So I feel like this added to the eerie feeling and mystery because it was unsettling. I found the portions from the antagonists’ perspectives to be written in a slightly confusing way, but this is because the reader-in a way-steps into the mind of the villain which is a bit of a chaotic place. I definitely tried to read this book during daylight hours, haha. The dark elements in this book were also well-written and definitely gave me goosebumps. I absolutely loved Latimer’s writing and how much she was able to express through the setting and the mood of the book alone. Or maybe she just did it in a way that wasn’t very obvious. And speaking of the setting, the first thing that I noticed when I started reading was the way in which the author had a way of describing the setting without using very many words to do so. The fact that Witches of Ash and Ruin is set in Ireland just ramped up my anticipation. I will generally pick up anything that has to do with witches (with the exception of the occasional book where a witch/or witches are cast as the antagonist/s). And when I saw the cover, it only encouraged me to read this book even more (some of my may have seen my minor freakout in my Insta stories when I unboxed this title, haha). I still remember when I first heard about Witches of Ash and Ruin. If they don’t stop the Butcher, one of them will be next. The killer’s motives are enmeshed in a complex web of witches and gods, and Dayna and Meiner soon find themselves at the center of it all. Dayna immediately finds herself at odds with the bewitchingly frustrating Meiner King, the granddaughter of their coven leader.Īnd then a witch turns up murdered at a local sacred site, along with the blood symbol of the Butcher of Manchester-an infamous serial killer whose trail has long gone cold. But all that really matters to her is ascending and finally, finally becoming a full witch-plans that are complicated when another coven, rumored to have a sordid history with black magic, arrives in town with premonitions of death. Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town and the return of her long-absent mother, who barely seems like a parent. Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group)Ī physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Witches of ash and ruin by e latimer