Quirk Review: The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

From Goodreads:

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. And 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. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

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 this 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. 

PREFACE:

I had the very great pleasure of hearing Victoria Schwab speak at a panel at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville back in October. I hadn't yet dived into The Near Witch, but hearing her talk about how the novel came about and her interest in fairy tales and magic made me all the more excited for it.  Did The Near Witch merit my excitement?

Yes, yes, and YES.  There are many reasons why I not only enjoyed this book, but loved it.

WRITING:

Breathtaking. Artful. That's what I think when I think about Schwab's writing in The Near Witch. Reading this book was like sinking into a bubble bath of fairy tale proportions. It was beautiful and familiar and exciting. I could imagine everything so clearly, smell and see and hear what the main character, Lexi, described. One of my Goodreads updates said, "Rich atmosphere. Feels like a masterpiece theatre fairy tale in the best possible way." That was on page 16, y'all. It didn't even take me that many pages to fall headfirst into this story and want to stay as long as possible.

SETTING:

The town of Near is set in an unnamed place in an unnamed time that is both nowhere and everywhere, without time and within it. I could picture the swaying grass, the dusty trails, the quaint village, the Thorne sisters' house, the lonely moor, with ease. The town and the moor were characters really, one stifling but safe, one wild and full of wonder and danger. Schwab did an excellent job of using the setting to illustrate the internal struggle of Lexi and the external struggle between the people of Near (or their ideologies rather) and the stranger, Cole.

CHARACTERS:

Very early on, Lexi became one of my favorite characters ever. She is exactly what you want a heroine to be. Compassionate, headstrong, stands up for what is right, even if strange and unpopular. She has a wanderlust and thirst for something different but loves her family and is too protective of them to just take off. She trusts in those who deserve it, namely her father and his memory. She does not let others overrun her and she doesn't sway from her beliefs when things get difficult. I loved that Lexi was a very proactive heroine, always going and doing and finding things out for herself.

Cole, the stranger in Near and the love interest, was, well, something out of a fairy tale. He had a mystery about him that makes you think he might be more than he seems right from the beginning. Once Cole began opening up to Lexi, I liked him and his sort-of tortured existence. I don't want to say too much about him because it could be spoilery, but I really liked Cole.

As for the relationship between Cole and Lexi, I must say that while it wasn't insta-love, it moved rather quickly.  I think the story takes place in about a week's time, more or less. But, after reading it and considering it (and my mind often wanders back to Near and Lexi and Cole) I decided that for this story, it worked and it fit. Lexi is a girl of marrying age, something she mentions at the beginning of the novel. Settling down with a respectable man is something her uncle, Otto, wants her to think about (along with being a normal, domesticated woman) as it is proper for their culture. But Lexi, being who she is, she sees no one in Near that is a viable option for her to marry.

When Cole comes along, he is everything she has wanted to see and experience, something strange, something different, something new, and so she is drawn to him automatically. It makes sense that after getting to know him, Lexi develops feelings and the relationship progresses quickly. Before Cole, she had no options, so when she decides Cole is an option, she goes with that choice. It literally takes as long as a door opening to go from having no options to having an option. I'm not saying Lexi didn't actully love Cole (and vice versa) or saw him as her only hope of marriage; I'm saying that Lexi knew what she wanted and it wasn't in Near before Cole arrived. As for Cole's feeling for Lexi, it was really difficult as a reader not to love Lexi, so there's no way Cole could have escaped her charm.

When it came to the other characters, I really liked how fleshed out they all were. From Otto, Bo, Tyler, and The Council, who were pretty much always on my "Dang you! You ruin things!" list to Wren and Lexi's mother and Magda and Dreska Thorne, they all felt tangible and I could understand their motives and personalities. What I also really loved is the (not so) subliminal message that women are powerful. Granted they are not the only sources of power in the novel (and there are different types of power) but dang if the women in this story were not some of the wisest, bravest characters I've read in quite a while. I loved it.

Speaking of a powerful female character, the Near Witch and her tricks and plots and physical forms, were creepy. Creepy-creepy, y'all.  I can't say I was frightened, but I was definitely cringing when the Near Witch came into the picture. Again, everything was told in stark, poetic detail, so I could imagine every bit of it. There, I cringed again just thinking about it.

COOL STUFF:

There are a few other things about the book that I really loved. The first is the lore. How magic worked in the story, where it came from, what witches could do, what the Near Witch could do, all of it was so interesting and really added to the atmosphere of the story. I could probably read a whole book just on the witches and the magic.

The second thing was the stories and folklore the villagers told within the story. Not only was it as lyrical as the rest of the writing, but even more so. I felt like I believed in these stories and rhymes as much as the town of Near did by the end of it. They each had their own sort of life, and really, the stories were almost as much a character as the Near Witch herself.

The third thing has to do with the meta quality of the story. It is a little strange to try to put into words what I mean exactly, as it is one of those hard-to-wrap-your-mind-around things. I think the simplest way to say it is this is a fairy tale that is almost about fairy tales and there is a reflective nature in the story that draws from and mirrors how we use fairy tales in real life. It is a within and without kind of thing. Okay, I'm going to stop trying to explain it because I'm just muddling it up. Why don't you go read The Near Witch and we can talk about it elsewhere?

VERDICT:

Hands down, The Near Witch easily carved a spot on my favorite books ever list. The gorgeous writing, thoughtful heroine, and eerie yet magnetic atmosphere make for a rich story that is sure to capture the heart and imagination.