The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores

Source: NetGalley – Thank you to the publisher!
TL;DR: Nah – No thanks

Plot: “Escape, get betrayed, learn the truth” type of journey. Unfortunately not much past that
Characters: The single most infuriating part of this. Ava is one note simple sweetness, and Kaye is just angry and frankly, dumb. Everyone else is a simple line drawing of a character
Setting: A dark creepy forest with a dark creepy town
Magic: Varied elemental magics with some blood/vampirism has some promise but needs more work

Thoughts:

This was a huge miss for me from almost the first page. Ava and Kaye are two friends separated for years after Ava is turned (unwillingly) into a vampire and Kaye’s mother is murdered. Ava knows nothing of the murder of Kaye’s mother, instead she has been locked in her parents home abused and tortured by her family. Kaye has decided, after glimpsing Ava with blood on her face in a window, that Ava murdered her mother and has spent two years planning her revenge.

The plot is fairly simple, I’d venture so far as to say basic. The writing verges more into the simplistic style of middle grade novels with the amount of telling instead of showing, and the… stupidity of the characters. Kaye is for me the most frustrating, she makes assumptions and from there forward they are her facts. She has no room for critical thinking, and is incredibly frustrating to read about. Ava is unfortunately just as weak with very little personality.

Additionally there were a lot of topics and themes in this that were just handled poorly. From parental abuse to the racism and into the humans vs vampires feud. All of this could have been examined and broken apart, looked at and studied but it felt clumsily shoved in for some depth to the world.

This one was not a winner for me, I was left mostly annoyed while reading it so I unfortunately can’t say I recommend it.