"A shadowy, Sherlockian, "searching the foggy British Moors at night" YA mystery. It was an interesting mix between ghost story and fairy tale and Schwab's effortless way with words made for a pretty entertaining read."
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pros: Had a darker more ethereal air, not unlike Verity/Schwab's grasp of Magical Realism is 💯/You have to love the old sister witches who live on the edge of the Moor. They're always the real heroes of the story😂🙌.
Cons: Lexi's attitude of "I’m the only one who can do it" and then solves the mystery with the awkward clumnsiness of adolescent love got kind of old/People fall in love so quickly in stories, they know each other for like, a day and 🙌true love.
Full Review:
One night while lighting the candles, preparing to read her sister to sleep, Lexie looks out the window and onto the Moor. What she thinks is a shadow at first, is actually a boy, not much older than she but there's something about him. His hair, his hands, his face, everything is just...faded. He's as gray as the moonlight. And just as quickly as he flickered into being, he's gone and Lexi's left bewildered. She tries to shake it off and eventually goes to sleep.
The next morning, news of the Stranger in the village of Near is all the rage. Strangers never come to Near. And Lexi knows now that the boy she saw on the Moor was real. Interested, she goes with her family to the town square to a meeting called by the Elders.
Everyone talks in small clusters, wondering about this unsettling turn of events. Lexi is tasked with keeping an eye on her sister Wren, who flits through the crowd like her namesake. Lexi passes friends and siblings of friends alike, watching the familiar people of Near mingle. The children play a rhyming game, similar to "Ring around the Rosie" about the Near Witch, a woman who controlled the Moors but was banished by the founders of Near centuries ago.
As the Elders address the crowd and her Uncle, Otto, Protector of Near vows to find this Stranger, by whatever means necessary, Lexi feels like everyon's over-reacting. Perhaps it's more that she wants to find out the truth of this Stranger before anyone else. She decides to pay the Thorne sisters, Magda and Dreska, a visit, since they're the only two not at the town gathering. And they were friendly with her when her father would take her to visit as a child. She has a feeling they'll know something about the tall, pale, mysterious Stranger on the Moor. Since only Witches and Hunters live on the edge of the Moor and neither sister is a Hunter.
They're hiding him in their shed, of course, but they won't outright admit it. Lexi just has a feeling. And the gray cloak on a hook is a dead give-away.
So, when children start disappearing from their beds at night and leaving absolutely no trail, the Stranger is the obvious, prime suspect. And wouldn't you know it, curious cat, Lexi has already met, befriended and, welp fallen in love wiht the Stranger. Cole.
More children disappear, Lexi and Cole grow closer as they search the Moor in desperation for any sign of where they might have gone but people start getting restless at the lack of results.
Lexi and Cole go to the Sisters in desperation, needing to know the true story of the Near Witch rhyme. Lexi knows it's all somehow connected. The Sisters don't deny it. They explain the stark reality and horrific truth of the tale of the Near Witch . It's with nauseous dread that Lexi listens as the Sisters explain what must be done in order to right all the wrongs commited so long ago.
This wasn't my favorite of Schwab's but at the same time, it has its place. Similar to Verity, it had a "foggy-British Moors and Rose Gardens" feel to it but in a grisly realistic way, like some serious stuff goes down in these beautiful places. Sometimes, Lexi's naivete was sigh-worthy and the tragic, angst between she and Cole felt overdone at points but overall, it was a, relatively enjoyable read.
Comments
Post a Comment