(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I thought this book was quite an interesting read. While it was very short, it was also easy to read and I found myself able to empathise very strongly with Honoria’s character.
I thought it was interesting to be able to see the different characters from different timelines and I did feel a lot of sympathy for Shane’s character. The scenes inside the forest came across as quite disjointed and confusing and I felt that came across really well.
I would have liked to see a bit more of Honoria’s interactions with other students in her school. While it was good to see that there was nothing going on between her and Leon (despite it being clear that the two of them were attracted to each other), I was disappointed to see that Harley seemed to fall into the cliched version of ‘mean girl with love interest’.
I did feel quite a bit of sympathy for Elizabeth, but I wasn’t sure how and where she got her magic. I would have liked some more details of her history, other than her just being shown in the forest. I found it a bit harder to empathise with her, since I didn’t know enough about her character. I would have liked to see more of her relationship with Andrew and how that grew and formed.
It was good to see Honoria’s grief over her parents, since I felt it made her more of a realistic character. And it was really sad to see the answering phone messages left for her and her brother by their parents.
I didn’t feel there was much in the way of the supernatural in the more modern times and I would have liked to see a bit more of the atmosphere of the forest. It was good to have some answers to the fates of some of the other characters by the end of the book… but I did feel that the ending, although intriguing, didn’t really have much of a satisfactory feel to it.
I would have liked more details about the motives of Elizabeth and some more details of the history. I’d like to read more books about Witchwood Hollow in the future.
Ink of Blood 