting image of her grandmother, who drove back the enemy forces in the last Realm War. But while her people believe she will follow in her grandmother's footsteps and become the next Black Witch of prophecy, Elloren is devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at Verpax University. But she soon realizes that the university may be the most treacherous place of all for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.

As evil looms and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, Elloren's best hope of survival may be among a secret band of rebels…if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to fear.

Critics are raving about Laurie Forest’s incredible debut, The Black Witch:

“Forest uses a richly imagined magical world to offer an uncompromising condemnation of prejudice and injustice.”
—Booklist, starred review

“A noteworthy debut.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Briskly paced, tightly plotted.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Books in The Black Witch Chronicles:

• The Black Witch
• The Iron Flower
• The Shadow Wand
• The Demon Tide
• The Dryad Storm
• Wandfasted (ebook novella)*
• Light Mage (ebook novella)*

* Also available in print in The Rebel Mages anthology

Ratings and reviews

Before I even get to the main controversy surrounding racism, I would like to discuss the technical aspects of the book. The world of Erthia is split into several races, and countries with their own sets of religions and populations. Gardneria is the country that is principally ruled by the main dominant race in this world, the Gardnerians, while Verpacia and other Eastern Realms (I did not have the map in my galley copy so I may be wrong on this) are ruled by a council of the different dominant races. Leaving aside context and my bias based on what I heard about the book (which honestly was very difficult to set aside), the book feels unfocused on what it's main plot is. We start in the first part with some prophecy about a Black Witch who is fated to defeat an Icaral, and obviously our protagonist is going to be the Chosen One. But then in part 2, when we get to the University in Verpacia and we have a plot that centers around the prejudices of the races against each other, and in part 3 it is 'people of different races work together'; the plot points of part 1 are mostly ignored at this point and it feels like the author went to extraordinary effort just to turn the protagonist less racist. The plot inconsistencies are also quite evident when you compare over the 3 parts of the book. Lucas Grey attacking her was mostly ignored for the rest of the book. Another plot hole was the protection Elloren uses against Bane - though the latter girl was tormenting her on a daily basis, the scene where she realizes it doesn't work and when Elloren started using the protection are weeks apart, implying that basically every trouble she had in part 2 was ignored in the plot during that time. Now, coming back to the racism, aside from part 1 the book can basically be summed as 'look I did not choose to be as racist as my grandma!'. No seriously, this is a story of a privileged girl from a dominant race learning basic respect and not to, you know, judge people by prejudices. And I get it on one level - we are all unlearning the twisted conditioning we have. But did that have to take half a book? And mind you, this is a 600 page book, so she took nearly 300 pages to think - oh what if what I have been told is not right and people are people and not monoliths? By that point of time, you are ready to slap her just for her sheer stupidity; it is not even naivete, it is blind disregard for anybody else other than her own race. Elloren is an extremely unlikable protagonist - mainly because she spends a majority of part 2 whining and then in part 3 she expects to be lauded for not being as racist as her people. Give the girl an award, yo! (eyeroll) Her transgressions range from being openly hostile to other races just because they don't treat her with the respect she is used to, to frequently referring to other races by their race than their names. Like, she calls most of her Professors by the their name, but the Metallurgy one she refers to as the Snake Elf until the second half. Also she feels instantly comfortable when she sees other Gardnerians, even if they are mostly hostile or look down on her because of her lack of magic. She does a whole 180 in part 3, of course, but by that time it is too little, too late. The only characters who aren't repulsive are actually her two older brothers, esp Rafe who is like woke from the start. The world derives a lot from our current world - the Fae banishment is akin to the Holocaust, the Urisk laborers are like African slaves brought over, Gardneria is very much an amalgam of the colonial Europe countries. I wouldn't say they are white, since their skin color isn't mentioned even once throughout the text, but they are described with only green eyes. Then again, there are purple skinned people around, so the best I can say for Gardnerians is that they are representative of white neo-Nazi fascists. Look, the real world implications of this book cannot be ignored as it very much reflects our current state of affairs, and in this context it reads more like - 'look we white people are your allies, if

It's a good book, imaginative, lively, and emotionally compelling. A good start to a promised series! And keep in mind, the negative reviews here and elsewhere are part of a campaign by people with a particular political agenda to discredit this book without even having read it. The writer is *describing* (and very well, too) how bigotry distorts your mind and heart---she's not promoting it. A large part of the heroine's journey is unlearning the hatred she's been taught.

Absolutely loved this book, I read the hard copy. It was amazing I couldn't put it down for days! I however didn't know that there was a prequel, wandfasted, before I read the black witch so at first it is a little hard to keep up. Pay attention to the details and the book comes alive. 💜 loved it!

About the author

Laurie Forest lives deep in the backwoods of Vermont, where she sits in front of a wood stove drinking strong tea and dreaming up tales full of dryads, dragons and wands. She is the author of The Black Witch Chronicles, including The Black Witch, The Iron Flower, The Shadow Wand, The Demon Tide and the prequel e-novellas Wandfasted and Light Mage, which are also available in print as The Rebel Mages anthology. Enter her realm online at www.laurieannforest.com.