This is a 4.5 overall for me but I rounded up as I really loved discovering the author’s style and work :).

Writing style – 🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌
Worldbuilding – 🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌
Characters – 🦌🦌🦌🦌
Pacing / Engagement – 🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌
Plot – 🦌🦌🦌🦌
Romance / Relationships – 🦌🦌🦌🦌
Themes / Emotions – 🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌

The Castaway and the Witch is a beautifully layered and emotional novella that blends myth, memory, and magic in a way that’s haunting and deeply human.

Nefele is a personable and loveable main character; she’s raw, uncertain, and powerful. Her journey of self-discovery is deeply moving, especially as she grapples with the labels thrust upon her; the idea of being called a "witch" before she’s even had the chance to decide who she really is (especially when she’s so young when she first arrives). That tension between identity and perception is handled with nuance, and gave the whole story a quiet emotional weight that I really loved.

The world-building is atmospheric and subtly mystical. The presence of the mysterious elk,
adds a beautiful (I didn’t find them demonic!), symbolic thread throughout confirming something larger, older, and unknowable is a at play. I also found it interesting how the story treated death, it’s present and significant, but never overly dark or morbid. There’s a sense of acceptance and reflection around it that felt very human.

Simon wasn’t a favorite character of mine, but I wonder if that discomfort stemmed from my concern for Nefele, which honestly just shows how carefully crafted the perspective is.

I absolutely loved the reflective storytelling style. The diary entries and interwoven narrative layers gave the book a folktale-meets-memory feel, and added so much depth. It really plays with the idea that stories shape us, and that a fairytale is what we make of it. That’s one of the book’s strongest themes: that truth and fiction are not always separate things, and that becoming yourself often means figuring out what version of the story you want to believe (or rewrite).

Overall, this is a quiet, powerful and refreshing novella . Perfect for readers who love character-driven fantasy, and stories about finding your voice in a world that wants to define it for you.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc :).

This was the first book I’ve read by Ioanna Papadopoulou, and I am absolutely in love with her writing.

It started as one of those “I’ll just read a few pages before work” kind of books, but very quickly I found myself wanting to read more—and had to resist until my shift was over. The opening scene, with Nefele staying in the boat, holding on to someone familiar and loved.

The island itself feels alive—slowly losing and forgetting pieces of yourself. Time passes, binding Nefele into its stories of the island. We see this happen to Nefele as she struggles to find her place, to decide where she belongs and what “home” means for her now. The words left behind by others before her painted a vivid picture of their lives on the island.

I adored Auntie, I loved the Elks and Simon, but most of all, I cherished Nefele herself. The Castaway and the Witch was a truly beautiful read.

From the very first page, The Castaway and the Witch had me hooked with its eerie, lyrical prose that felt almost like a spell. This novella begins with a young girl being stranded alone on a mysterious island that's brimming with magic. What might sound like the beginning of an adventurous tale unravels into a tragic story steeped in conflict, grief, guilt, and haunting violence.

The atmosphere is wonderfully vivid and unsettling. The magical island is loosely inspired by the mythical island of Aeaea. It comes alive with its strange creatures, enchantments, and secrets, becoming almost a character in its own right at some point. I loved how gothic and dreamlike everything felt, both beautiful and dangerous.

This novella is a reimagining of Circe which made it even more fascinating, and I loved exploring a much darker and ambiguous perspective, regarding this figure from Greek mythology.

The characters are complex and with quite a lot of depth, considering the length of the story. They are morally grey, so I couldn't help but constantly try to guess their motives.
The story reads as a dark fairytale with horror undertones, so everything fits that atmosphere. I have to admit, thought, that I wished we could have more magic shown on page or maybe more action, but please keep in mind this comes from a high fantasy lover, so it's more of a personal preference than anything else.

The Castaway and the Witch is the kind of story you could devour in one sitting, yet I deliberately lingered over it because I didn’t want it to end. If you enjoy gothic fairytales, mythology-inspired stories, and eerie atmospheres that stick with you, this is absolutely worth picking up!

I'm looking forward to reading more stories by Ioanna Papadopoulou

Thank you to the author, Ghost Orchid Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Castaway and the Witch is a haunting retelling of the Circe myth, set on the shifting island. The story begins with a young girl washing ashore in a small boat, her father’s corpse her only companion. From there, she must learn to survive in solitude with only the strange herd of elk that roam the island.

At under 200 pages, this novella is the kind of book you can devour in a single day. It blends dark fantasy with mythic undertones, offering a sparse but evocative world. The minimal background details leave much to the imagination, adding to the air of mystery and unease that lingers through the story. There are flickers of romance, threads of unexplained magic, and a creeping sense of isolation that makes the tale feel both intimate and unsettling.

If you’re drawn to retellings that lean into atmosphere and ambiguity rather than over-explaining their mythology, The Castaway and the Witch is worth picking up. It’s a dark, quiet, and strangely beautiful take on Circe’s island—one that lingers after you close the final page.