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before they expired and autodeleted and I forgot what I'd checked out.
In particular, I read through the two currently-out Thirteen Witches books: https://www.simonandschuster.com/series/Thirteen-Witches
And they're... they're okay. They are okay middle grade fantasy. It's just... we spent a lot of time gathering witches* hearts (kept in lockets like they think they're Koschei), and we see that they all look like they could be things but they're rotten at the core, and then our heroines went to a cloud and had a long talk about her specialty being healing hearts and how one of them had to forgive her disappeared sister for her own sake, and then there's one witch who's still evil but no longer "destroy the entire universe" evil because once somebody was nice to her and it "damaged" her heart and... listen, it just seemed obvious to me that we were heading to a "Gotta be kind" ending but instead, nope, they drowned them all, and all's well that ends well, except for the one they missed because he was chilling in a black hole prison the whole time.
And, like, I'm not necessarily opposed to a "drown them all" ending, but... like... pick a direction and stick with it already!
Also, our protagonist is perhaps a bit too inspired by Harry Potter, I'm just saying. I don't mean in a writing way, I mean her magical weapon is her Lumos flashlight necklace and she quotes the book at length during her own first book. But whatever.
* They're called witches but they're more like vengeful elemental spirits with personalities. They appeared to counteract the powerful force for good that is the moon, which does suggest that getting rid of them and their works is just not going to be as easy as getting rid of them and their works. We're explicitly told that there's a balance inherent in the way things work, so... I mean... you can't get rid of them? More will just spring up in their place. Like daisies! But I'm betting that the author will 100% forget this before the end of the third book.
In particular, I read through the two currently-out Thirteen Witches books: https://www.simonandschuster.com/series/Thirteen-Witches
And they're... they're okay. They are okay middle grade fantasy. It's just... we spent a lot of time gathering witches* hearts (kept in lockets like they think they're Koschei), and we see that they all look like they could be things but they're rotten at the core, and then our heroines went to a cloud and had a long talk about her specialty being healing hearts and how one of them had to forgive her disappeared sister for her own sake, and then there's one witch who's still evil but no longer "destroy the entire universe" evil because once somebody was nice to her and it "damaged" her heart and... listen, it just seemed obvious to me that we were heading to a "Gotta be kind" ending but instead, nope, they drowned them all, and all's well that ends well, except for the one they missed because he was chilling in a black hole prison the whole time.
And, like, I'm not necessarily opposed to a "drown them all" ending, but... like... pick a direction and stick with it already!
Also, our protagonist is perhaps a bit too inspired by Harry Potter, I'm just saying. I don't mean in a writing way, I mean her magical weapon is her Lumos flashlight necklace and she quotes the book at length during her own first book. But whatever.
* They're called witches but they're more like vengeful elemental spirits with personalities. They appeared to counteract the powerful force for good that is the moon, which does suggest that getting rid of them and their works is just not going to be as easy as getting rid of them and their works. We're explicitly told that there's a balance inherent in the way things work, so... I mean... you can't get rid of them? More will just spring up in their place. Like daisies! But I'm betting that the author will 100% forget this before the end of the third book.
