Book reviews: The Near Witch | Så talade Zarathustra | Red Queen

Title: The Near Witch
Author: Victoria Schwab
Original title: The Near Witch

First published: 2011
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Series: --
Publisher: Hyperion
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 282
Finished: 31/03/2019
Summary: The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. There are no strangers in the town of Near. These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.
But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

My thoughts: This is Victoria Schwab’s debut novel; since then she’s written masterpieces like Vicious and A Darker Shade of Magic. “The Near Witch” really shows how much Schwab has developed as an author. While this book isn’t bad, it did lack some things when it came to the characters; I never connected to anyone, didn’t care about what happened to them, and the relationships didn’t convince me. This led me to not enjoying this as much as I’d hoped for, but I’m still really glad that I read it.

It should be said that when I found this, in first edition, in a secondhand store in Lund, I was almost moved to tears. That’s how happy I was. One of my best finds and bargains ever, in terms of books.

Rating: 3/5 

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Title: Så talade Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
Original title: Also sprach Zarathustra
First published: 1883-1885
Genre: Philosophy, fiction
Series: --
Publisher: Symposion
Format: Paperback
Pages: 317
Finished: 08/04/2019
Summary: Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustraremains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. Nietzsche's utterance 'God is dead', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognisably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals. With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission to authority, but in an all-powerful life force: passionate, chaotic and free.

My thoughts: I read this book for philosophy 2. I’d never laid my hands on a Nietzsche work before, so I thought now was the perfect time. From hearing about his works earlier, I’d gotten the impression that this book would be a challenge. Was I going to understand anything? Would I even be able to read the entire thing, with its tiny text and 300+ pages?
In the end, I finished the book after more than two months of reading, but understood very little of it. I think I’ll appreciate it more if I read some essays to help me understand what Nietzsche is trying to convey. Though, I did understand that Zarathustra, the main character, dislikes women, priests, religion, Jews, Romans and people in general. On the other hand, he enjoys caves and complaining, and has a love for being dramatic.
My overall thought it that reading this book was very interesting, and it’s cool to be able to say I’ve read something by Nietzsche. While it was a long and slightly painful experience, I somehow enjoyed the dramatic narrative and Zarathustra’s whiny personality.

Rating: 2/5

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Title: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Original title: Red Queen
First published: 2015
Genre: Fantasy, Dystopian, YA
Series: Red Queen #1
Publisher: Orion
Format: Paperback
Pages: 383
Finished: 21/04/2019
Summary: The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

My thoughts: Somebody told me this was supposed to be some good shit, so I read it. To be honest with you, I went in with hesitant expectations. I remember when this book first came out; it was hyped to the brink of starting a new religion (or so it seemed on the YouTubers I was watching at the time), but the reviews that came out of it were mixed. Some said it was amazing, perhaps the best book of 2015. Others said they'd expected more, that it was over hyped but bland in an ocean of similar young adult fiction. Keeping that in mind, and being someone who backs off in the presence of hype, I didn't have sky high expectations going into this. So, what side did I end up on; the praisers or the shruggers?
After finishing “Red Queen”, I unfortunately have to admit that I belong to the group that weren’t very impressed with the novel. But hear me out; I do believe I have some valid points, and I’m not about to throw this book in a muddy puddle and let it rot.

There are several good aspects of “Red Queen”, some of which I think strongly contributed to its success. One is that it’s a mix of fantasy and dystopia, two genres that have been massively popular the past 10+ years. Along with that, super powers are another popular aspect to modern time fiction, as we can clearly see in the success of Marvel productions. “Red Queen” manages to mix elements of both “The Hunger Games” and the Marvel franchise, creating something that is tailored to modern tastes. Furthermore, this results in an idea and world that are definitely cool and worth exploring. I’ll also admit that the plot, along with the world, has potential to develop into something promising. With these words, I’ll leave the praising part of this review in favour of criticism.

Despite the potential of the premise, “Red Queen” did not, in my personal opinion, live up to even half of the hype. I say this with regret; of course I want to love it. I even started out by consciously ignoring the flaws I saw with the novel at least 100 pages in, but when it continued to produce flaws, both new and similar, throughout the whole book, I found it hard to overlook them. Even when I did overlook them, there was little else for me to actually enjoy about this book. If you like this novel and feel insulted by my review, you are welcome to stop reading here, as I start my list of complaints (consisting of two major faults). I will try to keep myself short.

1: The storytelling. First of all, the author seemed to have a hard time showing rather than telling. Instead of describing what the main character felt in a discreet but understandable way (such as “I clenched my fist around the fork handle, glaring at my plate in barely upheld silence” to signal anger, would instead be “I was fuming with anger and therefore tried to stay silent so I wouldn’t say anything rude”). With such a hyped book, discovering this as a common fault throughout the book makes the author seem unprofessional. Secondly, the exposition was poorly executed. Once again, exposition is something that should be unravelled in a careful, natural way in the storytelling, rather than being dumped on the reader all at once in a clumsy manner. I found that this graceless exposition could have been made so much better than it was. Thirdly, the plot was rushed where it shouldn’t have been. In exciting and important scenes, the reader should get a good description of the events that led there, and in no way should details that could enrich the atmosphere be left out. What I mean by this is that a lot of exciting plot points in this novel were weakened by rushing through them. Thus, where it could have turned epic, to me, it often fell flat. My last complaint with the storytelling is that the characters were poorly built; not in that they weren’t individuals, but that I as a reader didn’t get to see them enough in the plot to bond with them, and therefore I only cared for what happened to less than a handful of characters.

2: The protagonist. Her name is Mare, but I’ve met her a dozen times before in other young adult fantasy novels, written by other authors. To me, Mare didn’t in any particular way stand out in the crowd of female protagonists that dominate the YA category, and thus I had a hard time bonding with her and caring for what happened to her. It goes without saying that the bland and generic female protagonist that is so common is not to my tastes. Furthermore (this part contains spoilers, so mark the white text if you wish to proceed): the way Mare’s emotions shifted back and forth for Cal had me feeling that the romance was very plastic. I believe the author wanted me, as a reader, to root for Mare to end up with one of the brothers, and while Cal was probably my favourite character, I never really wanted him to end up with Mare. When she first fell for Cal, it came out of nowhere and had not at all been built up to properly. She then did several 180’s with her feelings for him, all of which seemed more and more dis-believable. In the end, I would rather have seen Mare die so that we could follow Cal as a protagonist instead, seeing as he was by far the most compassionate and interesting character (he even had a touch of a personality).

That concludes my review. Love it or hate it, that’s up to you. I am willing to give this series another go and read the second book. Like I said, I didn’t dislike everything about this book. It had its good parts and it still has potential.

Rating: 3/5