The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores

Title: The Witch and the Vampire

Author: Francesca Flores

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publish Date: March 21, 2023

I received an ARC from the publisher for reading/reviewing purposes only. The following review is my opinion and hasn’t been influenced by any other party.

With ARCs I get, I try to read and review them (if I'm going to) by their release date. I almost didn't make it for The Witch and the Vampire. You may have seen this book on my most anticipated reads of 2023 list, so when I got the approval message from Netgalley, I screamed. I loved the cover, and the synopsis had me hooked. I just struggled so much to get into The Witch and the Vampire. The beginning felt really slow and choppy, and I came so close to DNFing. I ended up finishing but it wasn't my favorite read of the year by far.

While this book mentions a lot of death (not graphic depictions but a lot of death happens), it read more on the younger side of YA. I didn't like Kaye and how young her actions/thoughts were. I feel like she is around the age of 16 (could totally be wrong here), but it felt like she was a younger teen/preteen. She was very one dimensional and a tee-total asshole for the majority of the book. Then, she sort of switches about two-thirds of the way through and isn't as controlled by her hatred. It is good character growth, but the switch didn't feel justified.

The plot was confusing. It was in first person present (which I personally find to be jarring), but at points I had no clue what had just happened. I found myself rereading passages to somewhat understand what happened or why the plot took a sharp turn. This really happened when we met Casiopea for the first time and throughout her scenes in the book. I still think I don't fully understand all of what happened.

The bad guys were one dimensional. There wasn't enough evidence given as to why someone committed so many bad actions. All we were really given is this person was good, great even, like we had good interactions with them and nothing alluded to being off. Then all of a sudden, they told us they were bad. The actions leading up to this point in the book don't reflect the words. I feel like this shift in personality was mostly included for shock-value. Also, the reasoning they gave for being bad didn't make sense at all.

I did enjoy Ava as a character. I felt like she was justified and she had a lot of character growth by the end of the novel. But I felt like the ending didn't fit either Ava nor Kaye. It happened and I was like WHAT?! Thinking about it now, I didn't really like most of the characters. They were fairly one-dimensional and didn't have any depth outside of good or bad, vampire or witch. There are a few gems in there though, but they aren't the focus of the majority of the novel.

This is a queer retelling of Rapunzel, but the romance doesn't really give you anything until the later half of the book. Again, Kaye's and Ava's feelings are written more like a light switch. One minute they hate each other, the next they are kissing. This is for the fans of friends to enemies to lovers trope.

Overall, I wasn't the biggest fan of The Witch and the Vampire. While the cover is gorgeous and the plot sounds promising, it just missed the mark for me. I probably would read the next one (if there's a continuation) just so I know what happens. The Witch and the Vampire isn't able to stand on it's own, and I wouldn't mind seeing where it goes just to get some closure.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository