“The wind sings me lullabies.”
Rating: ★★★
Lexi peers out of her window one night and sees a boy made of wind. The next day, children in her town, Near, begin to go missing. The town blames the stranger, but when Lexi finds and befriends him, she knows that it can’t be him. Could it be the near witch, the legendary witch who the town banished years before, and who everyone believes dead? Can she convince the town and save her friend’s life?
I have wanted to read some VE Schwab for a while and figured her first book was not a bad place to begin. I kind of regret that decision, I could definitely tell that this was her first book. I have read another of her YA books and loved it, but this book definitely felt like an earlier version of Schwab.
The premise of The Near Witch was very intriguing and caught my attention early on. It was almost like a fantasy whodunnit which is always fun. I also love the atmosphere of mystery added to the story by the remote setting and the wind. However, the plot is very obvious (literally in the name) and the other elements of the book weren’t enough to balance it out, so it just felt like an obvious and not very well developed story to me.
Lexi had the potential to be a really interesting main character with her rebellious and curious streaks. I loved how she was the only person comfortable with talking to the town’s outcasts, and how she cared for her sister. However, I would have loved to see more development in her relationship with her mother and uncle, who were very one dimensional.
This book also had my pet peeve which was dull romance. I could tell it would happen from the beginning but there was no chemistry between the main pair or reason to pair them up other than the fact that they were of the same age.
Overall, a slight disappointment but still excited to read more of VE Schwab’s more recent work.
Ink Drops Books 