A vivid fantasy world that captures you from the first chapter. I've always thought there were two types of YA - 'young' YA that skews towards tweens, and 'older' YA that captivates teens and adults alike. This book settles somewhere comfortably in the middle; I could see a 14 or 15 year old who enjoys fantasy/medieval settings picking this up and loving it, with fringe readers somewhere below or above that age line.

I did not finish the book myself - I picked it up due to the gorgeous cover as well as the title. Supernatural/witchy stories are up my alley, but long cloaks and medieval villages are not. That being said, it did keep me engaged much longer than the usual stories set in this sort of world do. The writing and the narrative are excellent.

Elloren Gardner is the identical image of her late grandmother, the powerful Black Witch. Unlike her grandmother, Elloren has no magic. And when she's sent to university to study the apothecary trade, her grandmother's legacy haunts her and those around her.

Normally, I will read for escape, to go to a place and immerse myself in a story that is so much different (and often better) than my own. While I approached this book with that same attitude, The Black Witch had something else in store. From the very beginning, I as the reader knew that something was not quite right with Elloren's worldview, with the truths she had been raised with. And it was hard, at times, to read through the passages depicting such hate. However, the overarching theme of growth, of using education to better yourself and the world around you, kept me reading.

Elloren is no longer in a sheltered place when she goes to school and it gets her to start questioning if everything she has been taught is right, is true. It is a slow process, which is both believable and, again, hard to read. It is not easy for someone who has been indoctrinated all their life to break away from those values. It is not an instantaneous change but a change that happens over time, though I wished that some of those instances had been condensed.

One of my favorite parts of this book is when Elloren begins to understand that the history text she has been reading about her own people is incomplete, that she is missing vital pieces of information. So, she goes to Professor Kristian and asks what happened, what her book isn't telling her. And so he does. There are times she wants to protest, thinking her people, her ancestors, could not have done such things, she can feel the truth of it. After his lecture, Professor Kristian gives her multiple history texts from numerous races of Erthia, telling her to find her own answers.

Education is a powerful tool, a way to better yourself and the world around you. Elloren begins to take an interest in what is actually happening, becoming informed and aware. She was naive at the start of the book but through asking questions, seeking answers, and learning from what she was finally seeing outside of her Gardnerian influences, she begins to break away. She surrounds herself with people who share her ideals and learns from them.

The importance of education, of paying attention to the world around you, was an important and revisited theme throughout the book. I look forward to how the series will continue to handle that theme.

unfortunately, i DNF this book due to other commitments and it didn't hold my interest. i will try again at a later date!

I did not care for this book. It is getting a lot of positive reviews, and I am glad people have liked it. But, it isn't quite my speed

Let me just start off this review by saying that I wanted to read this book for myself after seeing the articles regarding the racism and highly-segregated society that is portrayed in this book. I didn’t look too much down into the rabbit hole because I wanted to see if I felt that those issues we’re at the forefront of the book.
I will also say that I received an ARC of this book for review from the publisher. Now onto the review!
The Goodreads plot summary reads as follows:
Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner, who drove back the enemy forces and saved the Gardnerian people during the Realm War. But while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.
When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people—including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians—is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.
As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of misfits…if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to hate and fear.
The plot was pretty slow-paced, and while I get that most of it was to build relationships with other characters for the latter end of the book, it was way too drawn out and had me picking it apart more as I read it.
Elloran is pretty childish throughout the story, but I guess that’s a result of her sheltered upbringing. It was still frustrating though to see Elloran pretty consistently fall back on the mainstream hiearchy ideologies. I feel like with the way her uncle is presented in the beginning of the book, and the way the author goes out of her way to emphasize that Elloran’s uncle raised her differently than what is typical in their society, Elloran should be more open and not as prejudiced as she is in the book.
The romance in the book is slow and never really goes anywhere. I know that this is going to be a series, but I feel like it should’ve been more intense. I wasn’t really into any of the romantic interests. I usually root for one of the interests if there’s more than one but I found both to be too brooding for my tastes.
The other aspect about Elloran that bothered me was the fact that she has no magic. The book shows that there is definitely something up with Elloran, but it bummed me out not finding out what it was 500 pages in.
I liked the secondary characters so much more than I liked Elloran. They are the best part of this book. They are well developed, they have their own problems and are in different races/social status’ than each other, and I appreciated how they all come together into a rag-tag bunch.
The ending; however, ultimately left me unfulfilled. Once again I understand that this is going to be a series, but the lackluster ending left me saying “do I really want to read more and find out what happens to these people?”
Overall, this book seems to have gotten a lot of attention due to the racism controversy, but I feel like it’s also a major theme that Elloran eventually overcomes (kinda). I hope that the next book is more fast-paced and not as much of a setup book that this one seemed to be.

This one is a wee bit tricky for me to review to be honest. On the one hand, I know there has been a lot of debate and controversy surrounding this novel, a lot of which was fueled by people who have not read the book (which I dislike!). I read a lot of people's discussions, and I can see where they are coming from, and I don't want to get involved in those discussions, but for me I can clearly see that it was obviously not the author's intention.

I wanted to read this book myself and make my own opinions about it. I can see where people are coming from, but in my opinion I put it down to poor writing. I don't think the author expressed her views in a clear, cohesive way. I found a lot of the book quite messy and confusing, and a few times reading it I had to reread sections because I just had no clue what some of the sentences meant! I do think the book had a lot of promise, the story is cool, and the world-building was really well done (and if I were to continue with the series this would most likely be the only reason I would - it's super awesome), but at the same time it didn't bring anything reaalllllyyyy new to the table. I read a lot, A LOT of YA, particularly YA fantasy, and I am finding more and more that it is hard to read something that it totally and completely refreshing. Of course I understand that can be hard, and I do usually find something I love about a book, but unfortunately for this one that wasn't really the case.

I think this book had SO MUCH potential, and I really wanted to like it, but in the end I just found it a wee bit...forgettable.

Due to the controversy around this book and the issues of racism, I have decided I am not the best reader for it.

I don't exactly know how to rate this book. I was a mix of horrified, shocked, uncomfortable, angry, and happy.
Horrified, shocked, and uncomfortable because damn, the author went there. So much racism. Yes, I get that it wasn't a contemporary racism, but a fantasy racism. Okay, that's cool-but you still have races treating others like garbage, treating other religions like garbage. Meant to be a social commentary? Possibly.

I was angry at Elloren who had no clue she was just as bad as the others she criticized. I was happy that she at least made an effort to learn why she was wrong, to learn about others, and befriend others. But it never really felt genuine.

I don't know. I just don't. Am I upset I wasted time on this book? Nope. In fact I stayed up till 2am finishing it and don't regret it. I thought the world building was excellent, and I loved all of the various races we met. I want more of them! I want to spend lots of time with the Kelts, the Amaz, the Lupines. Will I finish the series (if there are more published)? I don't think so.

I couldn't get into this book. I did not finish it. It was just a bit too boring.

I dont actively hate this book but at the same time i dont understand how it has gotten rave reviews from a select few authors. My only conclusion is that they are blind as there is infinitely better work out there. The Black Witch is a poorly edited, exhausting book which i simply do not have time for.
A full review, complete with blow-by-blow commentary is available on my blog.

I am so pleased to have ignored the unwarranted "backlash" surrounding this novel. It is actually a fantastic, thought-provoking novel regarding prejudice and how one is raised can impact our views throughout life. Yes, prejudice and racism can be a very controversial topic. Everyone has opinions. The thing is: this book doesn't display it's very helpful message in a negative or harmful way. I think people could learn a very important lesson through this story. Prejudice isn't a black and white kind of thing. Some are raised a certain way, but can learn acceptance and tolerance. We are ignorant until we are in the know. Prejudice can be horrific, but isn't it doing the very issue an injustice if we sugarcoat that? We know it's been an issue throughout all of history, so displaying the horrors while showing we can learn and change is ultimately a very important thing. All in all, I urge you to ignore those who haven't even read the book and give it a read yourself. Who knows? You might learn something. Highly recommend!!

Didn't get a chance to finish it before it expired. But from the half I read I was loving it. I can't wait to grab it at the library and finish it.

A horrible read. I wouldn't recommend it at all. The character development was nonexistent, and the amount of racism in this book is uncalled for.

I had a different take on this book than many of the reviewers of this book. I also noticed that many of the reviewers on Goodreads in particular did not read the entire book, so....

Sounds like the book has stirred up some strong feelings so it may get a lot of attention.

I loved the writing and felt like I was really "in" this world the entire time I was reading it.

Maybe since I grew up reading books where Elves hated Dwarves simply because of what they were and vice versa I was able to accept a lot of this as a fantasy tale rather than a mirror of our society. If I were to see this as a mirror - I would say it raises the idea of what can happen in a biased and corrupt society when a truly evil person is put in charge. I would use that to fuel my fire to fight some of the corruption and hypocrisy and possible and actual loss of human rights I see occurring RIGHT NOW in the US. If this book is a mirror, I see this more as a WARNING and wakening call to our society than anything else.

I also saw Elloren as a character who was raised in a very sheltered environment - and grew up with one world view. She was not exposed to people outside of her family and immediate neighbors. If she had been raised by her Aunt - she may have been another Fallon Bane but she was raised with a different type of values because of her Uncle Edwin. As she is exposed to the horrible treatment of her society, she gradually becomes more tolerant and ends up joining the resistance. I see more great things coming from Elloren in future books - perhaps even an overturning of the way her world is run. I look forward to reading more!

This book is incredibly harmful: racist, homophobic, and violently bigoted. All other aspects of the book fall by the wayside in the face of such blatant hate.

The Black Witch by Laurie Forest is a coming of age story about a girl named Elloren Gardner. I saw this on Netgalley and the cover and blurb pulled me in.

The story begins with Elloren, the granddaughter of a Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner. After spending her life in a village, she's now being sent to the Verpax University to finish her education.

I think the author is good at writing and I enjoyed her writing style. The story had a good amount of action and romance. Certain parts of the book were thrilling to me and there were also some slower boring times as well. There are many characters and I liked the world the author creates because it's very magical, creative, and detailed, but for the most part, this was just ok for me. The book is a little different than I expected.

I was really surprised to see so many 1 star reviews on this book and many from people who didn't read the book. I certainly think it deserves more than 1 star. I do believe the university is a very hateful place and the story contains racist and prejudiced characters, but you have to get past it. It takes awhile and you must read the entire book to get there, which takes forever because the book is so long, like 600 pages. If you can get past two-thirds of the book and witness how Elloren's character starts changing, you'll understand why the author wrote it this way. Eventually, she starts to view things differently and starts realizing that everything she's been taught may not be correct. I definitely don't think the author wrote the story this way to celebrate these types of behaviors and feel like by the end of the story everything comes together.

I still liked the book, but didn't love it. I'll probably still read the next book.

3***

This is the type of book that you read while brushing your teeth and knocking yourself on walls since you can't put it down. Well recommended by the Dewey Divas and Dudes, the story brings the reader into à well plotted fantasy with just enough romance to keep a young audience interested. The main character is quite naive which makes it sometimes annoying but she grows on us. Only negative point is that we have to wait for the second volume.

I would actually give the book 3.5 stars. I liked the beginning. In the middle, Elloren began to really annoy me. I get that the author had to show her growth and progression. But she was weak, then a flair of strength and then back to weak. Then toward the end I began to really like it again. I have to say that I felt like it was a female Harry Potter meets the breakfast club. The obligatory mean girl, the new girl who catches said mean girl's guy. Hints of a love triangle, but maybe not too much. A banding of the misfits. My absolute favorite character is Rafe, Elloren's brother. I could fall for him. He has charm, strength, wit, and skills. I enjoyed reading this book and wanted to stay with the story. Of course, it ends with a cliffhanger. I will look forward to the next book. I saw some nasty comments about the book being racist. I don't agree. I think it is showing the consequences of racism and making a statement about societies who won't accept differences well. Let's face it people. This book is a fantasy. A made up world. There is no reality here. You can take from it what you want and just enjoy a good storyteller's way of telling a story. I recommend this to someone who enjoys fantasy with some romance thrown in.

I give the book 5 stars. I really enjoyed the world that was created and the characters. I can not wait to read the next book. I would definitely recommend this book.

This book is filled with racism, ableism, and even had moments of self-harm and sexual assault. I don't know what the author was thinking. The world building was spotty at best and wasn't consistent. It was difficult to get through to the ending, honestly. I know this was supposed to be a redemption arc, but I didn't see it. I didn't feel it. I get that fantasy can have different races that are pitted against each other, but this is YA and it should be called out as problematic. I'm not okay with this title. At all.