The Witch Stone could have been so much more. It is incredibly diverse, while not making a huge deal out of it, or making it into a stereotype. The main character is an American-Chinese gay man, his ex a Malay Muslim, his cousin a trans woman, and a friend of a friend a dragon, and no one bats an eyelid. That part I love. The rest - plot, world building, language - sadly, not so much. 

Starting the first chapter of this book felt like jumping into the third book of a series that you haven't read. I actually had to look it up to see if I'd requested a sequel by mistake (which I hadn't). There were new characters showing up like you should know them, the complicated magical system of the world was introduced by it just being there, and the main character was slowly and haphazardly introduced throughout the whole book. I still don't know how old he is, or what he actually did for a living, only that it made his study covered in maps and that it had something to do with city planning and telluric currents, aka a magical grid similar to ley-lines. 

The language was in desperate need of another edit, since there were a lot of sentences that didn't make any sense, or at least were jumbled enough to make me re-read them several times. As for the characters, while diverse, were not logical in their behavior, especially not the protagonist. That being said, I could glimpse a glimmer of hope for this story, if given (much) more work and care. It could be good, one day, but as it is now I would only recommend it as a very light, entertaining read on a rainy afternoon. 

This book felt more like a quickly written story posted on Wattpad than a published book, and even though I genuinely wish that I could have liked it, I cannot give it more than two out of five stars. (Sorry.)

This book was okay. Not good, not bad just okay. I love the genre and Calvin was a decent character  and the magic was cool. those are all of the positives for me. This books main fault is lack of detail. we know basically nothing about the characters or the stone or why this whole situation is happening or how the magic actually works in this world or much of anything else really.

This book was a fast and okay read and i am interested in where this goes from here but overall unimpressive. 4/10

Okay, let’s talk about the good stuff first & then really get into it. So. Calvin, the main character & the narrator, explicitly states that he’s gay. Which is great seeing as it doesn’t always happen! Another big plus is that I’m pretty sure there’s like maybe one white character in the whole story? Calvin is Chinese, his ex-boyfriend is Malay, and there are Filipino and Mexican side characters. It’s definitely refreshing to read something diverse like that.

But, sadly, those are all the parts of this very short novella that I enjoyed.

This is an urban fantasy novella about the city of Longshore which is protected by the Court made up of the most powerful magicians from the magic families. I assume. I don’t know for sure because it was never properly explained. Just like nothing else, really. The whole story seems to be about how Bad things are since the Court got murdered but it’s never said what the Court actually does - apart from “holds things together” and “protects the city”. Please try to be more vague…

Another part of the problem™ is that the magic stone - the one from the title - got attached to Calvin? I think? Again, I’m not sure. I mean, they talk about this stone all the time and how it will show (?) new members of the Court (how are they chosen?) & how it has the power to stabilize the city for now (but still, they had to fetch some magic seals to help the city?) yet the stone itself doesn’t actually do anything but clings to Calvin and occasionally to his ex-boyfriend. They used it once in the beginning to fight a demon but never again (though, to be fair, demons didn’t show much later and, again, why?).

For every thing that gets explained, three more questions immediately spring into life that get totally ignored.

Like I said, this is an urban fantasy story & we have magical families but suddenly it turns out there’s a whole other magic dimension and there are gods there. We’re introduced to two gods (God of Mischief and Cat God, which only makes it more confusing because what are there & aren’t gods of?) but then at the very end of the story there’s a line saying there’s also a Fae Queen? Which may be the God of Mischief but frankly…. I’m not sure! But okay, you introduce new gods, cool. Tell us how are we supposed to react to them, though. Because they are described as scary before/when they first show up & then they just do random, sometimes downright silly things. So what’s the deal? Do I fear them or do I drink coffee with them?

When I say things aren’t explained properly… There’s a scene where they gather the magic seals I mentioned before (of course we have no idea what they are & no one bothers to tell us) and they have to place them in specific locations but that’s as far as the description goes. The scene literally cuts off there! We don’t even get some vague line about a magic ritual, nothing. There’s a build-up, there’s all this anticipation of “will they save the city or won’t they” and then it all dies a natural death. Nothing happens for us to see but we are told later on that the city is safer. (But then we weren’t even told why exactly & from what the city is in danger… Like, yes, the Court is dead but what does that actually mean!!)

This isn’t even the only time where we get all this escalation only to be left with absolutely nothing in the end. Another example would be the constant mentions of how bad Salim looks - and it’s made clear that he started looking worse at some point during this unfortunate adventure. Calvin comments and comments on it & we’re waiting to see what’s behind this, is Salim okay, is it a symptom of what’s happening in the city, will something even worse happen to him? And all that only for Calvin to never mention it again. He really goes from detailed descriptions of how thin & exhausted Salim looks to nothing at all for the rest of the story! What’s the point! Why did you waste your time and my time!

We know the worldbuilding basically failed but what about the characters, you ask? Well, like I said, Calvin is gay & ten years ago he dated Salim. That’s uhh… that’s as far as his characterization went. I suppose he’s a good person who helps people, since that’s the premise of the story. He was flirted with by two different men (I know we gays flock together but how are all four characters who got the most screentime gay & how are three of them apparently into Calvin to some degree or making it look as if they were?) and literally every time had a different reaction. It went from rumbling nonsense to just blushing to stammering to god knows what else. And those weren’t the only kinds of situations where this happened. I understand he could have been in a different mood at all those times but is that really an explanation? How does one gets flattered that someone flirts with them & then gets angry about the same thing just a few hours later? Basically what this feels like is as if the author made a list of ways people can react to stuff (more specifically: ways people react in books) and just tried to fit as many as possible into this novella. The question is, why was Calvin the one going through the personality changes every three pages? I mean, you have more than one character, you can take all those incredibly original actions and distribute them between all of said characters. 

It’s just so fake! Come on! Arching eyebrows and blushing isn’t actually a characterization! Especially when it’s not even consistent. 

A quote from Calvin, because it’s not enough he doesn’t really have a personality, he also can’t talk like a regular human being: “Don’t talk to me like that. I won’t tolerate any disrespect from you. I’ve done nothing but help you. I don’t deserve your derision”. Now, it would be cool if he talked like this all the time, I mean we all have our quirks, right? But this is the only moment he did it! You can’t just randomly make your characters use difficult words for no reason at all & with no explanation! Who does that!

This was a reply to Salim & Calvin talks a lot about how Salim treated him badly when they were still dating & how he’s generally a shitty person. I’m pretty sure like 10% of the novella is just him complaining about it but at the same time we get Salim making sure at every turn that Calvin is okay and not hurt. To be fair we also see him jealous of Calvin (ten years later!), sulking for no reason at all (that doesn’t get explained at any point), trying to save the city despite being the one to witness the massacre of the Court, ready to fight every person who speaks to him… Is too much characterisation a thing or is it just another facet of the lack of it?

Anyway, thanks a lot for this portrayal of gay man as toxic! Especially when there is not a single one healthy gay relationship (or at least, a promise of one) here. Like, nothing major happened, I don’t need to tw this for some gross stuff but at the same time? Nothing good happens either? You call this a good gay rep? There's even talk of cheating on someone you were in a long term relationship with & painting it as okay because “you knew we were already in a bad place!”. I mean, sure, gay people can also be shitty, we are just people after all, but trying so hard to fit that into such a short story? Like it was really just a single line that didn't change anything since we were already told that Salim was a bad boyfriend. So why bother at all? 

And yes, I bolded “told” in that sentence because that's exactly how this novella works. We are never showed anything, only ever told things. And the worst part? The author tells us one thing about the characters & then they go and do something that's the polar opposite of that. You could argue that this is all because the story is told from Calvin's perspective & he's just a bad judge of character but no, this applies to him as well. It's simply that the author doesn't have a clear idea of the characters so they are really all over the place & just do random stuff to move the plot forward. Without us knowing what's actually happening and why is it happening… 

The writing itself isn't that great either so I can't even use that as an excuse. Frankly it's hard to say the author has a style, it's more like just a word after a word after a word… And every third is actually a repetition! I realise this is an ARC but has no one really edit this at all? The one line I still remember is: “given all the givens”. I mean! Why are you making me read this if it's so clearly not finished! Because the whole thing really feels like the very first draft. A clumsy one at that. I could forgive the single word repetitions (though I’ve been taught all my life by every teacher I had to avoid them but okay) but they weren’t the only kind! A lot of the time there would be a line about something and then a paragraph or two later - a line describing the same exact thing only in different words. Sometimes you get authors who very much want their readers to understand everything so they would do this - that’s not the case here. In every instance of this kind of Repetition™ it was clear that the author simply doesn’t remember the explanation is already here. It was like Jasmine Hong was writing parts of it on different days, with no memory of the lines already written. Which, obviously, no one expects an author to write a book in one day but maybe read over at least the last page of your manuscript before you add to it? Or edit the thing at the end. 

God, this really needs to be rewritten from the ground up and maybe even more than once. So many mistakes could have been dealt with thanks to a proper revision, the biggest of them being the plot. As it is written now, it makes no sense at all; it’s just a few events connected by the characters and some things Calvin tells us about. And all of it is just plain boring.

You're relaxing on your couch in your favorite ugly t-shirt. All of a sudden, a bang sounds at your front door and you open it to find your ex-boyfriend looking like the reject from a horror film. 

Most sane people would call the cops, an ambulance, and possibly their mother. Now add in a slathering, bloodthirsty demon and you have the worst surprise Calvin Chang's ever gotten. 

When Cal's jerk of an ex-boyfriend falls onto his doorstep covered in other people's blood, he not only brings Salim into his home but prepares to fight the demon trying to make Salim his snack. 

Jasmine Hong's The Witch Stone introduces Calvin Chang, a male from a long line of magically-powerful and totally intimidating women. He's from one of the four powerful families, but he's far from a family favorite. Due to some messy history with Chang men, Cal's gender and magical power make him a bit of an undesirable. 

In fact, he spent most of his early childhood and teen years on the run from his grandmother, a woman who'd sooner kill him than do anything remotely grandmotherly. Now, with Salim's grand and bloody re-entrance into his life, Cal's being pushed into a spotlight, into a magical fray that he's never wanted to join in the first place. Instead, he typically works with architecture and has used his designs to help build a base of magic and safety into the city (Longshore). It's only at the insistence of his grandmother, in exchange for his continued survival, that he has anything to do with magical & family business. 

Hong's novel starts off with a literal bang- straight into action. The novel continues at this breakneck speed, sometimes at the cost of plot development. The action both starts and wraps up so quickly, that it almost seems TOO easy. 

I also wish there was more time to learn about the power dynamics of the city. Readers learn that there's a Court and a Lord of the City who have to do with protecting it and channeling the lines of magical power that exist around and in their territory. Given the ending of the novel, it's pretty clear that Hong is setting up for at least a second book, so I'm hoping that the world-building will get a lot more fleshed out then. 

I like Cal; I think he has an adorable naivete, and he seems like he's got the core of a good person, a kind person. As far as other supporting characters go, there are a few who look like they'll be making a future appearance- Chuck, Cal's transgender cousin, Tony, the family's lawyer (and a potential romantic interest), and Nina- a child who will be very important moving forward. 

One of the things that I really liked about Hong's novel, and a reason that I'll definitely check out a sequel, is her diverse characters. I think it's hard to find male leads in the urban fantasy genre, let alone a gay male lead. This is quite casually done, and I think that she has done a good job of making Cal a regular guy, instead of turning him into some kind of stereotype for the sake of diversity. We also learn that Cal's cousin, Chuck, is transgender and had transitioned into becoming a woman in the last few years. Right now, we haven't gotten to learn much about Chuck's experience, but I think Hong has a huge opportunity to create a real backstory for someone who represents a group that I feel is largely under-represented in UF lit. 

I think it's really important to see characters of different gender identities, sexual orientations, and races represented in any genre, and I think it's really cool that Hong has attempted to do that. 

The Witch Stone may not be the most impressive book I've read this year, but I think that it's worth the time to read, and I see potential for a great second installment.

Cal is chilling out at home when the wards around his property start going off. Enter Salim his ex boyfriend with a demon in his ass. Salim is injured and cal takes care of the demon and then takes care of Salim. The court has been killed by someone and Salim is the only survivor. He holds the lodestone which now needs to be given to the next lord of the city but first they have to find her.
I really enjoyed this story. It was fast paced and I felt like I really had to keep up with the story. I look forward to reading the next in this series. 
would recommend

One-Line Summary:

With the court brutally murdered and his ex-boyfriend the only survivor, Cal has to somehow deliver the lodestone to the new Lord while managing to survive his so-called “helpers.”

Summary:

When Cal opens his door to find his ex-boyfriend bloodied, bruised, and naked on his doorstep, he knows it’s not going to be a good time. On his heels is a demon and in his possession is the lodestone, which belongs to the Lord of the city to help him keep the magic in balance so it doesn’t destroy the city. Only, the Lord and her council are dead, and for some reason, the lodestone didn’t make its way to the new Lord.

Cal isn’t exactly using his brain when he decides to help his ex, Salim, but it’s not like he expected to be chased through town by a demon, nearly killed, and finally arrested. With the help of the emissary of Stonewood, Barney, whose day job is as a police officer, they manage to get off with a slap on the wrist and one more person to join their mission, which seems doomed to fail.

What they really need most is help from Cal’s family, the Changs. Only, the matriarch, his grandmother, would prefer he were dead … and that’s the least of his worries. What he gets stuck with, instead, is the Changs’ arrogant and stone-cold lawyer, Tony. It’s not exactly the band of “heroes” Cal was hoping for, nor is he particularly qualified himself, but they’re the only hope Longshore has of restoring the balance before the unrestrained magic destroys the city. In short, they’re screwed.

The Positives:

- The magic system is actually really interesting and varied. It maybe wasn’t explored in the depth that it could have been (should have been?), but it was definitely well thought out and varied. Each family is known for different things, and even members in the family have different specialties. Cal, for instance, absorbs power, while his cousin is a master scryer. The families are basically clans, and there are hierarchies and alliances between them, and different clans hold different amounts of sway and power, which made it very interesting having to negotiate between them.

- I was laughing so hard at some scenes, I had to put the darn thing down. A lot of the humor is tongue-in-cheek or just stretched and sometimes situational, which is amusing but not always funny. What I thought this book really excelled at was banter and dialogue. The way the characters interacted with each other was great in a lot of places, and I warmed up to the characters quickly because of this. Cal himself is also just funny in his narrative, which I really enjoyed.

- This was pretty much non-stop action right from the get-go. Never a dull moment, as the saying goes. Some might hate that, but being so short, it really pulled the story along and didn’t let up, which I felt worked fine. At no point did I ever want to set it down, and in fact, I just couldn’t get enough. The mystery was just enough to keep me interested, although I had pretty much solved it and guessed where the ending would go from very early on, so no surprises there. Still, I was invested enough in the characters where that didn’t bother me.

- OMG, these characters … I just can’t even. If someone can find a way to make Tony real so I can marry him, I will owe you a debt of gratitude and possibly our first born? I feel like that’d be a worthy trade. I’m also pretty sure he’s gay, but we’ll just overlook that for a minute and leave me to my fantasies, okay? These characters were all great. Even Salim, who was very whiny through most of the book (I mean, to be fair, he had a pretty good reason for it). They each had their own separate personalities, their own backstories and strengths. Grandmother Chang is easily one of my favorites, even though we don’t see her much. Just from the way the other characters talk about her, it’s obvious that she’s both a force to be reckoned with and not easy to get along with, which means I am SO LOOKING FORWARD to seeing more of her, hopefully, in the next books.

- The ending was so not what I expected, but I approve. Well, sort of. Okay, I’m torn. For reasons I can’t get into because of spoilers. It’s a bit of a cliffhanger, but not in a way that irked me or anything. There’s obviously meant to be more books, and it does end a bit abruptly, but not in a way that made me want to throw my Kindle out of exasperation. Which is good because, you know, it’s expensive.

The Negatives:

- It was short. Like, really short. At only about 100 pages, that doesn’t leave a lot to work with, especially when you’re constructing a whole world and magic system, and it showed. A lot of things felt not fully developed or explored, which really took away from the overall story, in my opinion. It just felt rushed in some aspects.

- The backstory is slipped in in often random and sometimes confusing ways. Sometimes this worked out fine, and others I wondered why we were pausing from the plot at that particular moment to learn this bit of information. A lot of really pertinent information is slipped in this way, I feel, or things are alluded to or mentioned in passing and not expanded upon, so I felt like I didn’t always get a clear picture of the backstory or was confused by it. There was just a lot of things that were crammed into a really short book and it shows.

- The plot wasn’t entirely coherent. There was a lot of jumping and skimming, which, again, is probably a byproduct of it being so short. A quarter of the book is spent building up to this important moment that might save the city, even temporarily, and then when it comes down to it, the actual scene is skipped over. Doesn’t even mention whether everything went the way it was supposed to (but I assume it worked). Since there was so much build-up to it, I felt cheated and annoyed that it was glossed over so easily. As for the overall plot, without getting into any spoilers, I’ll just say that I’m still not clear how everything went down or even why. The “villain” didn’t seem to really have a strong motive, nor is there any mention of how they were able to pull off something of that scale.

- A couple of characters were obviously throwaways, even though they seemed to be important. They were basically deus ex machina. They showed up to serve the brief purpose they had and then totally disappeared again without much consequence or thought. Either that or they appear only when they’re needed, provided a teensy bit of backstory, and serve their purpose. Which is a shame, as they seemed like they could be interesting characters.

Overall:

I WANT THE NEXT BOOK NOW. Why don’t I have it yet? ARGH. While there were certainly aspects of this book that I found disappointing, it was a really fun book. Though the world wasn’t fully fleshed out, I did love the magic system and the glimpses of the world we did get. It was fun and funny and had fantastic characters that I could both relate to and swoon over. I don’t know what more I could ask for other than just, you know, more actual book?

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So I have mixed feelings for this book.  On the one hand the premise was interesting and the story kept my attention.  I was,definitely invested enough to finish, and to probably look for the next book of the series. However I had some serious reservations also. The first sentence is "the day started normal", and it know is is an arc, but grammatically it should be "normally ".  Things like that drive me crazy!  Also, this book was very short and the world building suffered because of that. I wanted more background on the families and the Court, and less repetition of his relationship with the grandmother. I also wanted the characters fleshed out a little more. I think this was a good start, but needs some work to really make it stand out.

Really liked the book, I was completely drawn in, just want to know what happens next! Will definitely purchase a sequel