Witchlight

Rating:
Summary: Not MZB's best...
Review: ...but not her worst, either. I haven't read any of the other titles in this series, so I didn't know what to expect. MZB's output has varied wildly in quality from brilliant to disastrous, and I was ready for this to go either way. For me, this sat smack in the middle.

I wasn't overwhelmed by the characters. Perhaps it is that our main character, Winter Musgrave, is part-amnesiac and terrified through the first third of the book, but it was very difficult to get comfortable with her. Once we have some idea what is happening to her it is easier to dig in. I think that MZB has an interesting premise with this one, and I think the "why" of the mystery is well thought out. However, (note: I am trying to avoid any spoilers, otherwise this might be more coherent) I think Winter's eventual visit to her family serves only to introduce characters for another novel and doesn't seem structurally significant, and the ending did not satisfy.

Rating:
Summary: Not her best work
Review: I read Witchlight over a weekend as a fill in and relaxation. The plot focuses on a woman "Winter" who lost her memory due to some psychological trauma, and is struggling to regain her memory before the evil demon becomes too strong. For me, that kind of plot is questionable at best and this one tries our imagination way beyond credibility. While I sympathize with authors who use common nouns for names, "Winter" was a name that was often confusing in context. In the plot, Winter and some college students began dabbling in dark magick some years ago and formed a magical group where they conjured an artificial elemental, but were too inexperienced to clean up after themselves. Winter gets pregnant, leaves her ne'er do well boyfriend and goes home to her abusive though rich parents. She forgets all about college (including the abortion and the magic) and becomes a successful Wall Street broker. Some years later her ex-boyfriend is almost killed in a motorcycle crash and is in a coma for years. Lost in limbo land between life and death he tries to make contact by summoning the artificial elemental which is still wandering aimlessly around the nether reaches of darkness. It begins to haunt the former members of the college circle, and Winter's torment begins. The book deals with how she tries to remember all that she's forgotten. Most of the other characters are cardboard, including the two professors at the psychic Institute where she turns for help, but rejects most of the help. Action is stilted and unnatural. Memory loss is treated in unrealistic ways. The artificial elemental is either very, very powerful or weak depending on plot at the time. Winter turns out to have psychokinetic power to destroy electric devices and other things. And after the long build up the ending is trivial. It just stops, the elemental goes away, and they live happily ever after. I was disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Slow starter, but keep reading
Review: I've never been more tempted to put a book down after the first fifty pages as I was when I began reading this book. Bradley is one of my favorite authors and the biggest draw about her novels is their remarkable ability to keep you engrossed in the text. The beginning of this book, however is a completely different story. You go through the motions along with the main character, winding your way through the broken and patchy memories of an inconsistant past. Who wants to go through that? Even though you might be tempted to give up and move on to something else, stick with it. The end result will please you. As the memories slowly begin their emergence, the novel becomes more and more inticing, with the whispers of forgotten friends calling through the haze to reach you. Anyone who is a fan of Bradley's gothic storytelling will not be sorry that they read this. I know your not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but don't judge this one by the first fifty pages or so.