I wasn’t able to finish this book. Because of this, it is my policy not to review the book on my site or on Goodreads/Amazon. I also didn’t mark it DNF.

I have elected not to read and review this book due to time constraints. Thank you for the opportunity.

This novel takes a villainous character from the Wren Hunt and attempts to humanize him. I really like this novel. It gives the a reader a chance to understand the choices he made. The writing is excellent and I like the pacing of the story!

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

Really enjoyed seeing POVs from David in this book. Would recommend to anyone who loves magical fabulist and Irish lore. It is lush in its writing and descriptions.

I found The Wickerlight a lot easier to get into than The Wren Hunt and I really liked it.
It has the same dark, mysterious air to it which is one of the things I liked most about The Wren Hunt.

It was nice to have more of an insight into David and his life this time around. After disliking him quite a bit in The Wren Hunt, The Wickerlight showed a deeper, more sensitive side to him and the love he has for his brother in particular is very heartwarming. It makes him seem less of the monster that he sees himself as.

Overall I preferred this to the first one but they’re both really interesting, atmospheric reads and I would recommend them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The setting, the mythology, and the characters really drew me in. I did not read the first book in the series, and while I knew important things had previously occurred, it did not interfere with my enjoyment of this book, and I did not feel as though I was missing out on key information. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA, Celtic Mythology, Romance, and Fantasy.

I just could not get in to this one, it was a DNF for me.

Beautifully descriptive but hard to sink my teeth in to, finally gave it up after my third attempt.

May revisit!

Zara's family moved to Kilshamble for a new beginning. But everything changed the night her sister was found dead on the village green.

Two months later, Laila's death is a riddle that nobody wants solved. Where were her injuries? Why was she so obsessed with local folklore? And what does all this have to do with David, the boy who lives at the big house?

As Zara delves deeper into her sister's secret life, she becomes entangled in an ancient magical feud. All too unwittingly she is treading the same dangerous path that led Laila to the village green.- Goodreads

I am just going to go on and say it. . . the first book was better. Zara was not a like-able character and if it wasn't for the fact that this book is told through two different perspectives, I probably wouldn't had finished it. Zara lacks personality and yes a lot of that is due to her sister's death. But she uses her sister's death as a means for everything. When Zara begins looking into what happened to her sister, it felt less like she needed to know and more of I need something to do.

The second point of view within this novel is a character named David. He had a lot going on. But he matched Zara perfectly. They were almost like the same person. But he was easier to read because there was a lot more characters and magic running through his life while Zara was searching for that magic.

This book is way more detailed than the first but there isn't a whole lot that happens. This would be fine but the book is missing the overall who done it feel. That would have added the extra push the novel needed.

Overall, eh

2 Pickles

This was a fun read! I really liked the worldbuilding and atmosphere. The characters felt a bit flat, especially compared to the Raven Cycle, but on the whole, this was engrossing and enjoyable, and I look forward to seeing the author's other works.

I was a big fan of The Wren Hunt, so I was so excited to read this one. The writing style is so magical, that I was totally taken into the plot yet again! I had forgotten a bit about the first one, so I was worried that I was going to be a little lost, but I had no problems at all. I loved the change in narrators, shifting characters but keeping the ones from the first around just a bit. If you are a fan of fantasy, magic, and sister relationships, this is a book for you! I would recommend starting with the first one, as that one was great too!

I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I did like this book as much as the first one! Would recommend and great follow up! The characters were great and the overall story flow was well paced

I absolutely loved the sequel to The Wren Hunt. With different protagonists (with brief glimpses of our original narrators), Mary Watson was able to give readers a different perspective to this whole magical story. David's perspective was my favorite honestly, because while I absolutely loathed him in the first book, he grew on me and my whole attitude toward him changed. This entire book is magical, but in such a quiet way. It grows into this amazing journey that pushes you forward through sheer force of will. You'll turn page after page in a frenzied nervousness, anxious to find out what will happen to our beloved characters. This book is stunning, and I cannot wait to see what Mary Watson puts forth next.

Mary Watson hits it out of the park again with this companion to The Wren Hunt. I just hope she'll give us another installment; I want to stay in this world forever!

Zara knows that despite her sister’s death being ruled an overdose, it was just too suspicious to accept it as such. Zara retraces her sister’s steps and finds herself caught between two worlds. David, the next door neighbor, is determined to keep her out of this but he’s also got his own stuff to deal with like his father’s expectations to uphold, finding a lost ceremonial piece, and helping his brother out. Yet Zara unknowingly unleashes a power that could change everything. The Wickerlight is the companion novel to Mary Watson’s The Wren Hunt; it captured readers with her world building, witty characters, and atmospheric setting.

The Wickerlight follows David and Zara. It alternates their perspectives between chapters which is at first jarring since I wasn’t expecting two narratives. However, their narratives are very different though it took a while for them to overlap.

I recommend reading The Wren Hunt before reading The Wickerlight. Wren makes a few appearances in this one as this companion novel takes place during the events of The Wren Hunt.

Readers met David in The Wren Hunt. I had so many questions about him so I'm glad Mary Watson developed his character more in this one. He wasn’t what I expected. I thought he was rather rude, blunt and sort of a bully in The Wren Hunt but knew that there was more to his story than what we initially received. David cares so much for his brother. Their relationship seems so fragile but there’s a strong bond underneath that will make your heart melt. His ambition and his willingness to do whatever it takes for his family is commendable but does put him in some precarious situations.

Just like The Wren Hunt, Watson brings her incredible writing expertise to the table. She whisks readers away to an atmospheric novel with magic, dark settings and unfolding mysteries. Watson creates such a realistic world with her elaborate descriptions. Her characters felt so real, developed so delicately. Family plays a big part in her characters. Their dynamic, all different yet so relatable, made these people as real as you and me.

Zara, still grieving from her sister’s death, knows that Laila, her sister, did not die from an overdose. She tries to understand her and becomes tangled in an unbelievable world she never knew existed. She’s strong and relentless. It was easy to connect with Zara as she was learning about this magic system while readers are also learning more about it.

As we learned in the previous book, there are two sides that always seem to be at war with one another, the Judges and the Augurs. Zara, a newcomer, stumbles upon this knowledge when discovering more about what happened to her sister. It’s part fantastical and part mystery. Readers are swept up in the clues that Watson reveals, guessing what truly happened. The twists and turns happen at the best places, immersing readers further into the story.

The ending was everything I could hope for and more. The only problem was that it ended. I hope another installment in underway. There are so many questions that could be answered and other paths to follow.

The Wickerlight was a glorious companion to The Wren Hunt. It was atmospheric and magical, a novel that will have you on the edge of your seat.

What an odd but a good novel. The underlying theme follows two young adults, both searching for something. One is looking for answers into her sister's death while the other is looking for inner peace, self-love, and a way to escape his harsh reality. These two people have been brought together by a series of circumstances that lead them to help one another on their respective journeys. It is interesting to see how their lives intermingle through such old magic and to see them grow as characters.

Laila’s death is the catalyst of the novel. Her death opens up so many questions for the reader and Zara as she enters this world of the old magic that she thought ever existed. It is interesting to get to know Laila through the opening quotes of Zara’s chapters but also through the pieces of her life she has left behind. There is something menacing lingering beneath the surface of her death, and as Zara continues to investigate the eerie tone rises, allowing the tension of the novel to bloom as the story progresses.

The dual perspectives also allow the reader to understand the characters and this world. David and Zara are both complex characters with complex family dynamics. Not only does Zara struggle with her sisters' death, but the paranoia of her father's infidelity keeps her from being happy. For David, he struggles with his brother’s PTSD and the change in dynamics where he is now considered the “tough” son. He is protective of his older brother and hates the shift, but he also does not want to disappoint his family more than they already feel. There is much turmoil for the characters, but together they find the peace they seek, and they grow and become better for it.

The Wickerlight is a captivating novel that moves at a steady pace as it slowly develops the tension and sets up the characters. The depth to the characters and their narratives is incredibly compelling, keeping the reader engrossed in the story.

Zara is torn apart by her sister Laila's death. The tale takes place in a remote village in Ireland where magic and old customs are still practiced and very much a part of daily life. When Zara discovers clues in the form of a scavenger hunt she feels that it will take her to the truth about her sister's death but what she finds instead may mean her own. Moody and mystical, this eerie tale is ageless and modern at the same time. Good and evil battle magic and modern love as well as an old family feud.
For young adult readers but it will certainly catch the attention of adults. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

I was fully prepared to dive into the Wickerlight, having just finished The Wren Hunt and I ended up liking this one even more. An unusual thing when it comes to sequels. I found the concept of an outsider perspective in Zara and a voice to Wren’s nemesis, David provided a much better balance and understanding of the story this time around. The Wren Hunt had a lot of internal struggles between the judges and the augurs that was so rooted over generations that it made somewhat difficult to follow, it was as if you needed to be ‘in’ on the information yourself which isn’t possible for a reader. But The Wickerlight brought an outsider looking in which I found made it easier to read and follow because it was more relatable to the reader. The mysterious death of her sister, Laila provided a new look into this world of magic and showed that it’s not just two kinds of people who can get hurt. This is no longer a fight exclusive to augurs and judges!

“Having hung out with the Drama crowd for years, I recognise the exaggeration, the voice intonations, the careful facial expressions. John Canty is one of those people, the ones who are always performing. The world is their stage, everyone their audience.”

It didn’t hurt either that Zara was actually clever when it came to tackling her sister’s mysterious death. She thought rationally when put into dangerous situations (which there were a lot of) and she had the guts to confront a world that only became stranger as she investigated. No back up, nothing and yet her tenacity to solve the mystery always put her smack in the middle. She was genuine and clever in every scene which made me incredibly happy because nothing makes a book worse than when the heroine is dumb. And I mean dumb, dumb, like stupid girls in horror movies who always end up dead dumb. Zara is not that girl, thank god!
__________

“I ease her phone from her hand, as she watches me, I save my number under Handyman. More like handsy man.

“You want me to call you? She looks at the phone and laughs. ‘Handyman sounds like a hammer-wielding maniac from B-grade horror.’

‘That’s probably about right.’ I’m grinning like a fool as she gives me her number.”
__________


I found the romance between Zara and David developed smoother than Wren and Tarc’s and I ultimately ended up liking David much more in this one. He has a dark edge which we saw in the first novel but here we see that he’s not as evil as Wren had us believe. There are many instances where appearances can be deceiving and even a seasoned reader like me who loves mysteries was left stumped! Nothing is up front in these books and I found that to be a really good quality to this eerily atmospheric read. The amount of twists and turns is definitely the hidden gems for this series. Watch out for betrayal because that will happen! A lot! And the scariest part of all? Is how unpredictable it is, every time!

“We never, ever give our words away. We need them to form laws because that’s how our magic works.”

One thing that still bothers me, even now when I’ve had a day to mull things over, is the whole concept of judges and the importance they put on words. I didn’t get it the whole time I was reading and unfortunately I still don’t now. This whole quote confuses the hell out of me and it seemed really weird to read, every time this sort of stuff was mentioned. It could just be me but you’ve been warned!

“Here’s the thing about monsters in my world: they’re normal people living at a knife’s edge, poised between decent and depraved.”

I think the highlight of this novel is David’s character. He was on the outskirts of the story in The Wren Hunt and he only appeared to antagonize and terrorize Wren. He had a negative connation to his character from the beginning and then in here he becomes something else. And by the end he is redeemed. I was hesitant and unsure in the beginning having no idea how the story was headed upon realizing the change in characters but it turned it out really well. There’s an eeriness that matches so well with the atmosphere and the Irish lore that makes these books extremely addictive!

I want to thank Netgalley and the publishers at Bloomsbury for this opportunity to review an early copy of Mary Watson's companion novel, The Wickerlight.

Howdy, howdy! It’s the last Wednesday of November, so that means it’s book review time. But first, happy (early) Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it! I hope your day tomorrow is filled with great food and even better company. Now, back to what this post is about. I was in the mood for fantasy, so I requested The Wickerlight by Mary Watson. What I didn’t realize was that it was the second book in a series (NetGalley isn’t great at letting you know if a book is part of a series) and by the time I noticed, it was too late for me to go back and read The Wren Hunt first. Luckily, this one stands pretty well on its own. Anyway, The Wickerlight was released November 26th by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books. I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

The Wickerlight follows David and Zara as they navigate life, mystery, parental expectations, and even love. Despite the lack of leads and evidence in her sister’s strange death, Zara is determined to find out what happened. Despite being part of a secret magical war and under immense pressure from his father, David is determined to keep the peace between the Judges and Augurs as best as he can. What happens when outsiders find out about the magic going on under their noses? What happens when things come to a boil between the Judges and Augurs? What happens when Zara and David cross paths?

It sounds like an interesting story and it really is. There’s a lot of Irish mythology in it, which I need to get better acquainted with. One thing I learned about myself from this book is that I have zero grasp on Irish pronunciations. Luckily, there’s a glossary in the back to help out, so if you don’t know how to say Badb either, start there.

The pacing of the book was interesting. It moved super fast and a lot of the time it didn’t feel like much was happening until I stopped and thought about what I read. I think this was because there’s a lot of telling and very little showing in this book. Yeah, I wished some parts had been slowed down and explained in more detail, but for the most part I enjoyed the speed. I got through a 400+ pages book in about 10 days. That’s quick for me. And the fact that I kept thinking about what I read even after I put it down for the night says a lot. I haven’t found myself that invested in a book and it’s characters in a long time.

The writing was crisp and clear and fun. The characters were diverse and entertaining. I actually found myself wanting to know more about Adam and his life. I don’t know if there’re going to be more books (it could go either way as some stuff seemed to be left open, but the important stuff was wrapped up), but I hope to see more of him if there are.

Ultimately, The Wickerlight surprised me and surpassed my expectations for fantasy nowadays. I’ll definitely pick up book one and see how it is. I will also keep an eye out for more books by Mary Watson.

Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because it really could have benefited from slowing down at times. Beyond that, if you like well rounded characters, fast pace, and an intriguing plot, I definitely encourage you to pick this one up.

The Judges got what they wanted: Wren on their side, ready to give them power and strength like no one before. But all is not well in their world. David, Wren’s previous tormentor, is feeling the weight of his family and Judge responsibilities on his shoulders. After his brother’s failure, he has to restore the family name. Can he do it? And what does Laila, a girl who dropped dead on the village green, have to do with it?

Laila’s sister, Zara, is also on the case. New to Kilshamble, she’s struggling to figure out exactly what her sister was involved in, and how that led to her death. And what is with these boys who are both creepy and mysterious?

I got an ARC of The Wickerlight in exchange for an honest review.

The Wickerlight is a young adult fantasy novel by Mary Watson. It’s also the sequel to The Wren Hunt, but not necessarily super connected to it.

Yes, it’s the same family, the same characters, the same place, but instead of getting everything through Wren’s perspective, we got David’s and someone new. If you were hoping for much more on Wren and Tarc and the Augurs, you might be disappointed by this. If you wanted something from the perspective of the Judges, though, you’re in luck.

As I mentioned, we get David’s first-person POV here, swapping off with Zara every chapter. Was I super interested in David before this? Not really, except in wanting to understand what was his motivation other than: “be the protagonist’s bully”, but in the end I appreciated reading his perspective on everything. I will say that I was still not a fan of the switching first-person POV, especially when I read about the same moments through both of their eyes. It wasn’t really necessary most of the time, and felt repetitive and awkward. I had already known what happened, so why would I need to read about it twice? But besides that, it was fine. David was a lot more interesting than I gave him credit for, and Zara so desperate to find her sister’s secrets that she kept me reading. I feel like more could have been done with Zara, though. We didn’t learn about her outside of the context of her family or David or being alone. In The Wren Hunt, we got to experience Wren interacting with so many people, and I got their histories, motivations, everything. Perhaps it was because this novel worked with mostly those same characters, but I felt like we didn’t end up going as deep this time.

The conflict between the Augurs and the Judges remains compelling, though! This secret war that’s being waged was fascinating to read about through Zara’s eyes specifically, mostly because she has no idea what’s going on and has to form her own conclusions from her observations. And boy does she eventually get tangled up with both families. I don’t really envy her here.

Same as in The Wren Hunt, both characters are sort of tangled in their societies’ messes, the plot coming from the characters around them and they struggling to adapt or overcome these circumstances. But while working hard to survive, they still managed to find each other and develop a relationship that I found believable, even if I didn’t really ship them like I did Wren and Tarc. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought they’d be better friends than love interests.

The story doesn’t progress all that quickly until the last few chapters, when everything accelerates and keeps the reader on their toes, trying to keep up with the characters. The end was satisfying, but open enough that I can see Watson coming back into this world.

Wren’s story definitely isn’t over. She got only a couple of pages here, but not much else. Stuff is still up in the air, and chaos abounds in the tiny Irish town. I guess we’ll find out at some point if she does! I checked her website but found nothing in it about another novel.

In the end, I enjoyed The Wickerlight, although maybe not as much as The Wren Hunt. Both novels were fun, though, and I think a lot of fantasy enthusiasts, and especially those interested in magic with Irish roots, would enjoy these books.

The Wickerlight will be released by Bloomsbury on November 26. You can pre-order your copy here.

I didn’t learn until after I had already requested this book that it was the second in a series. After some research, I learned that it could be read as a standalone so I decided to just go for it. It definitely worked as a standalone and I could follow everything just as well as I could have for a first book in a series. It felt more like a story set in the same world than a sequel, but the world-building was amazing and clear for having already been established in a prior novel. I absolutely loved the system of magic and the Celtic druid influence. The magic words were so unique and the conflict between the two feuding magical groups was very interesting. The whole story had a dark, almost gothic, vibe and it really sucked me into its atmosphere. The book shows a vivid picture of how different people deal with grief and it was a very compelling weave in the story. I liked Zara and her journey into the dark world of magic and mystery, but I really liked David. His arc was so full and meaningful and I loved his relationships with his family, especially his brother Oisin. I definitely want to go back and read the first book, The Wren Hunt, because there were a few characters and details that would have been fuller with the prior knowledge, and I also just want to experience more in this world.