This book and I were a bad match. I didn't connect with the writing style. I can't stand when the main character is literally the only good person in existence, and every male is evil. I was just too bored to continue on.

DNF

3.5 Rounded up.

Hmmm.. This is an interesting one because I both did, and did not, like it. For what it was I think its a good story, but booooy did I want more! So much potential, and I do think it scratched the surface but I wish it pushed it farther. I did find the idea to be pretty enticing especially the more we learned about the specific attacks happening that this family is being blamed for, along with the different questionable things around our main character and the secrets of her family. I really liked the conversations that it had and I did like the direction that it went in the end and ended up liking it overall.

The issues that I have with it is mainly that I wanted more from it, and honestly I was a little bored with the set up. I don't know if the pacing was off or if we didn't get enough focus on the parts I thought would be more interesting, but I wasn't as gripped as I wanted to be, so parts of it felt a little slow. Fortunately I stuck around cause I did like the idea and where the book went.

Spoilers on Goodreads

Luscious environment and strong tradition. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of old beliefs vs the new church. The reveal was sad.

Island witch is a great horror suspense thriller. Wasn't able to finish on time but the initial chapters are very engaging.

"Set in 19th century Sri Lanka and inspired by local folklore, the daughter of a traditional demon-priest—relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself—tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village."

Set in Sri Lanka, I loved the richness of culture that this story embraces. The atmosphere is dark and eerie, written so well that you can feel it come to life. The mystery was interesting and I enjoyed following the main character, Amara, throughout the story. However, this is a really slow burn. I found myself tuning out at times due to the pacing, but the premise kept me intrigued enough to continue on.
I typically enjoy a fast paced and action packed story full of shocking twist and turns. This one is definitely not that, and that's okay. While not the typical story that I gravitate toward, I'm so glad that I read this one and the ending is so worth the slow burn ride it takes to get there.
If you enjoy a rich story with great atmosphere and characters, but don't mind a slow burn, than this is a great choice.

***This book covers some heavy topics such as (but not all listed here); domestic violence, bullying, and the overall mistreatment of women, so please be sure to read the trigger warnings before reading.

Thank you to @netgalley @PRHaudio and @berkleypub for the gifted copy of this book.

3.5/5!

I love when horror takes a nod from folklore and allows readers to not only experience an interesting story, but also learn some historical details along the way. Jayatissa does this in the pages of Island Witch by exploring Sri Lankan folklore. These elements, blended with the British colonization of the island, give a setting where worlds are colliding and our main character, Amara, is caught in the midst.

Getting to follow Amara’s experience is heartbreaking and frustrating all at once. Her experience trying to find her place amongst a mother and a village that don’t seem to want her leaves her isolated and the target of bullying. As Amara tries to understand who she is and why she has been made to feel the way she does, her full rage comes to the forefront giving the readers an explosive ending.

The plotting and the course to get to this ending is a slow burn. This book took me until the halfway point to become fully invested. Not every book needs to be a thrill ride, but I do think it’s important to know before starting this one because I think it could be easy to become disconnected with the book.

I look forward to checking out Jayatissa’s backlist in the future!

This is a villain origin story. It's ripe with history, filled with religious assimilation, misogyny, stolen innocence, unhinged female rage, and vengeance.

I was in my feelings with this book. It showed the ugliness of enabling evil, the power of man, and the betrayal of those you trust the most. But like most villain stories the MC isn't always completely innocent and there were definitely moments I wanted to scream and shake her as well.

Content Warnings - SA, Forced Abortion, Extreme Bullying, Domestic Violence, and Selfish, Resentful, Evil, Bitch Mom.

Highly Recommend, this would be an amazing movie.

This story was unique! The ending?! I didn't see that coming.

The first half of the story is a slow burn, and then the last 30% is nonstop. I was whiplashed by how fast-paced and gruesome it was compared to the beginning. Jayatissa is a great storyteller, and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you, Netgalley and Berkley, for the ARC.

This one was a medium paced and easy read! I liked getting immersed in Sri Lanka folklore. The book pulls you into the setting and makes you question the MCs reality.

While, I wish there were more demon parts…overall, I thought it was a good and easy read! A good palette cleanser.

If you like a book inspired by folklore with some suspense? Check this out!

Island Witch is a completely immersive story. The heaviness and tension carries throughout the entire story and at times, the writing is creepy. So many emotions roil constantly that reading this book was a visceral experience. I highly recommend this!

This is a hard book to review! I did not fully enjoy the experience of reading it, as it was very dark and difficult subject matter. That being said, I thought it was a very unique and creative story that was well written and told in a compelling manner. I loved the lush jungle setting and the folklore that was featured. The plight of the women in the story was heartbreaking. I wasn’t sure where it was going, and the twist was pretty shocking to me. I had trouble connecting to the main character, and didn’t find her very likable. I think for a personal rating I would give this book a 3, but in assessing the overall writing and story, a 4 seems more fair.

Amara is the daughter of the village Capuwa, a demon-priest, and a mother who was once part of rich, influential family of the island, until she got pregnant and ran away with Amara’s father. When something starts seizing men in the jungle and harming them, the villages accuse her father of causing the attacks.

A tense, spooky tale of a young woman's inner rage against how she is treated and even lied to, where her inner demon hidden beneath her skin is let loose by one living in the dark jungle. This is a story of all women chained to their lives by men, parents and more, where sometimes the villain becomes the savior.

This is my first read from Amanda Jayatissa and baby, this will NOT be my last!

Island Witch is a historical supernatural thriller set in Sri Lanka during the 19th century. We follow Amara, a young girl who lives in a once-flourishing village, the daughter of a demon priest. Now facing British colonization and the sweeping change to Christianity, Amara, and her family are facing ridicule and blame for random attacks on men in the jungle by their village. This story showcases Amara's transformation from a kind girl to a woman filled with rage. Island Witch has very strong themes of violence towards women, sexual assault, domestic abuse, abortions, bullying, and religious superiority. Seriously, no wonder the events unfolded as they did!

The writing was so descriptive and the atmosphere was set for the more nerve-racking scenes. I would say my only coil to the story is that Amanda does a very good job at providing translations to Amara's native language. I truly appreciated it but there were times when the definitions kind of put me out of the story. I wish there was a specific section in the book for definitions and the proper pronunciations of terms. Luckily I did flag this while reading so if I did forget a term, I would easily find the definition again. Besides that, this book was so haunting, the ending had me lying in bed staring at the ceiling for a while.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.

Let’s face it, there are few things more horrific than colonization. In her latest thriller, Amanda Jayatissa explores this evil against the backdrop of 19th-century Sri Lanka, where a father and daughter must fight to save the island and themselves from a dangerous new religion and the violence it inflicts. - included online at Ms. Magazine Feb. 2024 Reads for the Rest of Us

This book was so engrossing and vivid in its imagery. It was at times both gorgeous and horrifying. A little creepy but I loved it! Seriously count me in for Amanda Jayatissa's next one!

Thank you Berkley Books, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of Island Witch in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved Amanda Jayatissa’s previous two books and so it was a no-brainer that I would continue to read her books. This new one sounded so amazing…and it immediately became one of my most anticipated reads – and I’m so happy to say that it totally delivered!

I was pulled into this book right from the start. The writing is absolutely beautiful and it is so atmospheric! I loved how the author was able to blend the gothic vibes with the Sri Lankan folklore and bits of horror – it had me completely engaged and on edge at the same time. I’m not usually a fan of horror, but when it is mixed in this way, I’m all for it. Added in is just a slight bit of supernatural, which again doesn’t tend to work for me, but here it totally does. The historical fiction aspects, especially the religious conflict that the author portrays here was quite impressive and sent me down quite the rabbit hole of my own research.

This is a very dark story, and it is unsettling and a bit creepy to say the least, but it is a slow-burn! The mystery kept my hooked, and I found myself unable to put the book down as I was totally entranced by the story. Just know it is not fast-paced by any means and the payoff is totally worth it!

Amanda Jayatissa is absolutely a must-read author for me from now on! All three of her books have been great and I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an ARC of this title.

Firstly, I loved the setting of colonial-era Sri Lanka and the folklore. I feel like these aspects were really well incorporated into the book and I learned a lot.

However, there were some pacing issues in the middle of the book. I know this was probably to build tension, but the plot twists became so predictable that it kind of just dragged until the big reveal at the end.

Also, one super small criticism is that I think this could have benefitted from a glossary at the end. Lots of words were followed by an English translation which made the prose choppy and took me out of the story.

Amanda Jayatissa’s latest novel, Island Witch is an atmospheric, gothic horror novel set in the 19th century in Sri Lanka. A tense story about a young woman and the truths she uncovers about her village.

I have read all of Amanda Jayatissa’s books and enjoyed each of them. If you’ve read her books before, you’ll be familiar with her blending modern and traditional Sri Lankan culture into a psychological suspense story. In particular, the ways Sri Lanka and America compare and contrast with characters who have lived both places, and how that impacts their fit within their culture.

Island Witch is quite different from her previous books, My Sweet Girl and You’re Invited, but no less compelling. While both of her prior books (and in particular, My Sweet Girl) have supernatural and Sri Lankan lore woven into them, it’s not necessarily a supernatural or horror book. Island Witch is not only the first fully historical fiction work Jayatissa has written, it is also much closer to a horror novel than a psychological thriller.

Set in 19th century Sri Lanka in a small village nestled between the jungle and the water, Island Witch is narrated by a girl named Amara. Her father is the village capuwa, which is a type of priest who draws from the gods (deviyo) to ward off demons (yakku). His work involves blessing houses and warding off evil, but many confuse him with Cattadiyas who work with yakku (demons). The British have infected the peaceful island, and they bring with them the notion of witchcraft (Ceylon) and to fear women with strength who might fight back.

The British colonizers also work to convert the villagers to Christianity. They besmirch Amara’s father, and call him a “demon worshiper” after a series of men are attacked in the jungle surrounding the village. They place the blame on Amara’s father, though Amara doesn’t believe her father is guilty and she seeks to clear his name. But Amara is haunted by dreams of dark forces on the island. Her sleepwalking becomes more frequent, and her dreams feature a demoness who resembles the being that attacked the men in the jungle. She can’t shake the feeling that this is all linked together—the attacks, the colonizers, the sleepwalking, her dreams, and the night she was taken by a mysterious illness. The night she woke up to her mother’s frantic cries “no one can find out what happened!”

One common thread through all of Jayatissa’s work to date is about the mistreatment of women in society. Jayatissa portrays women of all types—some are likable, some are deeply unlikable—but by the end of her story the reader is left with a deep sense of injustice for women. Even the ones who do bad things. This theme is even stronger in Island Witch than her previous two novels.

Gothic vibes and Sri Lankan folklore surround this story, making this an unsettling, haunting, atmospheric read. Themes of colonization, superstition, imperialism, folklore, violence against women, and feminist rage weave throughout this book without preaching or talking down to the reader. Amara is young and vulnerable as the book begins, but by the end she has transformed. Watching her village turn against her father, when they are the very ones who call on the capuwa in times of need. Amara realizes that the demons she was taught to fear may not be the only danger she faces.

I read an interview with Jayatissa where she mentions that this book is her own version of an origin story for Mohini—one of the most known and feared demonesses in Sri Lankan folklore. I remember Mohini from My Sweet Girl—she’s a terrifying presence commonly depicted as a woman in white clutching a bundle that is thought to be a child. There are countless variations on the story of Mohini, but the point that Jayatissa makes is that nothing good comes from coming into her path. While Mohini appears in stories and folklore across Sri Lanka and it’s history, there is no specific origin story of how Mohini came to be. Jayatissa was inspired to create one, and that eventually became Island Witch.

An eerie, gripping story about the women of Sri Lanka and the threats against them, whether it be colonizers, demons, or even their own fathers, brothers, uncles, and neighbors.

I was provided an ARC of this book via the Berkley Besties program and Netgalley, I did however end up listening to the final production version of the audiobook. As always all opinions are my own.

This is a bit of a genre mashup. It blends folklore, historical fiction, feminism, horror and more all into one package. Set in 19th century Sri Lanka when the traditional religious practices and beliefs are being overtaken by the influence of the British Colonizers, Amara and her family are seen as outcasts. Her father's role as Capuwa was once respected, and his practices are being twisted into something sinister. Amara is constantly accused of practicing witchcraft, which leaves her frustrated and isolated. When the men in her village are attacked, her father is immediately the suspect. Amara knows he would never hurt anyone, but when she begins having odd dreams and waking up in strange places she is determined to sort out what really happened.

I really enjoyed how the author blended the historical colonization of Sri Lanka and the lore into the storyline. Amara tries to be a dutiful daughter, but her family situation and the loss of her home and traditions have so much to do with what is going on in the storyline. She is 18, and at times she reads very young as her parents have kept her sheltered, this leads to her being impulsive and irresponsible at times. There are other times when she is very mature, sticks up for herself and her family because she believes in doing what is right not what is expected and polite. The build up is slow but it leads to an explosive ending when she discovers what is at the center of the attacks and when she finally embraces her own trauma and unleashes her rage on the world. Amara's character development is at the center of the story as she comes to learn of betrayal and broken trust.

Overall, this was an unsettling book. If you are looking for a slow burn, coming of age, folklore laden novel with a feminine rage horror twist give this a go. I'd check trigger warnings before picking this up because it mentions some pretty heavy topics and it is pretty dark.

Short synopsis: Amara is the daughter of the village demon-priest accused of witchcraft. She’s trying to find answers to the attacks in her village.

My thoughts: I was immediately drawn to this one by the cover alone. But the story just didn’t captivate my attention the was I was hoping.

I was mostly bored throughout, it could totally have been a me issue. But I just didn’t feel drawn to any of the characters or the storyline.

That being said, I know lots of people have really loved it. I just must not have been in the mood for a slow burn.

Read if you love:
- Slow burns
- Folklore
- witchcraft and demon priests
- historical fiction and horror