The Witches of The Glass Castle Review

The Witches of The Glass Castle written by Gabriella Lapore:

For the month of October, I was sent a free ecopy of The Witches of the Glass Castle by Gabriella Lepore, from Oftomes Publishing, in return for an honest review. Each month we get a new book to read and review, for the month of September, we read Trapped In Silver by Emily Sowden. I have a full review for Trapped In Silver on my blog as well, if you want to check that out.

What was funny about this month, is that I had already downloaded The Witches of the Glass Castle for free, because there was a two-day sale going on AmazonKindle, for this book. So, I was already prepared for this month's read along. I was extremely excited to read this book, because one it has Witches, and I love anything Paranormal and dealing with Witches. Second, it involved a boarding school of Witches, and I always love anything dealing with some sort of magic school. Thirdly, it just seemed like the perfect book to pick up for the month of October. And I actually read in a span of 2.5 days, which is the fastest I have ever read a book. Before we get into the review, I will give a brief summary of what the book is about. Plot:

In The Witches of The Glass Castle, we follow brother and sister Dino and Mia. Who learn that they are Witches, and are forced to spend all summer at a boarding school, called The Glass Castle. Here the brother and sister will learn how to harness and control their powers, under the instruction of a very powerful witch named Wendolyn. Mia is extremely excited about going to this school to learn more about her powers, but Dino is less than excited. During their studies, Mia and Dino meet some Hunters, who are another type of Witch. Some bad and others good, and one in particular gets very involved with Mia. There is a whole lot of romance, betrayal, magic, and evil in The Witches of Glass Castle. But, that's all I'll give for plot, because I'm trying my best not to spoil anything. So, let's get straight into the review! It was very difficult for me to review this book, because I really did enjoy the book as a whole. In fact, I gave it a four out of five star rating, right out of the gate, because I did enjoy the story. It brought me back to my younger years of when I was obsessed with The Twilight Saga (books, not movie), and The Secret Circle. However, after looking at my notes, I realized there were some major issues I had with it. Which is why I changed my rating from a 4 to a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

What I Liked:

-I really enjoyed the brother and sister relationship involved in this book. I feel that we don't get a lot of brother and sister sibling representation in YA; it's either a sister/sister or brother/brother relationship. I thought the relationship Dino and Mia had was a great representation, and I felt very connected to the characters in that sense. Because I do have an older brother, and there were certain parts of the book that really reminded me of my relationship with my own brother. While Dino really irritated me at parts, I felt like he was really protective of Mia, at the end of it all. Which I feel like is true to a brother and sister bond. -I also surprisingly really fell in love with the romance in this story, between Mia and Colt. By the middle of the book I was really rooting for them to be together, because at first it was definitely a cat and mouse type of game between the two. The main reason why I wanted Mia and Colt to be together in the end, was because of Colt. Colt was surprisingly funny, and just a really enjoyable character to read. I loved how he called out Mia's reckless and stupid actions. I felt like Mia was a very unreliable character at times, and Colt totally saw through it. Which led me to believe, that he truly knew who Mia was as a person, and that's why I began rooting for them.

If you aren't into the whole Insta-Lovey, Lion and the Lamb trope, than you probably won't be as into the romance as I was. I personally like the Insta-Love trope, only if it's done well, and I felt like it was done well in this story. It was definitely very Twilight-esque, and there were many times where I thought I was reading Twilight.

-Another character who I enjoyed immensely, was Benny Blue.

Blue is another witch at The Glass Castle, who Dino becomes very close with. He has a stammer, and is made fun of constantly, because of it. Blue was actually a really funny character, and I enjoyed whenever he talked about his power, because it was just so hilarious as to what it was. I also really liked his friendship with Dino, I thought he helped make Dino a better person. I also thought Dino made Blue a more confident witch as well.

What I didn't Like:

-So, one major issue I had with this book, was the lack of Witch studies, I thought I was going to get. The book is called The Witches of The Glass Castle, and the author made it seem like Dino and Mia were going to a boarding school for Witches. But Glass Castle, wasn't really a boarding school at all. It was more like a large house, where a very old and powerful witch took in these young witches, to help them learn what their powers are. But, it was more like a self-taught school, rather than the Witches learning from teachers, and there was a relatively small number of students at the school. So, it felt more like a camp, rather than a Wizarding school. Another aspect I didn't enjoy of this book, that can coincide with this lack of studies, was the lack of rules in the magic system. Magic is a system, it has rules and regulations, and can sometimes even have a language. But, I felt like the story lacked a reliable magic system, some of the spells they performed were a bit too easy to me. I have read so many other books that have a magic system, and if you perform very powerful spells they can have some sort of an effect on you. There was a certain spell that Blue and Kizzy (Mia's friend) had to perform, but it seemed like a very dangerous spell to me, that would have some sort of backlash on them. Whenever magic was really involved, I felt like at certain points it didn't make sense, so I would've liked a little bit more background on this magic system.

-Another issue I had with this book, was that I felt like there was too much dialogue. I like books that have a lot of description, especially when things need to be explained in depth i.e. a magic system. It's not that too much dialogue is a terrible thing, in fact it helps makes the book go at a quicker pace. But, there were certain parts where I felt like I was reading from an eleven year old's perspective, when most of these kids are probably aged 15-19 years old. I also found the switching of perspectives a bit confusing, because there was no lead in as to whoever's perspective we were reading from. I did however, felt like towards the end of the book, the author's writing style did develop more. So, maybe if this book was one hundred pages longer, the dialogue wouldn't have bothered me as much.

Final Thoughts: So, after writing my review, I actually think my final rating will be a 3.75 out of 5 stars, close to a four. While I did have some major issues with the dialogue, and lack of magic system/world building. I found that I really enjoyed this book, because of the nostalgia it gave me. I definitely got The Secret Circle, Twilight, and even a little Hocus Pocus vibes when reading this book. The romance didn't make me cringe, I really enjoyed the brother and sister relationship, and thoroughly enjoyed one of the supporting characters. I felt like this was the perfect book to read in the month of October. If you are looking for a quick read and are a bit too old to go Trick or Treating. Then I think curling up next to a crackling fire, all cozied up in your favorite fall blankets, with a warm cup of hot chocolate & mini marshmallows, and this book in hand. Will be the perfect way to spend your Halloween evening!

Thanks for reading!

TTFN,

Chynna Williams @The CW Torch

PS. Please ignore the inconsistencies with the font size, I don't know why the font is all wonky. I tried fixing it, but nothing seemed to work, so sorry about that.