In terms of style, that was my biggest gripe.  It’s a little much in the beginning of the book to be tossed about like that, mixed in with info-dumping in order to get the backstory of the witches and warlocks in.  Considering that information was trickled throughout the book, I don’t think it was necessary to have it dumped on the reader all at once in the beginning.

And like I said, there were a lot of flashbacks.  The only indication you’d get one is a triple space in the paragraphs.  Jarring at first, maybe the first chapter or so but by the end of the second and into the third, I’d pretty much settled into the constant shifting and even came to like it.  In all honestly, I was much more interested in the historical plot line than the current one.

What I like about it is it’s a dark book that isn’t filled with floofy teen stuff.  Nicole is probably the closest the book comes to that but even she levels out.  It’s gritter in my eyes (granted these eyes are still trying to read up on the young adult market so my opinion is more than likely stunted).  Holly (the protagonist) loses her parents and best friend in a freak white water rafting accident.  She was originally supposed to live with her dead friend’s mother but then she gets sick, hospitalized, and Holly has to stay with family in Seattle.  Little does she know that her bloodline and that of her aunt’s lover have had a tendency to clash over the centuries and each want the other dead.  Unfortunately only the lover, who’s an evil warlock, knows this.  Until Holly and Amanda, and eventually Nicole, figure it out.

Aside from the use of the world warlock (which I can’t stand), it’s not as cheesy as it sounds.  Not at all.  I found it entertaining and a pretty fast read but aside from that, it really just wasn’t my thing.  I kept aligning it with the likes of Charmed with all the fireballs and sisterly witchcraft and warlockiness and all of that.  I’ve only seen a handful of episodes of Charmed but stuff like that just isn’t my thing.  And neither is this book.  It’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s just not something I’d read any more than once.

What bothered me though was really nothing to do with the story itself but the apology the authors make to the real witches that they garnered their research from.  Why do they apologize?  Because they found out through their research that the smoke and mirrors magic that exists in the book they wrote doesn’t actually exist (or they knew that all long and just decided to use it anyway regardless).  It’s all a Hollywood manifestation that took the root of its work and twisted it to make it more interesting.

The thing is, I don’t think such showmanship is needed to make the story interesting.  Why rely so heavily on people’s stereotypes of witches and magic in order to keep them entertained and interested when that’s not how it is and just as interesting of a story can be had from the real stuff?  I was kind of put off by that.  That the only way they could make the information they found interesting to young readers was to put glitter on it and make it shine.  They obviously did their research but if they’d really done enough, they’d know that just such a story could exist without such fallacious mutations of the lore.

Hollywood witchcraft doesn’t do it for me to begin with so even without that teeny little introductory paragraph, I wouldn’t have been head over heels enthused about it anyway.  But I think that little snippet pushed me over the edge because every time a piece of showboating magic came along, I couldn’t help but think ‘why?  You now the truth and you now it can be scarier than these light shows.  So why are you doing this?’

I don’t know.  Maybe I’m a purist or fireworks just don’t impress me much.  Or both.  I thought it would have been a good book without the nonsensical stuff.  With it in, I think it cheapened the story and could even be seen as insulting to think that this is what kids would rather read than the “real” stuff.  Not all the kids go ‘ooo, pretty lights!” and gawk.