The premise of this book had a lot of potential, but the execution really wasn't there for me. The characters were either bland or unlikeable, and I found it difficult to connect with any of them enough to get invested in their stories.

The pacing of the story was off, I couldn't really put my finger on why, but it made it difficult to follow along, and the writing style felt like it was trying almost too hard to be stylized and eccentric.

Set in a mysterious prison, we follow the witch Oneirotheria on her mission to escape. Set in an enclosed dome, there is no means of escape, even through the sky. The prison is guarded by the Wardens, who, with their third eye maintain peace and punish all that set to disrupt that peace. The people in the city are constant reincarnations of themselves after each death, leading to a city with generations of the same people. Oneirotheria is reborn as the witch again, but for the first time she has memories from her past life. And as she sets out to find her freedom, she makes an unlikely set of friends, many of whom are puppets.

This book was good, but it was really weird. It was very abstract in concept, but Burnett did a good job making the abstract accessible. I really enjoyed how dark and ominous the book was, it often created a sense of unease. The best thing about this book is that it had so many new concepts that I had not seen before, and I loved how the idea of reflection was conceptualized.

The biggest complaint that I have about this book is that it was hard to get into. Because it is so abstract and different, even though the book is short, it required a lot of exposition. But, once I got through that, the book jumped into a really dynamic and interesting plot. I really loved the way the story was told, the feelings it created, and how different it was. And it was so interesting and engaging. Once I got into the book, I was sucked in. It just took a little while to get into it. But overall, it was really good and I very much enjoyed it.

I wish I could say I loved this book, but it took a long time to read and in the end, I skipped over big sections of it because I did not enjoy the writing style. While I completed it, it was not what I expected. I would say be aware that this is a good story, but be prepared to invest time into it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to read.

"Death's the marketplace where each one meets."

The Witch & The City is likely the most unusual book I have read in a long time. Following in the non-linear, often dreamlike experience of books like Piranisi and The Starless Sea. For most of the story, I had no idea of what was happening, but that was ok. It is a story filled with twists and turns, fog-filled memories, and magic that feels undefinable. Oneirotheria was such a fun and unique character to experience the story through, and I think the perfect narrator for this ethereal story. The story itself is wonderfully written and manages to convey the unnaturalness of the world of the prison-city Osylum while making it feel entirely real. I would highly recommend to any reader who is looking for a quick, dreamlike read that's a bit challenging. Thank you to Netgalley and South Window Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an eARC copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I had to DNF this title at about 40% into the novel. I really wanted to try and give this the best possible chance I could but I just could not get into the writing style. The premise sounded interesting when I requested this title, but I was so confused. Burnett writes in a very whimsical style, which totally made sense for the character's personality that we are following from, but I did not understand anything that was happening in the plot. The worldbuilding was lacking - which again made sense for our character but was just a really unpleasant reading experience for me. Every time I picked up the book, I did not know how the previous chapters linked to the one I was reading and where the plot could possibly be going. I really tried, but I don't think this one was for me.

(Giving it a 1 star because Netgalley will not let me publish this explanation without providing a star rating and since I could not finish the novel and was having an unpleasant experience, I settled on this arbitrary number.)

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. It was a bit too whimsical and I never really understood what was happening or where the story was trying to take me. I was super excited about the premise but this was a complete miss for me.

This is an odd and sometimes disquieting book, with a flavor that is reminiscent, at times, of the unreality of Alice in Wonderland. In this world, people are not born, but appear as adults, reincarnations of a previous existence; the newly formed (or hatched, if you prefer) have knowledge, but lack the context with which to understand it. Oneirotheria is one such newly hatched personage, embarking on a journey of self-discovery as she attempts to make her way through the world, from the location of her beginning to the Ninth Ward, where she will discover her true self, at least in a manner of speaking. This is one of those books you will either love or put down wondering just exactly what happened - possibly both - especially after the twist at the end. Recommended for readers high school through adult.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I picked this up and put this down a few times. In the end i truly enjoyed and appreciated it but it was definitely a mood read for me. It is niche and particular and is going to someone’s absolute favorite read or the opposite, but honestly - all of the best books are.

I tried to really enjoy this book, to make sense of it but I just could not.

I tried imagining what I was reading, I just couldn't. It was like a wreck train for me, which would not stop at any station. It was too difficult to connect with any character or even to the plot.

It might not be book's fault given how people have loved it. It is just not a book for me. I couldn't understand a lot of stuff happening in it.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc of this book.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. It was probably one of the most confusing books I've ever read. I do think this book has the potential to be loved by a specific niche audience. However, I noticed this book was advertised as being for fans of Circe and Piranesi (both books I rated four stars), and I don't think these compared. Circe did not remind me of this at all. I can see the Piranesi resemblance. Piranesi also left me confused. But it wasn't frantic. I felt like I was just meandering through this beautiful world and unlocking lore. I felt like this book was too rushed to have time for the reader to think. It felt like my brain was a pinball machine and my thoughts were just getting yanked around. So, that said, I think the pacing was my biggest issue. It felt mentally draining to read this.

Additionally, I made it to the end of the book and was still trying to figure out which character was which. I understand that could be an intentional choice by the author to emulate the thoughts of the main character who was doing the same thing, but it constantly felt like I had accidentally skipped 10 pages.

I didn't love the plot twist at the end but I liked the metaphor the author was trying to accomplish. Brilliant idea, mid execution.

All that said, I think I would try to read more by this author because I did think that parts of the world were brilliant (the Linnea, the Oseovox, the Wardens. the mirrors). But this particular one sadly did not do it for me.

A big thanks to NetGalley and South Window Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hate to break it most people. but I was on board for this book by the cover alone.

The Witch and the City by Jake Burnett is a fantasy novel about the prison-city of Osylum, which floats in the midst of an endless abyss. The reclusive Lady rules it; distant, inscrutable, and never seen. Her will is imposed by the Wardens, eldritch creatures who tend to the convicts’ needs but also ruthlessly purge anyone who tries to escape. Osylum’s newest inmate, the witch Oneirotheria, has no memory of who she is, where she came from, or why she is imprisoned. Instead, her mind is a mess of spells and lore and other people’s voices. The city mirrors her internal confusion; a jumble of broken buildings covered in hundreds of snippets of graffiti. As Oneirotheria re-assembles her own shattered past (aided by a few inmates of dubious intent), she learns she may hold not just the key to escape, but the intertwined secrets of the city’s origin and a lost love that transcends countless lives.

As much as I wanted to love this, I found that it wasn't quite the one for me. Some of the concepts were confusing, and the characters were a little lackluster. The plot was good enough to keep me engaged, but I found myself having to stop ever so often to think about what I just read. Which isn't good when your just reading for fun.

I absolutely adored the premise for this: escape from a prison city guarded by shadow creatures, with the main character being a witch who remembers nothing about her past except a mass of spells. I don't really consider this to be a bad book, per se, but it definitely wasn't enjoyable for me. I did not like the writing style, nor was I able to connect with any of the characters. The writing in this book is very... frantic? A rush of events just happening, with not enough explanation, just a stream of consciousness like someone had a gun to the narrator's head and they had a five minute time limit to speak. Objectively, this does make a lot of sense plotwise, as the main character herself is portrayed with a frenzied mind. However, I can't say that I liked reading it, or that I understood a whole lot of it. The writing gets much calmer at the halfway point, and while I did understand what was occuring then, I did not have a lot of context for it, seeing as I could not understand anything from the first half. I also thought the twist at the end with the mc was lazy (it was hinted at throughout the book, so it didn't come from nowhere, but I simply felt it was quite unoriginal.) This is just one of those books where I do not think I was the target audience, but if you enjoy the premise or like high fantasy, I'd recommend you read it and form your own opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley for the copy.

This book!! This book! 

Here, now. 

What a world. This started out as a read-at-bedtime book but I found myself thinking about it throughout the day and it became a daytime book too. This book is such a fountain of delights that I feel I need to read it again and again to appreciate it all. The more I think about it the more clever it gets. The ending a succession of fireworks. 

You’ve probably already read the synopsis so I’m not going to bother with any of that. The characters are interesting and the world is weird but it all works because we’re learning about all of it as our MC does. We don’t get all of the answers but we get the important ones, even ones we didn’t know we wanted and I love the imperfection of that. I love this book and will definitely be adding it to my library.

The Witch and the City follows the witch Oneirotheria, who is looking for her memories. She navigates the streets of Osylum, guided by her knowledge of language and etymologies, in this very Shakespearian and a little Dantesque novel that is never quite what it seems to be. The author has a love for words that finds a release in very playful language, a lot of synonyms and clues scattered across names and dialogues. I was attracted to this book because of the link the publisher made to Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, one of my favourite books of the year, and the parallels are indeed easy to draw, with an innocent character whose view of the world is limited by their knowledge, and a location that is both sprawling and enclosed within uncrossable boundaries.
I was instantly enthralled by the language in The Witch and the City, which sustained me throughout chapters that kept confusing me more and more, but not in a bad sense. Do not look for clear and definite answers here. There is a twist that sheds light on some aspects of the world, but most of it remains a mystery. I am absolutely certain this book begs for a re-read, and will be experienced differently depending on how well you know your classics, especially your Shakespeare. I don’t know a huge lot about the Bard, and was still able to enjoy this novel, but I’d be curious to know how a better-versed reader interprets it and is able to anticipate some revelations.
This is a novel for Autumn and Winter times, filled with moving shadows.

3.5/5
I struggled with the beginning of this book- the confusion of the main character at the start was effective but also hard for me to understand. Once I got through that bit and started to piece things together, I enjoyed the lyrical quality of the writing and the unique side characters.

I think the plot and the story itself was very interesting and very different, which is always refreshing to see! I'll admit I did find myself struggling a little bit to understand what on earth was going on but I do believe it is written in this way given the context of the plot.

My main criticism sadly, is that I just didn't seem to gel with the writing style, it was a bit too lyrical and whimsy for my own personal tastes, that being said, the author is obviously talented and I can see this book appealing to others.

Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A very whimsical journey it was interesting to see the main character find her way through the prison city and her own memories. It was written in a very unique way with the main character trying to figure out who she is, and what her memories mean.

Jake Burnett offers the reader an unusual prison world, Osylum, separated into different sections, and bounded by a strange grey nothingness. Its inhabitants include a small band of wanderers travelling from one section to another, guards of a sort who mete out destruction to anyone questioning or attempting to escape, a dangerous warden bent on mayhem and violence, reanimated puppets, priests using mirrors to count inhabitants, and cannibals.

Its main character Oneirotheria, a witch with a spotty memory, several spells at her disposal, and near death, longs to find a way to escape Osylum. After escaping a violent situation, she dies and reincarnates, but with even more holes in her memory, and an ability to transform into a magpie. She begins travelling, encountering the other inhabitants, and when not having to escape with her life, gradually finds clues to who she was and what is going on in the prison.

So, intriguing ideas, great atmosphere, and the variety of inhabitants and their motives was interesting. I found the execution was a little awkward, with some of the prose feeling a little too elaborate at times, which actually took me out of story and broke up the pacing.

My attention began to flag about halfway, but I did like the ending, which cleverly calls back to a certain playwright's muse.

Thank you to Netgalley and to South Window Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

3.5 stars, an interesting slow burn novel about the power of grief

I picked up the Witch and the City because it got comparisons to Piranesi and Circe on NetGalley. Those comparisons are accurate but W&C doesn't quite reach the same heights as those titanic books. However, it is an extremely evocative story set in a unique world where the protagonist winds up struggling with her role in the story as it is told. The titular city is essentially a giant prison composed of nine distinct wards and denizens of the city continually die only to be reborn into the exact same role they initially filled. The witch Hecate wants to end this system and so finds a way to sabotage her own reincarnation so that woman who takes her place, Oneirotheria, has no memories of what came before and must learn all about the city from scratch.

This results in our hero quickly discovering just how twisted and awful the city is and desiring to end the system. Along the way she learns a lot about herself and who she used to be, including the surprising ways Hecate helped build the system she hated. This is the strongest part of the book as its intense character study works well with what a unique character Oneriotheria is. However, the complex nature of the setting does mean that it can be confusing and slow going unpacking everything that is going on in the setting.

Overall, I do think this is a special book that is worth reading despite being a bit uneven.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and South Window Press; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

The Witch & The City is a rich, magical, twisted, dark journey, reminding most of the movie Labyrinth in some ways (or even Pan's Labyrinth in others). There are a multitude of references to other works of literature, especially Shakespeare, and every inch of the story drips with mystery and magic. If you like dark, semi-gothic fantasies, I cannot recommend this book strongly enough!