One thought on “The Black Witch”

1. Yes, I do get that the main character s racist perspective is obviously supposed to be an attempt to highlight the horrible views of those who raised her Yes, I get that this book is probably supposed to be the story of a naive, sheltered girl overcoming internalized prejudice I will address all of this in a bit because it reallllly didn t work for me.Ok so brief ha, lies nothing here will be brief overview of the story first Elloren s grandmother was the Black Witch who was actually horrible an [...]

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2. People see what they expect to see, he says sharply Through a filter of their own hatred and prejudice I don t really know where to start with this book I recommend that everyone make themselves aware of the criticisms surrounding The Black Witch, if you are not already And also be aware that this review is my opinion I speak for no one but me If you have a problem with that, don t read on.The Black Witch is, in my opinion, a thoughtful consideration of the prejudices people hold, and the way up [...]

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3. What is wrong with you people, now we are commanding artists what they can t and can write in FANTASY just so we wouldn t get triggered Don t read it if you can t deal with cruel, sad and dark themes But you don t get to tell someone they are racist just because they choose to depict a world in which racism is very much alive What s the point of that Are we going to ban history books next She writes her story, she created her flawed characters and her flawed world just as ours is, and there s ro [...]

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4. So, I read it Honestly, I m pretty disappointed in those people who condemned this book before giving it a chance because the truth is, it s really not racist Yes, a defining motivation for almost everything that happens in this book is racial tension between a handful of fantasy races No, I do not feel that the author condones racist, homophobic, ableist, etc ideologies about races that exist in reality.My opinion This book was preemptively dragged through the mud for nothing.Seriously though, [...]

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5. See this review and on bookbastionRelated review Wandfasted The Black Witch 0.5 I d like to start off this review with a little warning to the naysayers for this book if you re here to brigade me in the comments section and tell me how wrong I am for having an opinion that differs from your own, you can save it because your comment WILL be flagged and deleted The opinions expressed in the review are my own, and no amount of abuse from the people who think it s okay to squash free thinking with [...]

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6. I ve completely re written this review If you read the earlier version, maybe take another look It is really long sorry about that lol Part 1 is the review Part 2 is the discussion of the controversy around this book, re written based on my thinking of, and discussion around this topic here on GR in the last few weeksRT ONE THE REVIEW People see what they expect to see Through a filter of their own hatred and prejudice 3.5 starsThis is essentially an origin story Poor stylistic choices and an un [...]

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7. 6 15 17Here is MY 30 THOUSAND WORD review on The Black Witch by Laurie Forest I, a person of color, found this book to not be racist, sexist, homophobic, whatever else phobic ist the ableist claims were unsubstantiated, no evidence for this claim that I could see at all The MC absolutely does learn in the end and undergoes change I quoted the book extensively and provided several pictures i have receipts everywhere in my review P.S I have no intention of really keeping up with this blog, it was [...]

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8. College or University A time when almost every student discovers that a not everyone believes what you believe and b some of what you know is wrong.The Black Witch captures that time in the protagonist s life as Elloren leaves the shelter of her rustic uncle s home and goes off to school under the guidance of her politically power aunt Elloren has been wand tested for magic and found lacking, despite the family lineage of powerful mages She is still a potentially powerful pawn for her aunt s amb [...]

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9. This book was fan freaking tastic Even though I wanted to beat about 1500 people I love about 15 people in this book They were so damn awesome First off, Elloren, Rafe and Trystan were all brought up by their uncle Edwin And good ole uncle brought them up to be good peeps They were all still tarnished by untrue beliefs but it all comes out in good time ladies and gents They are all descendants of The Black Witch and uncle is keeping some things hidden from Elloren Then ole evil auntie comes and [...]

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10. Elloren, Aunt Vyvian breathes, you have grown into the absolute image of your grandmother It s a huge compliment, and I want to believe it My grandmother was not only one of my people s most powerful Mages, she was also considered to be very beautiful.This book has an overwhelmingly, unprecedentedly low rating I suspect it s because of the controversies this book has generated This is unfortunate, because I believe this book s low rating should be due to the fact that it is painfully bad, not to [...]

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11. 3.5 stars, rounding up Review first posted on Fantasy Literature In an ironic twist, The Black Witch 2017 , a book expressly dedicated to exploring the problem of prejudice and promoting diversity and tolerance, has been accused by many voices of being the very thing it is most devoted to showing as wrong Words like offensive, racist, ableist, and homophobic have been hurled at the author and this book It s understandable, because the society and most of the characters depicted in The Black Witc [...]

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12. I have removed my review The past two weeks discussion over this novel has taken place online and If have a moment please read this review t kCumGwr0hCI have read the entire review Having thought about this and read Shauna s points, quotes and direct references I can see I have been completely wrong I also want to add this quote from Shauna I m doing this not to tear down a single person, but to tear down a system that publishes books like THEBLACKWITCH The publishing system needs to change.

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13. EDIT If you have the stomach spoons for it, here s an in depth review of all of the awful things in the book.I can t believe we have to tell people that calling mixed race people half breeds and advocating for the genocide of other races is not okayA Also1 wow my family is a bunch of genocidal racists oops is the worst plot twist ever.2 POC do not need to go through 300 pages of a white coded girl being racist toward POC coded characters to know that racism toward us is wrong and awful This kind [...]

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14. i love seeing people jump on the hate any new book getswithout evertuallyading the book themselves lmao that s an A opinion kiddo, let me know when you grow up please like no offense but why would you rely on another person s opinion instead of forming your own perhaps the economy s been tough on everyone especially the people who apparently now do all the critical thinking by proxy because i honest to god don t know what the fuck is wrong with some of y all navigating the real world i hope y al [...]

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15. This book is literally everything I wished Harry Potter would be I LOVED this book so much, oh my god, LAURIE FORST GIVE ME THE NEXT BOOK NOW No, this book was NOT homophobic or racist in any way And if you re gonna comment otherwise and start bullshit, I m warning you now fuck off because I am not in the mood for this bullshit today or tomorrow Oh wait, than half of you didn t even read the book so,,,, you can t even argue.Anyways, I m so glad I read this for myself I m so glad I gave this boo [...]

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16. There s been a lot of discussion around this book and I wanted to indulge my self importance and read it and add my opinion which is what this is so if you disagree that s cool totally tell me but I just want to say that if you are just going to tell me that I don t know something or I m ignorant I m just going to get defensive and mean and I don t want to be mean I really do try to be nice and reasonable but I get riled up if I feel like I m being attacked so lets just try to keep this pleasant [...]

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17. 4.5 stars Review to comeBuddy read with these truth seekers The one who puts my reading to shameThat other guyHoly crap this book is actually pretty awesomeFor the majority it is definitely a slow build and a character driven story but I actually like slow build stories and character driven stories so this is not a negative for me For others who might not like these things this could be a bit of a drag for you.BUT HOLY CRAP THIS BOOK IS AWESOME AND THAT ENDING AND DRAGONS AND WAR ON THE HORIZON [...]

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18. Review also found here at the blog it s different than the one here The Black WitchFANTASTIC DEBUT NOVEL that handled themes of bigotry and prejudice quite well, in my view.All in all, this is not so different than your typical Young Adult fantasy A powerful, tyrannical group threatens the freedom and free will of other oppressed groups The group in charge is made up of mages and the other groups are fae, wolf shifters, selkies, etc We have a heroine who is originally ignorant and thinks the mag [...]

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19. To see this review and others please visit readrantrockandrollThe Black Witch by Laurie Forest is a coming of age story about a girl named Elloren Gardner I saw this on Netgalley and the cover and blurb pulled me in.The story begins with Elloren, the granddaughter of a Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner After spending her life in a village, she s now being sent to the Verpax University to finish her education.I think the author is good at writing and I enjoyed her writing style The story had a good a [...]

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20. I think it s really crappy that people are throwing out 1 stars for no reason without reading, so to counteract one of those people that is why I am changing mine to a 5 because it s messed up If you read the book and totally hated it that s fine, but cmon now to those that threw out a 1 for no reason.

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21. I received an ARC for an honest review.WARNING Expect a major book hangover after living in this world.I fell in love with the world building in this booke beautiful setting, the depth and variety of characters, the complexity of the relationships, and how amazing it is to see the progression of Elloren s growth and that was an important part to me Their violent history and racial divides set up a complicated backdrop to this coming of age story It was hard not to empathize and draw comparisons [...]

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22. Look no I haven t read it, but I am done with bullshit weirdly racist white savior books Fantasy as a genre needs to fucking step up, and not use white as their go to race Apparently the author made the MC refer to a group of people as half breeds I m like really not ok w racially offensive language in fantasy books under the guise that it is a made up race and the MC doesn t know better If you want to write a racist MC make it blatant to the reader that they are a bad person, that they are a ba [...]

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23. A lot of people have pointed out the blatant racism in this book, along with a load of other problematic stuff, which make this book a huge NOPE For a play by play twitter b00kstorebabe status 841039340474122242Complete review b00kstorebabe 2017 03 review black witch by laurie forestmlAnother review review show 1901700760 book_show_action truefrom_review_page 1

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24. Update 3 Okay, so people have pointed out the author has children of colour who have read the book as sensitivity readers Firstly, we shouldn t look to them for any blame for how terrible this book turned out to be It is not their fault that the author wrote a garbage truck full of all the isms phobics Do not even think about blaming children for the authors mistakes The fault lies with the author and the whole team behind the book Editors should have caught it Agents should have caught it.Updat [...]

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25. I don t normally do live updates while reading a book Honestly, I tend to read so fast that it s just not worth it to me and most of the time I don t have so much to say that I feel like it s necessary It can wait until the review But this particular title stirred up a lot ofoughtsat I felt important to share with y all, my fellow readers.Before anything else I want to say that first, I am not the best judge of good rep because I know that I am privileged and still learning, and will always have [...]

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26. Actual Rating 4.5 Stars but I round up SMALL SPOILERS So by now I m sure everyone has heard of this book You ve been told this book is racist, sexist, homophobic, and lots of other horrible things If you ve been trying to talk about this book on Twitter in any positive form, then you have likely been called these things, I know I have Well, I m here to say that this book is none of the labels that have been stowed upon it by SJWs and neither are you for wanting to read it This book follows Ellor [...]

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27. If you are interested in reading this book, I implore you to check out this review first It is an amazingly comprehensive look at all the racism, homophobia and ableism in this book Fair warning though, there are many quotes pulled from the book that are horrific and hard to get through This book is unacceptable.

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28. I just can t with this book I can t I had to stop at 45% I just couldn t force myself to carry on any further Even getting this far was a struggle This book is sooo problematic I m aware the author is probably setting it up so that our oh so special MC can grow and change and become a better person and probably change the whole bloody world along the way But no It was racist and sexist and just awful Was the author trying to make Lukas Grey seem attractive to the reader Because he really just co [...]

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29. Real education doesn t make your life easy It complicates things and makes everything messy and disturbing But the alternative, Elloren Gardner, is to live your life based on injustice and lies Okay, so here s the deal There are a plethora of long reviews both bad good going over this book So, I have decided to make this as to the point as possible Before I start, let me just say one thing I am incredibly glad that I read the book instead of heeding the reviews imploring people to stop supportin [...]

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30. Edit 7 18 17 The Iron Flower is the title for book two in The Black Witch Chronicles, coming June 2018 Srsly, I m so excited 5 STARS Real education doesn t make your life easy It complicates things and makes everything messy and disturbing But the alternative, Elloren Gardner, is to live your life based on injustice and lies I m going to start this review off by saying that The Black Witch by Laurie Forest was absolutely brilliant Now, this is merely my own opinion and you can disagree with me, [...]

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