Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch by Julie Abe

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Thank you to Little Brown for the printed ARC!

Eva Evergreen, Semi Magical Witch is a middle grade fantasy about a young witch who is embarking on an official quest to earn her novice witch license.

In this world, witches provide altruistic help to the town they live in, but magic in general has been waning, so there are fewer witches to go around. To complete her quest, she must find a town that will accept her and provide some type of significant help within one moon. She has a little magical help in finding a place but getting acceptance and helping the town is all up to her. Since her powers have only recently manifested, she is not the strongest magic user, but if she does not complete this task her magic will be taken from her. When she uses magic in the beginning of the book, she becomes over exerted and tends to pass out. The addition of an unpredictable ‘global’ natural disaster with implied magical interference makes her task more immediate.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. The story and characters really had potential, and I felt like this was a solid first draft, rather than a fully developed story.

Story development and character growth had definite pacing issues, often with slow set ups that were much too quickly resolved. I also found most of the characters very 2 dimensional. While parts of the story felt overly vague, there were passages with passing importance that were overly (and oddly) detailed. The overall antagonist was just hinted at throughout the book and was only introduced at the very end, setting up a sequel. Instead, we were presented with an individual that was only an antagonist in Eva’s mindset. Without giving spoilers, I will say that Eva did grow in confidence, both in herself and her abilities, with the assistance of new friends.



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