The Year of the Witching

I'm feeling a 2.5 - 3 ⭐ with this one. Overall the book was fairly engaging when the action started, but I wasn't really invested in any of the characters except maybe Ezra, although he started feeling a bit like your regular YA tortured hero-prince halfway through.

There were certainly a ton of cliches used here - I predicted correctly that Leah was gonna die, that the Prophet would turn out pedophilic, that he would somehow try to marry Immanuelle, and that Immanuelle would somehow turn out OP witchy by the end. It all kinda feels like regular Judeo-Christiany cult tropes, and I'm generally just not into that. I'm not offended or horrified, just not that excited about it. I also feel like i've read about an almost identical cult in Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, also led by someone they called Prophet.

The action did keep me going though, which is how I blazed through most of the book in a day. I was a little confused by the ending bit: Why did the Prophet wanted to marry Immanuelle at all? What were his motivations for doing so? If he lusted after her cos she reminded him of her mother to whom he had been betrothed, why didn't he seduce her sooner since he showed no qualms seducing Leah at that young an age? If it was power play, why does he need to marry her at all when he's already arrested her as a witch, has her in his dungeons and can do whatever he wants with her?

Overall, this was fine. It wasn't super annoying or boring, but neither was it particularly memorable or refreshing or had any thing to say. If you're into cult-ish horror, then this might be worth checking out.