Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Synopsis:
For centuries, witches have maintained the climate, their power from the sun peaking in the season of their birth. But now their control is faltering as the atmosphere becomes more erratic. All hope lies with Clara, an Everwitch whose rare magic is tied to every season.
In Autumn, Clara wants nothing to do with her power. It’s wild and volatile, and the price of her magic―losing the ones she loves―is too high, despite the need to control the increasingly dangerous weather.
In Winter, the world is on the precipice of disaster. Fires burn, storms rage, and Clara accepts that she’s the only one who can make a difference.
In Spring, she falls for Sang, the witch training her. As her magic grows, so do her feelings, until she’s terrified Sang will be the next one she loses.
In Summer, Clara must choose between her power and her happiness, her duty and the people she loves… before she loses Sang, her magic, and thrusts the world into chaos.
Practical Magic meets Twister in this debut contemporary fantasy standalone about heartbreaking power, the terror of our collapsing atmosphere, and the ways we unknowingly change our fate.
Review:
Huge thank you to Sourcebooks Fire, Netgalley, and Rachel Griffin for providing this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.
I stumbled upon The Nature of Witches while scrolling through Netgalley and I was instantly intrigued by the title, cover, and synopsis. I love all things w i t c h y so I was very excited to read this. Unfortunately, The Nature of Witches fell flat for me.
I’ll start with what I liked!
My favorite part of The Nature of Witches is the magic. It is such an incredibly cool magic system. Every witch has seasonal based powers based on the time of year they were born. There are Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer witches. Each season witch is strongest during their season and can control that season’s weather. Clara is an Ever Witch, an incredibly rare type of witch who is able to use magic of all four seasons. I loved all the scenes where the witches were using their magic. It was so cool to see them control the weather and combat natural disasters like catastrophic tornadoes, heat waves in the winter, floods, etc. If I were a witch in the world of The Nature of Witches I would definitely want to be an Autumn witch. No surprise there since it is my favorite season!
While I didn’t feel especially connected to any of the characters, I did really like two of them. One is Paige because she calls out Clara on her shit and I loved it. Clara could get very frustrating so it was nice to have Paige there to slap the sense into her for me. The other is Sang. He is the most pure and kind person. I really liked how his character affected Clara.
I also loved the message about the environment and protecting the earth!
And now I’ll briefly touch on what I didn’t like about The Nature of Witches.
The plot was just meh. There were moments of excitement during the weather scenes, but otherwise it was pretty boring. I feel like not much happened. And while I know that the stakes were high (saving the planet from environmental ruin caused by non-witches), it didn’t feel that way. It didn’t feel like there was any urgency.
Clara is also a very difficult MC to like. I understand and felt for her struggle with the consequences on her power, but the self-pity could be too much. She came across as very immature at times (which she is only seventeen so I’ll allow it). As I said earlier, Clara could get extremely frustrating so it was great to have Paige there to knock some sense into her. Despite this, I did enjoy Clara’s journey towards self-acceptance and self-love. It was just annoying to read her somewhat whiny narration.
Have you read The Nature of Witches? Let me know what you think in the comments!
Tales of an Avid Reader 