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A review by captwinghead
Hex Wives by Ben Blacker
2.0
The premise of this book is so interesting. The execution however... was not.
This reminded me a bit of Chelsea Cain's Maneater book in that the message appears to be that men fear powerful women and will do whatever they have to do to contain them. Including creating a weird surveillance town and keeping them reigned in with a ring of fire. I get the purpose, but there was something about the execution here that didn't do much of anything for me.
I like Isadora's introduction. She starts out as that badass, queer, powerful witch that will be ruthless if necessary to protect herself and her coven. That's such a great intro and a great premise.
I understand the setting we get for the majority of this story, but it just didn't get back to that same level of intrigue as the start of the book. Look, you can do "the 50s housewife discovers she's something more" trope well and make it interesting. Look at Lady Killer and the CBS series Women Who Kill. It can be done. This book just never went far enough into making any of these women into characters. I thought I had a handle on who Isadora was, but the only real moments that show you who she is occur at the start of the book and at the end. I think there was just way too much of the filler showing us the women's lives when they're being gaslit.
And the fact is, Isadora is the only character you learn anything about. Nadiya is her lover, but we don't know anything about her. Rebecca doesn't have any real backstory or character development and her lines read like the stereotypical lines you'd expect to get from your token black character. Made worse by the fact that she's fat shamed and uses lingo that just came out so cheesy. The other witches were so forgettable that I only remembered Damina's name out of them and only because she liked cats.
So, the art is great, it had such an interesting premise but the execution just left me wanting. Not a recommend from me.
This reminded me a bit of Chelsea Cain's Maneater book in that the message appears to be that men fear powerful women and will do whatever they have to do to contain them. Including creating a weird surveillance town and keeping them reigned in with a ring of fire. I get the purpose, but there was something about the execution here that didn't do much of anything for me.
I like Isadora's introduction. She starts out as that badass, queer, powerful witch that will be ruthless if necessary to protect herself and her coven. That's such a great intro and a great premise.
I understand the setting we get for the majority of this story, but it just didn't get back to that same level of intrigue as the start of the book. Look, you can do "the 50s housewife discovers she's something more" trope well and make it interesting. Look at Lady Killer and the CBS series Women Who Kill. It can be done. This book just never went far enough into making any of these women into characters. I thought I had a handle on who Isadora was, but the only real moments that show you who she is occur at the start of the book and at the end. I think there was just way too much of the filler showing us the women's lives when they're being gaslit.
And the fact is, Isadora is the only character you learn anything about. Nadiya is her lover, but we don't know anything about her. Rebecca doesn't have any real backstory or character development and her lines read like the stereotypical lines you'd expect to get from your token black character. Made worse by the fact that she's fat shamed and uses lingo that just came out so cheesy. The other witches were so forgettable that I only remembered Damina's name out of them and only because she liked cats.
So, the art is great, it had such an interesting premise but the execution just left me wanting. Not a recommend from me.