Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis

Witch and hunter seek vengeance against zealot witch hunters. Fritzi and Otto, from opposite sides of the Trier Witch Trials (1581 – 1593), unite to bring justice to their common enemy, Kommandant Dieter Kirch, who's responsible for their families' suffering. Together they work to uncover a deeper conspiracy within the hexenjäger ranks.

Raasch and Revis have clearly done their research. And as such, as is quite often the case, books with such extensive research tend to fall a little flat. The level to which they obviously needed to teach the reader about the history and worked to weave their own fantasy witchcraft elements into the plot resulted in a burdensome narrative. Night of the Witch had some interesting components at play, but neither main character, either Fritzi or Otto, could hold up the weight of this tale. With the focus on the world-building, both true and fantastical, the protagonists suffered almost as much as the antagonist, who felt handwringingly one-dimensional.

Possibly the most destructive element to this book was the pervasive use of present tense. Often the most stifling and constrictive tense, especially when paired with a first-person point of view that flips back and forth between the characters who get to helm this ship, the present tense in Night of the Witch proves to be presumably counterproductive and slows down the pace to a snail's speed. For the most part, present tense can only deal in absolutes (i.e., I am either witnessing this event or I am not). And to rely on this gimmick for almost the entirety of the novel is to bog down the narrative with a lot of telling rather than the preferred showing that would lend itself to creating organically nuanced characters. Instead, the moments must consist of a relay of either movements (like a golf announcer — "He steps up to the tee.") or direct emotions (like a board book — "Jane is sad."). It makes for an exhausting story.

That being said, some elements were interesting and a few moments stood out, such as when Otto relays to Fritzi his plan and they begin to work together to ensure success. If this had been a little less heavy with set-up and instructional content, and more focused with a past tense narration, I think this could've worked nicely as a short story or novella.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.