Traveling between the living and the dead? CHECK
A love affair with the God of the Dead? CHECK
Red Witch: The Tales of Ingrid Redstone is a dark, intense and gritty fantasy, romance, mystical, story. It's complicated, it's creative, it's almost breathtaking.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book!

What a read! Unique, imaginative and very dark: what is there not to like?

The story takes place in 1910 where occultist and adventurer Ingrid Redstone travels to the City of Angels in search of the Aztec portal to the afterlife. She didn’t count on meeting Death on the side and get on a ride through the history of the city. As their relationship develops and grows deeper, Ingrid realizes that their worlds' 'weren’t meant to cross and in the end, she will have to choose between a life with the living or amongst the dead.

I admire the author for the work on the organization of the storyline; in the beginning, it was a bit tricky and complex to understand and follow but then it really drew me into the story. I think it’s the first time I read a novel that manages to mix dark fantasy with historical fiction, vintage times, mystery, supernatural and romance. It is a dangerous attempt but the author managed to successfully create a unique, refreshing and new style entirely. There is an exceptional view of the underworld, how it works, how time passes differently; details that built this dark world. The way the characters explore past times and meet several notables of the old days is a great idea. I wish I had the chance to sit with Alfred Hitchcock! The historical settings of the novel are also very well described and I really do enjoy a good story that takes place in the jazz days.

The characters are solid and their interactions are very human. It’s a love story but it’s not a fairytale either; they have communication problems, misunderstandings. It’s easy to see that Death isn’t used to interact with anyone, especially not with a human woman. I see Ingrid has a more quiet type and more hesitant when it comes to Death. She jumps into the unknown without thinking very much about it and how it actually might end for her but at the same time she lets him take all the initiative, which was a bit frustrating at times.

Overall, a great, unique, thrilling adventure that I recommend to all the fans of a more complex romantic fantasy.

As I've probably mentioned before, I love books about Death, demons etc. And the premise of this book really drew me in. Set in 1910, Ingrid travels to LA in search of a portal, said to transport her to the Aztec afterlife. Here she falls in love with Death, and in their following quest they hurl through time meeting various celebrities from the past.

This had so much potential, and I could really see where the author was trying to go with this, but I think it fell a little flat. I got very confused by the narrative - which although heavily descriptive, yet didn't seem to actually tell me very much about the characters.

Because if this, I didn't actually care very much about Ingrid, and constantly wondered about why she would blindly trust Death, and follow him everywhere. And also why she loved him - which seemed to happen with, unfortunately, a degree of the dreaded 'insta-love'. I wish Ingrid could have shown a bit more of her own initiative at times. I think if we could have seen, and more importantly heard, what Ingrid was feeling more often, I could have warmed to her more.

I also got very confused very early on with regards to the plot. It jumped about a lot, very quickly.

A good effort, and a great imagination from the author, but this falls down a little in execution.

Red Witch: The Tales of Ingrid Redstone by Sean Patrick Traver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!

I admit I grabbed this title mainly because of the gorgeous cover and was amazed that there weren't more glowing reviews after I began, but by the end of the read, I was flabbergasted. Why? Because I can see why there might be two camps for a tale of this scope and magnitude. It's non-traditional all the way down the board. That's not to say it wasn't easy to follow, either, just that it does very well to bend all kinds of genres.

We can assume, first of all, that it's a really dark fantasy with romance, and this is absolutely true. But it's also epic in scope and because of the in-depth exploration of the world of the dead and the peculiar qualities of timelessness there, this book also fits neatly into time-travel and segues even better into a well-thought-out piece of historical fiction going all the way back to Aztec sacrifices, through the silent age of film, the World-Wars, druggie sixties and the modern world of Indiana Jones and lasers, and all of this can be accessed through the door of the dead. It's pretty awesome.

But most importantly, this is a love story between the King of the Dead and a modern occult witch right out of Aleister Crowley's pagebook, full of passion and misunderstanding and disillusionment and even a few surprise twists in the span of their relationship. It's not a simple relationship, either, but it certainly felt like a genuine one. Even if it does sour.

So much happens and so much is explored in this book, I'm not going to be able to touch on even a fraction, but I can say that it's pretty epic. It's also one of the most unique and fascinating takes on necromancy that I've ever read. This is not a simple tale. It's actually rather emotional and brilliant.

If the world had any justice, then complicated and exploratory adventure/romance/horrors like this would fill all the shelves of the world. We'd be steeped in the glories of more truly creative fictions that aren't afraid to cross all those silly boundaries of the genres. :)