Virginia Boecker
Series: The Witch Hunter, #2
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Goodreads
Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the eARC I received via NetGalley!
Last year when I read The Witch Hunter I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, the fact that I loved the book was the only thing I remembered about it when I approached its sequel. While some things came back to me as I was reading The King Slayer, I spent a lot of the time I was reading trying to grasp at vague memories from the previous book. I wish I could have remembered more or had reread The Witch Hunter before going into The King Slayer because I think it would have helped me to enjoy it more.
Since I remembered very little going into The King Slayer, I spent a lot of time trying to grasp onto the characters that I had loved, according to my review of The Witch Hunter. I enjoyed how much Elizabeth evolved throughout the book. After having her entire world view changed in The Witch Hunter, I didn't expect to see her change as much as she did, but given some of the events near the end of the previous book as well as some revelations in The King Slayer, Elizabeth and John had much to work through. I didn't find either of the characters super compelling, but I enjoyed their growth.
In The King Slayer, we also get our first real glimpse at Malcolm, the king. To be honest, I wasn't really satisfied with the way he was portrayed, particularly in regards to some things brought up in the previous book. Additionally, I wish George had been more present in this book. The one character I mentioned really enjoying and wanting more of in my The Witch Hunter review was George, and he was almost entirely absent from the book.
One thing I can say for certain is that The King Slayer did not disappoint when it comes to steady action and excitement. There were so many twists and turns throughout this book before it reached the end. However, despite all this excitement, I found that I wasn't particularly invested. The characters were not as interesting to me in this installment as they were in the previous, so I had trouble caring what happened to them, especially because, knowing this was the finale, I was pretty confident everything was going to work out.
Overall, The King Slayer is not a bad finale to the duology - it is action packed, and the magical element of the book becomes even more interesting as the plot progresses. I think the main thing that took away from the book for me was that the beginning of the book could have done more to support my memory of The Witch Hunter. The Witch Hunter series is definitely worth a read, but I highly recommend reading the books close together or rereading the first book before moving on to The King Slayer.
- Kiersten
Do you reread books before reading the sequel?
Let us know in the comments!
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