Waking the Witch

I'm starting to think I need a separate category just for Kelley Armstrong books, since I seem to post about them ridiculously often.  The latest entry in her [Women of the] Otherworld series is Waking the Witch, following the now-adult Savannah Levine, whose mother was a half-demon witch and father a sorcerer.  Summarizing the complex backstory on this would take forever; the most relevant novels in the series are Stolen (#2), Dime Store Magic (#3), and Haunted (#5).  But, surprisingly, I think this book does a fairly good job of making it unnecessary to have read the previous books.  You won't figure out the villain without clues from previous books, but I didn't figure it out even with those clues and wasn't overly bothered by this failure.

The big plus with Waking the Witch is that it's got a simple concept: hotshot young witch coming of age and wanting to prove herself to her over-protective guardians by solving a murder mystery on her own.  Needless to say, the situation is more complicated than it appears, and she turns out to need a little more help than she thinks, and she learns the expected sort of adult lessons.  Given a good writer, it's a fairly foolproof concept.  Having a single focus character and writing in the first person is also a huge help; Savannah simply tells her own story, filling in background details as needed via meditations on her rocky early life, which helps a lot with the complex-backstory problem.

The mystery is a typically convoluted puzzle, there's a workable love interest, the ending is not a pat "happily ever after" one, and Savannah is convincingly voiced, though not nearly as funny as she has been in previous novels now that she's the lead character instead of serving as plot device and teenage comic relief.  Waking the Witch is not up with the top books in the series, but it's one of the solid middle group.  Given the twenty-one-year-old heroine, it's also a good bridge into the series for a younger reader.

One warning: this is the first book in a mini-trilogy within the series and as such it ends on a setup for the next book that could be described as a cliffhanger.  I wasn't as annoyed by this as I usually am because the novel itself is a complete story with a proper wrap-up.  The final couple of sentences feel more like a "coming next week" sort of preview than a true cliffhanger ending.  I'm curious about what happens next but not frustrated at having to wait.

Read for yourself:

Comments

[Serge]

"...I seem to post about them ridiculously often..."

Considering that this linked to something you posted in September 2009, I'd say that people attach different meanings to the word 'often'.

:-)

I have so many novels awaiting my peepers that it's ridiculous. That doesn't include the F/SF magazines I subscribe to, and my Nook's many tales.

Still, too many available words beats not enough of them.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Serge:
Try the links for each individual word...

[Paul A.]

Unless I'm missing a word, September 2009 is still the most recent one.

One month a year is not usually counted as "ridiculously often".

[Susan de Guardiola]

2008: October and November
2009: three in September, one in October
2010: January, July, and this one

That's kind of ridiculous for one author, isn't it?

[Serge]

Got it, Susan.
That being said, there's nothing ridiculous about this.