A review by witcheep
Betwixt by Darynda Jones

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

The premise of the book is interesting, but the execution made me feel uncomfortable. The main things that were too offputting to me were these:
  1. Gigi's inconsistency in the instructions for main character Defiance's
    powers
    . More details in the spoiler:
    Gigi insists that Defiance needs to keep the powers as a secret, but also Gigi already told the whole town that Defiance would take up her witchy business because she is more powerful than Gigi herself – even though Defiance doesn't even know that she is a witch.
    Way to take a granddaughter's agency away by dictating her identity to everyone. 😬🚩
  2. Defiance and everyone else objectifying the kilt-wearing handyman, who is then reduced to being just sexy eyecandy. I don't like when a chracter's job is to be just agreaable eyecandy, and I like it even less when it's combined with insta-lust and everyone being fine with the behaviors that objectify someone. Give the characters more personality or, at the very least, address how problematic these kinds of situations are, please.

Momentarily I managed to follow the plot beyond these topics coming up, but especially the objectifying was far too frequent in the book for me to be able to actually enjoy the reading experience as a whole.
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