Wishtress: Mini Reviews

Hey everyone! So sorry that I haven’t posted anything in forever. Its been a busy few months and I’ve just been avoiding my blog. I’m hoping to get back into it soon (famous last words) but for now I thought I’d share review that I did on Nadine Brandes new book Wishtress.

---

I love Nadine Brandes books. Her Out of Time series is one of my favorites. I loved the characters, the world, the suspense, everything. I expected something similar from Wishtress and was deeply disappointed. It felt like it was written by a different author.

The characters are rather cliché. You have the controlling grandparent, the dead parents, the best friend with a secret, the boyfriend who is out to get her, *spoiler* the dead mother come back to life, and the cute little kid who *spoiler* ends up being related to one of the prominent characters.

The characters lacked personality and depth. Their motivation was shallow and forced. I didn’t connect with anyone.

I despised Myrthe for most of the book because of how self-focused she was. She has this irritating victim mentality that I can’t stand. She thinks everyone is using her, everyone is out to get her, nobody really cares about her, everyone is trying to control her. Sniffles. Me me, poor little abused me. Her character arch is choppy and rushed and not the beautiful, slow transformation that I loved in the Out of Time series, Fawkes, and Romanov.

“I couldn’t compromise myself, my life, with care for others. I needed to focus on myself in order to survive.“

I hated all of the romance. Does every single modern book have to have loads of mushy, gushy, gross romance in it? I can’t tell you how cheesy and rushed it was. *face plant* Myrthe literally sees Bastian and falls in love with him the next second. *SIGHS* It made me want to throw the book across the room.

A good question was asked…is killing someone always murder? An intriguing thing to ponder, but I disliked what Bastian said on the subject.

“I don’t think you understand. I used a Wish and it killed two boys.”

He continued assessing the mist in the next Trial. I grabbed his shoulder.

“Stop and listen! I’m a murderer.”

He spun on me. “No you’re not. You regret it. You wish you could undo it, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”

“That’s where the difference is. Sven is the grandson of a murderer. His grandfather never regretted it and Sven regards those actions with pride. Look what it’s made him into. A monster, willing to murder for his own cause like his grandfather. We all have murder in our pasts, whether by action or by heart. But all of us have the chance of life in our futures. You can’t use your mistake to define who you are. That will destroy who you could be.”

So if you regret murder, it’s not murder anymore?

I get what he’s saying. We shouldn’t let our pasts keep us from moving forward and becoming better people. But if you kill someone, whether on purpose or accident, it isn’t nothing. It’s not something you can just shrug off and say, “Well, forget about it, it’s not really wrong at all because it was an accident or because I wish I had never done it.” 

* major spoilers*

The whole thing with Myrthe’s mother…*sighs* I’m really not sure what to think about it. It felt very rushed – her mother appears and then dies within a few pages. Yes, it was important for Myrthe’s character arch. I just wish they could have had more time together, to connect, to love, to bond. Myrthe never really grieves that loss, either. She moves on very quickly and forgets. Her love for Bastian is the only thing on her mind.

What I really loved was the fight between the Talents and the Banes. It was such a good representation of the struggle of good vs evil in our hearts.

Honestly, I was expecting the ending to be tragic, based off of the reviews. But it wasn’t. Not really. It was a cliff-hanger, but not sad. I kept waiting for someone to die and *spoilers* nobody did. *sighs*

I enjoyed the story but I was expecting better, like Nadine’s other books. That’s why I was so disappointed when I read this one and found it less than stunning.

CW: death, gore, torture, violence, abuse