The Black Witch

Seventeen-year-old Elloren Gardner looks exactly like her grandmother but lacks her grandmother’s magic. Her grandmother was the Black Witch, the Gardnerian people’s savior and leader against the evil demons and blasphemers. Yet Elloren was raised along with her two brothers by her uncle deep in the woods, and all she wants to become is an apothecary so she can heal others. So when her aunt comes to take her to Verpax University, Elloren is overwhelmed by the outside world. Per their customs, her aunt wants Elloren to enter into an arranged marriage and fulfill her people’s prophecy by becoming the next Black Witch. However, by the time Elloren reaches school, the stories she grew up hearing don’t exactly add up.

Undaunted and determined, Elloren is a powerful and curious protagonist who strives to uncover the truth, as her country’s history isn’t all as it seems. While all the Gardnerians at her school revere her for who she resembles, every other group fears and avoids her. Her childhood isolationist and supremacist views fade the longer she spends time at school, and she soon gains the friendship and respect of other outcasts. Dealing with the complications of teenage life, including crushes and bullies, Elloren learns how to adapt to new situations and speak her mind. With the help of her new friends and her brothers, Elloren discovers the dangers and corruption of her increasingly religious government. How can she change a world that doesn’t want to change? This complex fantasy world will enthrall the reader with alluring, emotional characters and a powerful cause to root for.

Like many long fantasy series, The Black Witch‘s intricate worldbuilding can be overwhelming at times, and there are many details to track. Despite this, the plot remains simple and predictable. Much of the groundwork laid at the beginning of the book reveals some of the plot’s surprises, making them less impactful. It’s also difficult to root for the main character, Elloren, because she initially appears ignorant and unobservant, making her seem two-dimensional. However, her character evolves and gains greater depth throughout the story. Ultimately, the draw of the novel isn’t a unique plot but rather solid characters, worldbuilding, and the positive message it conveys. The author constructs a society that slowly descends into fascism, and the characters find their

Readers who enjoyed Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Dorothy Must Die will love the political intrigue, elaborate magic system, and fierce resistance network of The Black Witch. The book is filled with all kinds of supernatural creatures, from werewolves to elves to demons, vying for a good education in a world embroiled in international power struggles. Elloren is an inspiring character who grows when challenged, leading by example and standing by her moral principles. Overall, The Black Witch is a beautiful story with moments of unifying outrage, magical corruption, and lovely, budding friendship.  

Sexual Content  

• While at a party, Elloren meets the famous Lukas Grey, who can’t take his eyes off her.  Lukas “raises [Elloren’s] chin, leans in and brings his lips to [hers] with gentle pressure.” 
• Frustrated with Yvan’s hatred of her, Elloren dreams that Yvan “pulls [Elloren] toward himself and joins his lips to [hers] in fierce urgency.”  
• Three friends question Elloren about her experience with Lukas, asking, “Have you kissed him?” Elloren is evasive and didn’t answer the question. 
• After class, before going back to her stressful rooming situation, Elloren kisses Lukas. She thinks that her “lips are still warm and swollen from his fevered kisses.” 
• After Elloren’s friend, Aislinn, kisses someone, she says she “didn’t just like it. [She] loved it. [They] kissed for over an hour. It was like heaven.” 
• While Elloren is talking to her other brother, Trystan, he approaches her subtly. Elloren says, “You can’t really think he’s beautiful. You can’t think that way. Trystan, tell me you don’t mean it that way.” His non-response implies that he does admire men that way. 
• Elloren discusses rumors of werewolf culture with friends. They think werewolves “stand up in front of everyone, pick out someone to mate with and mate with them right there, in front of everyone. Sometimes [they] mate when [their] men are in wolf form and [their] women are in human form.” This is all conjecture on the part of the characters.  
• Diana, a werewolf, leaves the woods “completely naked. Seeing [Elloren], Diana breaks into a wide exhilarated grin. She strides toward [Elloren], oblivious to the two Gardnerian men down the path who halt to gawk at her.” Elloren’s culture is more conservative, so it takes a while for Elloren to convince Diana to clothe herself. 
• After an emotional moment, Rafe, who had been friends and hunting partners with Diana for a long time, “brings his mouth to [Diana’s] and they kiss, gently at first. Then Diana moans and presses herself into him, their kissing quickly becoming passionate.” It was their first kiss, and rather spontaneous. 
• To clear up a misunderstanding, another werewolf, Jarod, describes their culture. “When two Lupines decide to take each other as life mates, one of them stands up and announces his or her desire to be with each other to the whole pack. The two then go off privately into the woods.’” 
• When Elloren asks Shane about his sister who is an old friend of Elloren’s, he says that someone “used [his] sister, forced his filthy self on her.” 
• Prostitution is described a couple of times very vaguely. Elloren’s brother, Rafe, says that “some of our men do this. The seals are called Selkies, and they can take human form.” Elloren responds, “What? Aunt Vyvian told me people kept them as pets.” The Selkies are sea creatures who take human form. Gardnerians enslave them in prostitution because if one possesses their “skins,” the Selkies can be controlled. 
• A Selkie named Marina says, “She was claimed by [a] man. Money given for her. He took her for his own and abused her. Many times.’” 

Violence  

• Elloren explains that she “came to live with [her uncle] when [she] was three, after [her] parents were killed in the Realm War. It was a bloody conflict that raged for thirteen long years and ended with [her] grandmother’s death in battle. But it was a necessary war, my beleaguered country relentlessly attacked and ransacked at the beginning of it.” 
• Along with descriptions of prostitution, there are descriptions of women in “actual, locked cage[s], only big enough for [them] to sit in, not stand,” and “two boys are poking at [one woman’s] side with a long sharp stick.”  
• When Elloren is talking to a friend’s brother about his sister’s new fugitive status, he mentions that he “lacked the necessary level of detachment needed to kill [his] own sister.” 
• Before reaching university, Elloren is viciously attacked by a creature with wings called an Icaral, because her grandmother was the Black Witch. Her grandmother killed many Icarals in the Realm War, and they held a grudge. “A strong bony hand slams against [her] mouth. An arm flies around [her] waist and locks [her] elbows against [her] sides in a viselike grip.” The demon is killed by a soldier as “a longer blade bursts through the creature’s chest” and “a fountain of blood spurts out.” The battle is described over three pages.  
• At school, a classmate, Fallon Bane, bullies Elloren, intentionally tripping her. Elloren’s “foot painfully hits something solid,” and she “topples to the ground.” 
• Some of the servants also bully Elloren. While working in the kitchen, a “hard kick to [Elloren’s] rear sends [her] sprawling” into mud and manure. 
• When Elloren spends her first night in her room, her roommate threatens to kill her. She even goes so far as to “scrape [her] nails down the length of the door,” while Elloren hides in the closet. 
• To prevent bullying, Lukas threatens the servants who were bullying Elloren. He says, “It would be a shame if something went amiss during military training exercises, and your parents’ home was fired upon.” He also threatens the lives of the servants’ children. 
• Elloren’s friend, Wynter, trips. When Rafe helps her up, Wynter’s brother thinks Rafe is being inappropriate. The brother “reaches for his knife [and yells], ‘Stay away from our women!’” 
• A hate crime is committed against Elloren’s friend, Ariel, and her pet chicken is found with “two stakes driven through its breast, its head dangling. Its severed wings are staked on either side of the animal’s body. Blood streaks down the door and pools on the floor below.” 
• After Fallon Bane calls Diana unsavory names, Diana “leaps out of bed and slams Fallon to the ground” and tries to “impale Fallon’s new uniform.” 
• There’s a vague description of abusive child labor and slavery a couple of times. One of the professors explained that “embroidery that intricate . . . was done by Urisk workers . . . many of them children. Working for practically nothing, beaten if they try to protest.” 
• As Elloren and her friend, Yvan, walk in the woods, they discover a woman being kept in a cage by the groundskeeper. They see him “kick[ing] her hard in the side with his heavy black boot” and him “strik[ing] her so hard that she cries out and falls backward to the ground.” 
• A woman wants all the Selkies killed. The woman “introduced the motion. To the Mage Council. Earlier this year. To have them shot as soon as they come to shore.” 
• As fascist ideology grows, Elloren thinks that their leader, Vogel, tried to make it legal to “execute anyone who defaces the Gardnerian flag” or who maligns their religion. 
• Elloren discovers a mistreated dragon lying “on her side, eyes closed, in a large pool of blood, her spectacular onyx hide covered, just covered, with gashes and lash marks. One of her wings and a hind leg are bent at odd, unnatural angles.” 
• After a big dragon jailbreak, there’s a description of “dead men and dragons strewn across the field.”

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Elloren’s friend, Ariel, is described as having been locked up in a sanatorium and heavily medicated, so much so that she is addicted to a fictional substance called nilantyr that seems to have an effect similar to opiates. Ariel’s friend explains that, “When she takes the nilantyr, the memories disappear. It all goes blank and empty. It is a cold peace, but peace nonetheless.” 

Language    

• Words like stupid, idiot, and hell appear frequently. 
• The word whores is used once. 
• Bitch is used twice. 

Supernatural  

• This book features a diverse array of supernatural creatures, including witches with green skin, werewolves (referred to as Lupines), demons (known as Icarals), Amazonian women who utilize runes in battle, fairies, elves, Selkies, and various half-human, half-animal beings.  
• The story is set in a world where magic is a reality, encompassing spells, runes, and other forms of magic. Almost all of Elloren’s classes at Verpax involve magic, and most of the violence in the book involves magical battles. There are no explicit spells spoken in battle. An example of this violence occurs when Elloren and her friends try to free the dragons, and “a glowing red orb whirls by overhead, along with stray wand fire, the orb exploding behind me into a circle of red flame.” 
• In classes, spells are used to train younger students and test their magical ability. For example, when Elloren arrives at Verpax, the Commander of the Guard tests her magical ability by having her “lift the wand awkwardly and point it at [a] candle” and whisper the word “illiumin.” Elloren is shocked by the wand and drops it quickly. Spoken spells are rare in the book; most of them are implied.  
• Gardnerians marry using magical bonds that appear as tattoos on their skin, exhibiting their marital status and binding the couple together more literally. If they run or divorce each other, the tattoo damages their skin and can kill them.  
• When Elloren was a child, she was required to be wandtested to see how powerful she was. She describes it as “a powerful energy shoot[ing] through [her]” even going so far as “an explosion. Fire shooting from the tip of the stick. The trees around [her] suddenly engulfed in flames. Fire everywhere. The sound of [her] screaming.” 

Spiritual Content  

• The Black Witch establishes a complex religious system that mirrors modern monotheistic religions and intertwines it with politics. This religion has strong allusions to the three main monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Their religious structures dictate more conservative norms and different swear words than what people literally use. References to their religion are heavily present in the novel, and priests hold prominent positions in high government and university institutions. 
• Asleep and thinking at night, Elloren provides context for the color of her skin, as “like all Gardnerians, [her] skin shimmers a faint green in the dark. It’s a mark of the First Children, set down on us by the Ancient One above, marking us as the rightful owners of Erthia. At least, that’s what our holy book, The Book of Ancients, tells us.” 
• An example of the more conservative customs, “wandfasting” means arranged marriage at a very young age. When describing one of her friends, Elloren thinks about how her “zealously religious family fasted her at thirteen to Tobias Vassilis.” Later, Elloren’s aunt explains that “wandfasting” is a beautiful sacrament, meant to keep them pure and chaste. The aunt says, “The lure of the Evil Ones is strong . . . wandfasting helps young people. . . stay on the path of virtue.” 
• Elves are considered “idol worshippers.” 
• After a particularly violent day, Elloren tries to calm herself by reading from their holy book. She reads that “all of creation joined together to worship, glorify, and obey the Ancient One.” The book describes the Gardnerian creation myth in detail, complete with justifications for species biases and discrimination. 
• Elloren rooms with two Icaral girls. When Elloren tells her friends about this, they say that Elloren “should go to evening service with [them],” and that “the priest can exorcise [the Icarals’] evil.” Later, one of Elloren’s professors refuses to teach one of them because “to look at [her] would be against [his] religious beliefs.” 
• When Elloren’s friend’s family visits and they meet one of the werewolves, they whisper a prayer: “Oh, most holy Ancient One, purify our minds, purify our hearts, purify Erthia. Protect us from the stain of the Evil Ones.” 
• One of Elloren’s professors comes from a culture similar to that of the Amazons (called the Amaz), and their creation myth is different. Professor Volya explains that “the First Men were not grateful at all for what the Goddess had done for them. Instead, they tried to convince the Three Sisters to join them and slay the Great Mother, so that they could rule over all Erthia.” 

by Kate Schuyler