The Near Witch

The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

“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 the nameless boy. Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won’t soon forget.

I know most people who read The Near Witch are probably die-hard Victoria Schwab fans who are curious to read her debut novel, but not me. I’ve never read anything by Victoria Schwab before [I know, shock shock, horror horror. How dare I call myself an obsessive YA reader and not have read her books 🙂 ] But the main reason I wanted to read this book is because of the intriguing synopsis. Out of all her books, this one sounded best suited to my reading tastes. So, I am sad to say that I ended up dnf’ing it around chapter 17.

Admittedly, I did opt to listen to the audio book and I know the audio book received some bad reviews, but I don’t think reading the physical book would have made much difference to my overall enjoyment of the story. This book had a great premise but I just wasn’t enjoying the execution of it. Which sucks, because the synopsis still sounds amazing every time I tell anyone about it. This would have made a great eerie fairy tale or even a great paranormal thriller plot. But the more I listened to the story, the more it had a middle grade feel to it. Not that there is anything wrong with middle grade, it’s just not one of my preferred genres.      

WARNING, the following part of the review contains spoilers:

There were a few things that bugged me while reading this story: Firstly, the main character, Lexi Harris, lives in a town where children are going missing, plucked straight from the safety of their beds. Lexi has the most adorable little sister named Wren─possibly my favorite character in the entire book─and she has already had to stop Wren from being lured out the window in the middle of the night. So, we know that Lexi is perfectly aware that her little sister is in real danger of becoming the next victim. She is also convinced that the kidnaper is the Near Witch, which means the kidnapper has sneaky paranormal ways to get the children out of the safety of their houses, methods that a normal human kidnapper wouldn’t be able to use. Instead of staying home to protect her sister from this imminent danger, Lexi sneaks out each night to try and protect the new stranger in town who is blamed for the kidnappings. A stranger she trusted way too quickly if you ask me, and trusted for no good reason I can identify.

Why does Lexi feel the need to risk leaving her sister to go protect this stranger? He clearly has magical powers. It seemed like he had some kind of power to disappear and to blend in with his surroundings. Lexi herself found it very hard to find him until he wanted her to. Okay, so maybe her other motivation for sneaking out was to investigate the kidnappings with him. But wouldn’t the easiest way to find the paranormal kidnapper be to simply stay put at home and wait? Especially since Lexi finds out that the voices that are coming to visit her little sister at night is actually the way the Near Witch tricks the children out of their houses. Surely then it would make the most sense to kill two birds with one stone: Why waste her time going out there on a wild goose chase when she could simply stay home, keep Wren safe and wait for the kidnapper to literally pitch up on her doorstep?

Also, if I’m not mistaken, the witches made charms to protect all the children in Near. But even with the charms children still ended up going missing. So, Lexi knew the charm wasn’t enough to protect Wren and still she decides to leave her sister to go meet up with Cole and investigate the kidnappings. But the worst part is that she then promises Wren that she will be safe even though she has decided not to stay home to protect her. And all she does to protect Wren is just tell her not to go outside when she hears the voices of her friends. Why doesn’t she tell the sister it is not really her friends calling to her? And that she is in great danger and will go missing if she goes outside? But perhaps even that wouldn’t help if the sister is lured outside by magic and finds herself in a sleepy dazed state. Still worth a shot though. Better than just telling her not to go outside if she hears the voices, because her friends can’t be up to any good so late at night.   

Despite my personal issues with the story, I will say that Victoria Schwab impressed me with her writing skills. It definitely was an atmospheric story. I also liked the small town setting it took place in, and it seemed like a cute love story. And there aren’t too many of those around. (Hehe, wouldn’t it be funny if it turns out that the sweet, innocent love interest was the one behind the kidnappings all along, and ended up being the villain of the story. That might almost be enough to make me wish I had stuck with the story and finished it.)

I think a younger audience would really enjoy this story (Hmm . . . although I can’t guarantee the kidnapped children will have a happy, non-disturbing end to their story. But from the tone of the story so far, I’d say it’s highly unlikely that the story will suddenly go to a creepy disturbing Hazel Wood type place) And of course any die-hard Victoria Schwab fan would also enjoy The Near Witch because it is well-written. And yes, despite the dnf, I am still keen to try out her other books. 

This book was written to be part of a series, but from what I’ve read online it seems like the story wraps up well and can be read as a stand-alone book. The only other book in this series I could find is a prequel (The Near Witch #0.5) called The Ash-Born Boy. The Ash-Born Boy focuses on the back story of the mysterious stranger named Cole, who we meet in The Near Witch.