Sightwitch ★★★★★

It’s no secret that I love a good fantasy book, and Susan Dennard sure knows how to write one. Sightwitch has catapulted to the top of my fave books of 2018 list and I have a feeling it’s going to stay there for a while.

From New York Times bestselling author Susan Dennard, Sightwitch is an illustrated novella set in the Witchlands and told through Ryber’s journal entries and sketches.

Before Safi and Iseult battled a Bloodwitch…

Before Merik returned from the dead…

Ryber Fortiza was a Sightwitch Sister at a secluded convent, waiting to be called by her goddess into the depths of the mountain. There she would receive the gift of foretelling. But when that call never comes, Ryber finds herself the only Sister without the Sight.

Years pass and Ryber’s misfit pain becomes a dull ache, until one day, Sisters who already possess the Sight are summoned into the mountain, never to return. Soon enough, Ryber is the only Sister left. Now, it is up to her to save her Sisters, though she does not have the Sight—and though she does not know what might await her inside the mountain.

On her journey underground, she encounters a young captain named Kullen Ikray, who has no memory of who he is or how he got there. Together, the two journey ever deeper in search of answers, their road filled with horrors, and what they find at the end of that road will alter the fate of the Witchlands forever.

Set a year before Truthwitch, Sightwitch is a companion novella that also serves as a set up to Bloodwitch, as well as an expansion of the Witchlands world.

Companion novels or pre-quels are a hard thing to nail down. A lot of authors like to use them to retcon something or to reestablish canon. Sightwitch wasn’t that way. It took what we knew about the world and Ryber and expanded on it. We saw the world through a wider lens, learned more about the past than we did in the main series book, and came out of it richer for having read it.

The second I heard about Sightwitch getting published, I pre-ordered it that day. And it was a long wait to get it in my hands, but it was absolutely worth it.

I loved Ryber’s voice, I loved the interspersed stories from Eridysi, a sightwitch from hundreds of years ago, I loved everything.

Oh, and did I mention there were illustrations too?

They weren’t just illustrations depicting a scene we were reading, but it was supplementary, it built on our understanding of the story and how we could see what on the page even clearer.

Plus, I’m a big sucker for maps and art.

It was just a gorgeous book, okay?

The entire time I was reading, I just couldn’t wait to get back into the rest of the series and re-read the other books. It rekindled my love for the entire story all over again.

I 100000% recommend the Witchlands series since it’s a wonderful fantasy story, but also because Susan Dennard is just the bee’s knees.