Witch 13 by Patrick Delaney was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I generally do not read "witch" books as the trope has not really grown in years, however the reviews I read kind of promised this was different. They were correct, this book has a classic witch (picture the Wicked Witch of theWest from the Wizard of Oz), with a wand, and she wreaks havoc. I also generally do not like long drawn-out dialogue, give me action, not words. This book has a lot of dialogue and "atmosphere" as some call it, that did not bore me. If you or someone you buy gifts for want to read a wicked witch book that takes place in New England around Christmas, give this book a read.

Certainly a chilling, edge of your seat read. And wow, what a cover!

Having been immediately drawn in to this creepy tale which was full of tension and atmosphere, I was constantly caught off guard by the twists and turns. I really enjoy a dark, mysterious novel such as this one. The descriptions of the storm and the power going off and on, the stillness of the witch and the scene being cut off from outside help, all contributed to the horror and foreboding.

Not quite a full five star read for me, as I didn't agree/approve of some of the main character's actions and I feel that the writing could benefit from a few tweaks, particularly the ending, which could do with more explanation.

I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Sterling Marsh is a woman who struggles with change, loss, and relationships and tonight she's having to say goodbye to everything she's ever known in the years she's served for the Sheriff's office in Drybell, Connecticut. To say she's not ready would be an understatement, and there is a lot more to be confronted tonight after a crash on the bridge unleashes a mysterious witch on her community. Death, destruction, mystery, and revelation all ensue and soon there is very little of the life she clung to left at all.

Overall this is a nice book, particularly if you like something in the style of classic Ray Bradbury or Robert Bloch, who both had a way with blending the modern and the surreal when they wrote horror suspense. However, I did find myself frustrated with the way many of the characters seemed to lose the thread of their very nature in the latter third of the book up to and including taking actions that honestly didn't fit the character or common sense beyond getting us to a nice dramatic closing battle sequence. We had a few interesting female characters who started out strong and then lapsed into roles that stripped away their strength in favor of making them fit a more broad stereotype of femininity in distress and sympathetic masculine characters who similarly dropped those traits in favor of fitting toxic or macho traits under pressure. Between these traits, some mixed results when it came to the traits of the witch herself, and plot inconsistencies with pacing and logic leaps I felt the book fell apart in the last third.

It was the cover that got me. I am super into witch stuff and so that cover meant I had to request this book. Question is, would the cover be the best thing about it?

The answer is....

I found it a little tricky to get into at first. I wasn't exactly sure what was happening but once I realised this was all on one night and no one else had any idea what was going on either I was good. In fact I was hooked.

It is very fast paced, actually at times maybe too fast paced as I felt like there were a few plot points that could have been fleshed out a bit more but the actual events on that night are brilliantly done. It is creepy and tense and yes at times violent and gory but it didn't feel gratuitous but fitted within the story.

My only real criticism of it is that I felt some why is missing from it that would transformed this into a 5 star read for me. Without the fundamental questions being answered once you finished it just made the ending feel unsatisfactory which is a shame as I think it is brilliant horror/supernatural writing over all.

MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW

Why does Sterling not know she is Witch 13. How did she end up becoming Sterling and why do they want her back now and at not at any other point in her life?

So was the cover the best thing about this book? No. I am glad I read it. I consumed it in 2 days so that should say something but the ending felt frustrating and yes, the cover is frigging glorious.

I wanted a scary book and this gave me everything I could have wanted and more. This is the perfect atmospheric horror which the author perfectly depicts and makes you feel as though you are living through the horror with the characters. Even though I was reading this book in daylight on my commute to work I still felt myself getting goosebumps and I would love to reread this in the dark.

'The woman didn't move; she was still, like one of those Halloween witches people put on their porch to scare away kids like her.'

This follows Sheriff Sterling two weeks before Christmas just before shes about to leave her job hopefully quietly. However incidents begin occurring all over town including a truck crashing blocking the towns entrance, a boy going missing from a supermarket and her deputy is missing. When Sterling is called to the city hall she comes across a scene that is so unbelievable that she can not even explain it to the rest of her team. When she finds a woman on the scene she immediately knows something is wrong but she does not know quite how bad things are about to get.

I loved Sterling despite her flaws and her bad decisions she makes her choices based on the experiences and how someone in that moment would react to that situation. She felt very real to me and her relationships with those around her was so flawed but extremely realistic in terms of a workplace.

The witch also plays off the characters weaknesses in the book which was really interesting to read about. It showed how no matter how perfect you seem everyone has a past and the witch likes to depict that in such a horrific way it made me feel so interested yet so uncomfortable with how it played out.

This book is how I love witches to be portrayed rather than the more recent development of the ‘good witch’ and finding a horror book about witches is so hard to find recently. The violence of the witch was not over the top gory but still made you feel creeped out by the situations and the entire thing made you feel hopeless. I really enjoyed that you knew the book was not going to have a resolved ending as the witch made the entire situation feel despairing.

The illustrations throughout this book also made it even more interesting and added an interesting element which helped visualise certain situations throughout the book. I think more books need illustrations especially in the way these used black and white just added to the eeriness of the book.  

I ended up rating this book four stars which is a really high rating for me in a horror. It had everything I could want; witches, a creepy atmosphere and illustrations which is always a bonus in books. I really want to get to Delaneys other works around Halloween and see if I like them as much as I liked this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for this review copy!

I don’t get scared much by books these days, but this was awesomely creepy. It got to the point where I avoided reading this at night!

Sheriff Sterling Marsh was on her last day at work. It was the eve of her resignation, two weeks before Christmas, where she was prepared for a quiet, paperwork-filled day to bid farewell to her colleagues. However, strange things began to happen to children and townspeople, and they all seemed to be instigated by an eerie presence of a woman in black, wearing a pointy hat. Was she a witch?

I did a double take as an initial reaction after finishing this book, because the story parts and the characters felt disjointed and jarring. There were moments when I wondered what the points were for some scenes. But then I realised that this book was a complete story, just not the story you’d expect in the first place. Once I realised what it was truly about, I truly got it!

The book also had amazing charcoal pencil illustrations that really elevated the story to a whole other level. It was such a thrilling experience to turn a page over and see the exact illustration that depicted the previously described horror.

If you’re looking for a classic horror story that keeps you awake at night, I’d recommend this for you.

This was an okay story, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped. It was creepy and unsettling as promised, but I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, so unfortunately I struggled to immerse myself fully into the book.

However, I especially liked the building of the atmosphere. The author did a great job with the setting and I could picture myself in the situations the characters found themselves in.

This one wasn’t quite for me, but I’m sure others will love it! Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book!

I was really looking forward to reading this as the description captured my attention. The horror elements were spot on, Patrick R. Delaney does an amazing job at setting up the atmosphere and it left me anticipating what was going to happen next. I agree with most other reviews, the scenes with the witch are overly creepy due to the general silence.

Unfortunately, I felt like it was written in a way that was overly descriptive and it could have been shortened to add more to the actual plot. There was this huge build up with the witch but the ending was such a let down.

This is a 2.5 rounded to a 3.

Thanks to Netgalley and Oblivion Publishing for providing me with an ARC of Witch 13 in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book was a miss for me. It started super slow and one thing I do not like in horror is when an author focuses on random characters and bogs down the horror. I also did not like all of the metaphors/similes the author used. It seemed that every sentence had one and it got super annoying. I didn’t find anything about this book frightening other than the silver lining, which was the illustrations within the book. Overall, this book did not mesh well with me, however I do implore you to give it a go!

I did not like this book. Putting it simply, the writing was bad, it elongated the book and didn’t pull me in or emotionally attach me to any characters. The idea behind the book was fantastic and it was the reason I wanted so badly to read it but the biased writing and the over explanations of every detail essentially over telling EVERYTHING was too much. Way. To. Much. I found myself trying to do other things rather than read this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oblivion Publishing for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One night, a huge storm and a group of people locked in a police station. Chuck in some supernatural happenings and this book sounded like it was right up my street. Unfortunately this book never really lived up to my dreams.

The story opens with a prelude that introduces the chacater of the witch, and in quite an intense way. Cut to the main character's having a chat in a resturant and we are in our way.

My first problem with the book was I felt it never really figured out what sort of book it wanted to be, at points it felt like it was trying to be YA then it would jump into bits that felt like it was trying to be extreme horror. It made me really struggle to get invested as I couldn't get a steady rhythm with my reading. I did manage to get over this fortunately and started to really enjoy the main character Sterling, she was a tough woman who had a huge conflict of emotions through out her story and I honestly thought she was a beautifully written character. Unfortunately every single side character seemed to have a huge back story written into this novel, and for almost all of them I felt that we didn't need their back story.

Another problem the book suffers from is the ridiculous use of metaphors. In two paragraphs in the same chapter the same metaphor was used to describe buzzing. Almost everything had a metaphor attatched and I found myself skimming huge sections of the book due to this. Now I'm not opposed to a good metaphor but there can be way too many used in a book, again Witch 13 suffered from this and almost caused me to DNF.

Don't get me wrong, the story was good, a nice little reimagining and an OK ending that fell a bit flat, but the issues that surrounded the rest of it couldn't raise it any higher in the ratings. 2.5/5

Reading this was… an experience, to be sure.
Right before Christmas, small-town sheriff Sterling Marsh finds herself facing one last night on the job before she resigns. She hopes for a quiet night, but what starts with a confrontation with a disgruntled wife of a coworker (who Sterling slept with) quickly spirals into wicked madness, and a story full of lies and gore and cartoonish witches. Yes you heard that right. The main villain of the story is a witch dressed in all black with a tall, pointy hat on her head.
Now, the premise sounded very interesting to me. The gimmicky villain sounded interesting, and the cover looked appropriately creepy. I was hoping they would turn the witch gimmick into something truly terrifying, and to be fair, they did. My favourite parts of the story involved the witch getting down to her horrifying business of trying to destroy everything and everyone around her, and the prologue truly had my skin crawling.
But oh. My. God. I could not force myself to care about any of the characters. Sterling was made up to be this super badass queer woman of colour, but as soon as we meet her we find out she had an affair with her married coworker (who is her subordinate), and she spends the rest of the book pining for him. It is briefly mentioned that she had a girlfriend in the past, but I felt like the LGBTQ+ tag that this book has was a bit misleading. Of course her being queer didn’t need to be a central part of the story, but I was hoping for a bit more than her pining for her married coworker.
I also felt the story dragged on for quite a lot longer than it necessarily needed to. It could have benefitted from being a novella, or at least a hundred pages shorter. And honestly, I was close to throwing my kindle out the window for the first 85% of the book. I decided to push through however, and I was actually quite surprised by the twist in the end, even though it felt quite sudden.
Now, would I recommend this book? No, probably not. Like I said, I felt the characters were unlikeable without the author necessarily wanting them to be (we won’t talk about Chase), and I felt the story was very dull for most of the book. The writing style also wasn’t for me, there were a lot of adjectives and a lot of weird descriptions, such as blood thumping like a geyser. I can confirm that geysers do not thump.
Anyway, big thanks to Orion Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with this eArc in exchange for my honest review.

1 night in a small town, a storm, inexplicable events, a witch. Great premise, right?

When I started posting reviews on Goodreads a few years ago, I would write scathing ones for badly written books. Partly because I was upset about my wasted time, & partly because, to quote Anton Ego from Ratatouille, “negative criticism [is] fun to write and to read.”

Since then, though, I’ve been thinking a lot about the authors pouring their hearts into their works… & now writing negative reviews actually pains me. I try to be as gentle as I can, but in case of Witch 13 it’ll be a struggle.
The book has a cool concept and some brilliant ideas, but the writing is a major flaw.

Firstly, long info dumps about the side characters’ pasts – not needed and makes the story lag.

More importantly – purple prose. I feel writers really should think of the advice I’ve once read was given to a rookie journalist by his 1st boss: “If I see 1 adverb or adjective in your article, you’re fired.” Witch 13 is smothered with adverbs and adjectives; however, its worst sin is the abundance of metaphors and similes in most sentences. The language isn’t just flowery; the devices are:

- often pretentious “Cloying and hungry, [the air] draped over her face like a veil of death.”

- tonally incongruous “’This is the Drybell Sheriff’s Department, is anyone there?’
Only the steady song of the wind spoke to her.” And a bit later: “A droning started to climb; carrying through the air, rising like a tea kettle on the verge of boiling.”

Random imagery from unrelated areas = no cohesive mood;

- sometimes unintentionally funny: “Her frozen breath expelled in front of her like a dying animal. All the fight she had was gone, abandoning her like a bastard child.”

It’s a shame, as there’s a good concept behind the book, a few red herrings and 2 unexpected twists. Hence 2 stars, not 1.

Also: FANTASTIC illustrations inside by UNKNOWN - why not credited? Only the cover art is credited.
I feel there’s a huge potential to P. Delaney’s creativity, but solid advice on how to improve the writing style is needed.

So, sadly, even though I received this book before release, I couldn't get into it & I TRIED. I wanted to have my review posted before release day & I just couldn't do it.

I don't have an easy way to say this, but I did not enjoy this book.

* There were multiple POV's, which I normally love, but the POV changed so often & without warning that it was just too much for me. This may be someone else's cup of tea, but it was not mine.
* None of the characters were all that interesting or compelling. The character that was I am assuming supposed to be the main character of the story, to me, was just terrible.
* I personally was not drawn into this story, or any kind of suspense enough to care about reading further (which is why it took me so long to get through it).

That is to just name a few.

I love horror & thriller style stories but this, for me, had none of that feel for me. I know it includes elements found in the genre but it just didn't get to the level that I would have expected, though I am aware that I have a high bar in this area and that is why I left it out of the above list. So if horror is REALLY your thing, this might not be the one, but if you only like things a bit horror-esque, then this might be good for you.

Starts creepy, continues being creepy and then ends on a bit of a damp note…frustrating as until the final quarter I was really enjoying this. Beginning with a child disappearing, we find ourselves transported to a town where a witch is arrested. Creepy scenes play out, however, the characters just aren’t fleshed out enough for me to care if they meet an end. Also, there seems to be a sub-plot going on that I’m not sure is related to another book this author has written - felt a little left field with the plot choices. All in all, it’s an okay read, with the more I think about it, the more I seem to be picking holes so I’ll leave the review here. I’m interested to see where the author goes next though!

Rating: 1.5
The only thing I liked about this book was the prologue and the pictures throughout the book.

*DNF'd*

I was so intrigued by the blurb of this book but sadly in the end it was not for me.

I found myself not connecting or liking the characters at all. And when I first put the book down I struggled to pick it up again. I thought the pacing was slow and even though I understand this could have been to further build suspense and tension, it made it so hard to get immersed in the story.

Overall I do believe others will enjoy this book but it was unfortunate that I was not one of those people.

Regardless, I am hugely grateful to the publishers of this book for providing me with an eArc.

I experienced several different emotions as I read this tale. First, I was overjoyed at finding a witch who actually managed to be a bit scary. On the other hand, I didn’t like the explanation of where she was from. The last couple of chapters had unexpectedly vivid descriptions of gore. Yet the very end of the story didn’t completely work for me.

Despite my being split about this work, it was definitely creative. Therefore, I’ve given it four stars.

Sheriff Sterling March is not doing so great. Her life is a mess, and she's to blame. Wanting nothing more than to spend a night with friends (once the paperwork is done), instead she gets a witch.

Straight from a fairy tale, this witch. Tall, pointy hat, black flowing clothes, this person just screams "I need you to know that I am a witch!"

Fortunately for March, witches aren't real.

Unfortunately for March...yes they are. And this one is about to make her, and her little town, into believers.

“13 Witches”

They walked together,
old as time,
they’ll take your soul,
but don’t take mine.

Skin like milk,
hair like ash,
they’ll kill anyone,
who crosses their path.

Hats full of stitches,
make your wishes,
because coming for you,
are the thirteen witches.
— Unknown

I was pleasantly surprised by the illustrations - I wasn't expecting them, but the first appeared in the prologue. They are, all of them, beautiful (even the disturbing ones); images of charcoal and grey, clouded and swirling, with the main image picked out of the smoky background. Kudos to the artist, they are magnificent.

To our protagonist, then. Marsh is an odd character, and it takes a while to warm to her. Right from the start there are very clearly a number of things wrong: sleep trouble, family estrangement, an unhealthy tendency to push herself, the need to run and run and run some more.

There's also an early comment about her old life, and an ex-girlfriend (woo). But it seems like her running habit isn't just on a treadmill.

A few lines later...and yeah, the running thing is just what she does.

This is a woman who is full of cracks, and one more might be all it takes for the whole person to shatter into pieces.

So we're off to a wonderful start. I can't wait to see what a (presumably) evil witch is going to do to this crumbling wreck of a woman!

Anyway, it doesn't take long to get stuck in to the scary stuff, always good to start how you mean to go on, and it's a pretty decent start, for sure.

(Hey also, she's bi, double woo!)

And we have more than just a mixed-race main character, there's a whole bunch of not white people, just existing in the world and doing their thing. I always love to see that!

The cast of characters (whose pov we occasionally see through, usually when things are happening in parallel that Marsh doesn't know about), are quite the bunch. Not all of them are particularly likeable (I’m thinking of one in particular that never grew on me). They’re an oddball group if ever there was one, but they’re great to be around. Even as things fall apart, they try to figure out the best thing they can do, and put in every effort to do it.

Max's age caused me some issues. He's meant to be 7 years old. He can solve a rubik's cube, but doesn't know what a ruler is. He acts at various times like he’s anything between 5 and 12 years old. Sure, kids have weird depths of maturity that adults don’t see a lot of the time, and they don’t grow into it all at once, but it’s more like his mental and emotional age just being whipped up and down to suit what’s happening, rather than him genuinely reacting. I might be being overly picky on this point though!

There seems to be a large plothole in the overarching "we're trapped in this town" thing. There’s talk of the bridge being blocked–that’s fine. But nothing about another main way in or out, nor are the fire trails mentioned, that I recall, until the emergency services come racing up them at the end.

The evil witch? She’s very creepy. Store mannequin creepy. She can apparently teleport at will, make people see things, and a bunch more useful stuff, and that’s before she gets her full power. At that point, there is much gruesome carnage! Almost too much, in a way, it gets a bit silly as the author tries to come up with new things for the witch to do, but it is entertaining.

So keep away if you’re not great at dealing with gruesome things.

But, if you like plots that don't give away all the answers, video game style execution with magic, and getting into the head of a really fucked up but always trying protagonist, pick it up and read!

*This ARC was given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Overall rating: 3.5 rounded down to a 3

Content/Trigger Warning: domestic violence, suicide, gore, adultery, loneliness, emetophobia

Brief Summary: It is Sheriff Sterling Marsh last day as an officer in Drybell, Connecticut, and is resigning after a string of bad decisions leaves her life in shambles. Two weeks before Christmas and expecting a long night of paperwork, she’s surprised when an unnerving stranger appears in the form of a witch, complete with pointy hat and long black dress. But things aren't exactly as they seem. (And that's all you really need to know when going into this book tbh)

My thoughts: Patrick Delaney definitely does a greta job at setting up a creepy atmosphere. I was hooked from the first pages. Very unsettling vibes right from the start. But then for me it kinda trailed off during the middle point. I felt very bored and tired when I got to the middle and was missing some type of action to happen. It picked back up at the end, but this middle section was just a little too long and empty for my tastes.

The cast of characters was one of my favorite parts of the book. I enjoyed how all of them were flawed in some way and had their own issues instead of there just being that one righteous person that horror novels usually seem to have. I just wish that the ending would have tied up their stories a little neater.

Now, the Witch was a pretty fantastic character. Dark, menacing, and totally what you need if you're looking for a little bit of horror to spice up your reading. I enjoy that although she is described in such a stereotypical 'witchy' way, she doesn't act like one. She is mostly mobile for the scenes she is in, which I think makes her more mysterious and terrifying. There's something really off-putting about a witch standing in the corner and not doing anything rather than attacking constantly. I just wish that there was a little more done with her. I was wanting more with her character every time I saw her in the book. Like I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see what she would do when she actually moved.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who is just getting into the horror genre and doesn't want to be too scared by anything. I could see many people curling up with this book come October when people are really itching for creepy vibes.