The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin

Publication Date: June 1, 2021

Publisher: Sourcefire books

Pages: 367

Genre: Fantasy; young adult

Rating: 1/5

The Nature of Witches is a young adult paranormal fantasy that focuses on witches who have specialized powers based on the seasons. Clara is a rare type of witch who can imbue any season’s power which makes her magic more volatile and unpredictable. Humans have been destroying the earth which is making the climate change and in turn, it’s affecting the witches powers. As a witch who stands alone Clara may have the power to bring balance back but she needs to learn to control her power first .

This book was not for me. The one aspect I liked was the magic system and the beauty and importance of nature. I am lucky to live in a town that was built around a lot of natural beauty and waterways. But I’m also unlucky that my area was devastated by the deadliest wildfire in California history. So I have been able to see over the last five plus years we lived here exactly what this book is talking about. And I appreciate that Griffin was able to use what we are seeing in our everyday and translate it into a cautionary tale wrapped up in a rewarding, for some, way.

My biggest issue with this book is that it had the potential to be so much more. I feel like there were a few tendrils of story that could have been explored to give this book more depth and intensity. I also never had a firm grasp of the characters. As a character driven reader I need to connect to the characters to feel anything for the story which didn’t happen here. And things would happen to side characters that seemed shocking but there was no real follow through with it. In reality the stakes of not taking care of the world are high but in this book we had a distinct lack of meaning.

Basically, this book was all vibes and not much of anything else. I am glad I read it though because now I know that despite how beautiful the first editions of her books are, Rachel Griffin isn’t for me.