You might have read her best-selling Shades of Magic or Monsters of Verity books, but the chances are you missed V.E. Schwab’s debut novel, The Near Witch, when it was published back in 2011. Now, given the author’s subsequent success, Titan Books has reissued the book in a gorgeous new edition that fans won’t want to miss.
Set in a quasi-medieval past, but one where people have modern speech patterns and American names, The Near Witch takes place in a magic-fearing village that is shaken when local children start going missing. Everyone suspects the mysterious stranger, Cole, who’s just arrived in town. But Lexi believes Cole’s innocence, and must fight to prove that the real perpetrator is an ancient vengeful force out to punish Near for its dark history.
At around 300 pages, The Near Witch is a short one-and-done tale, part folk story, part love story. It perhaps doesn’t share the high-concept premise of Schwab’s more famous works, and the plot development is relatively guessable if you’re so inclined to think ahead, but her sterling character work is still to be found. In particular, the writer’s tendency to put her protagonists through emotional devastation is in full swing here, as are many of the core themes of Schwab’s stories. Just about all of them involve an iron-willed young woman fighting to change the rigid, patriarchal world around her once she discovers the laws of reality are more flexible than she realised – and The Near Witch is no exception. Come for the fantasy, stay for the feminism.
As Schwab says herself in the new introduction to this edition, the novel probably wasn’t loud or showy enough to become a hit at the time of its release, but it’s well-deserving of its second chance at life. Imagine the horror movie The VVitch given a YA twist, mixed with Neil Gaiman’s Ocean at the End of the Lane, and you have something close to The Near Witch, an enchanting, haunting read that can easily be finished in one sitting.
THE NEAR WITCH / AUTHOR: V.E. SCHWAB / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
