Review by Zachary Forbes
September 6th, 2024
These posts are just our opinions of the books we read, and don't yet reflect the decision of our judging team or the progression of the book in the SFINCS competition.
Summary:
Someone accused of being a magi wreaks havoc in a cottage near the manor of Lord Arle, and an inquisitor named Macon is called to the scene. For the lord had been gravely sick, and the magic user was acting as a 'healer', though everyone seems keenly aware there's more to the relationship.
Accusations are thrown, speculations made, and Macon decides to deal swiftly with the house of Arle before setting off to find the magi. An untrained witch poses a danger to the public if left to discover its own powers, especially one with magic this potent.
The magi, Shenagh, is fleeing through the woods. She is intimately familiar with plants and herbal remedies, though she has never ventured this far out into the wilderness before. And even worse, she has taken in the Lord Arle's sickness, as healers do, in order to expel it from his body. Now her own body must process it, weakening her physically, before she herself can expel it too.
She faces growing environmental threats, from geography to animals, and has a few close encounters with Macon. But the inquisitor is a skillful tracker. For every time she gets away, he's soon to catch up once more.
The Good:
I think my favorite part of this story was the antagonist, Macon. He has a no-nonsense personality and seems pretty skilled at his profession. I can appreciate a villain who isn't a bumbling, emotional idiot, but instead has some formality in what he does. His interactions with each of the other characters are also unique depending on how he views them. He talks to Cobb, his awkward servant of sorts, with disdain, the house guards with respectful authority even after what he does in the cottage, and Shenagh with facetious intrigue. It makes him feel more real to see these different interactions. He also doesn't seem to just hate witches. There's an element of duty most likely engrained in him from his masters and his peers.
The world building, especially in terms of magic, is paced with appropriate patience. There is a loose suggestion of what the girl may be capable of towards the beginning, exaggerated by people with a strong fear of her kind. The details of how her powers work are then revealed as they become useful or relevant.
This reflects another positive I give the story: she faces a good variety of different obstacles. From cliffs to sickness to little flying fire-breathers. And being in Shenagh’s head allows us to experience some of the wilderness without knowing for sure what she might happen upon. She dwells briefly on stories told to her about mythical creatures and wonders what may actually be real. This is a solid substitution for outright expositing the dangers of the world as it keeps us in relative suspense--what's really out here?
And honing in on the sickness specifically, I believe this was a clever plot element. It satisfies several purposes: showing us her magic in real time, crippling her strength to create more tension, and garnering sympathy from the reader as she suffers from it. Definitely a net positive decision by the author.
The Bad:
I wasn't in love with the prose in this novella. There weren't many spelling/grammatical errors, which is great, but some sentences felt a little bit awkward. I think it might be that there's sometimes more description than necessary in one sentence. This could make it difficult to picture a scene 100%, though it never pulled me too much from the story.
Another thing, and this is fairly common with novellas/short stories, is that there isn't much of a character arc for anyone. The closest we get is Macon being 'saved' by Shenagh because of her better familiarity with something than his own. But the ending somewhat suggests this rescue may not have mattered too much regardless. Shenagh herself gains a better idea of what her future could be, but it doesn't stem from any obvious realizations/accountability about herself or her past.
I'm not really one to dock points for what a story could've been, as it's ultimately the author's original vision, but I will say there was an opportunity for Macon, who seems capable of reason, to be forced into a different perspective. Whether it ultimately changes him or not doesn't matter. And Shenagh, upon realizing what's happened at the cottage, could've decided the training she sets off for in the end would be a necessary way to both strengthen and control her abilities. That way she'll be able to protect herself and prevent more accidents. Perhaps this is what we were meant to conclude about her decision, but it seemed more to me that she had no strong opinions about what she had done, as she states she hasn't done anything wrong (which is probably true, but a little less compelling).
Overall:
To Catch a Witch is a worthwhile read. There is a certain grittiness to it that I think certain readers will appreciate, and it does a solid job portraying 'man vs. nature' in a fantasy setting.
The story is exactly as it's advertised: a hunt for a witch in the wild, and everything that entails, all in a short, digestible story. If that sounds like your thing, give it a read!
3.75 out of five stars.
Be sure to tune in to our Twitter/X @ZachForbesBro for new blog posts about the novellas we read for the SFINCS competition! And click through to our website if you want to see other projects my brother and I have been working on!
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