Truthwitch by Susan Dennard Book Review
Truthwitch is a fantasy novel by author Susan Dennard. I was surprised to discover that the Truthwitch series is listed as YA. The characters don’t seem young enough nor green enough to be YA, but then again there is heavy flirting but no sex (yet it is teased at once). The characters are all much too experienced in their various jobs compared to most in the YA genre. That being said, I didn’t find Truthwitch to be lacking, but rather the opposite. It is a well-polished piece with wonderfully crafted fight scenes, three-dimensional characters, and stellar world-building. Truthwitch is the first novel in the Witchlands series, and the first book from Dennard I’ve read. I discovered Truthwitch as one of Tor.com’s free novels. So far, Tor hasn’t let me down.
The novel opens with main characters, Safiya fon Hasstrel, a rare and closeted Truthwitch, and Iseult det Midenzi, a Threadwitch, up to their necks in trouble stemming from an accidental ambush of a powerful Guildmaster. Their target had been a handsome grifter who had conned Safiya out of her and Iseult’s savings. The funds were the means for the best friends to start a new life away from Venaza City. From the inner ass-kicking that Safiya is giving herself, the reader can glean that this isn’t the first time she’s been taken in by a pretty face and put herself and her Threadsister, Iseult in danger.
While fleeing from their latest dip in the deep end, they are faced not only with angry soldiers but with the Guildmaster’s ruthless Bloodwitch who has been sent to sniff them out. This sends them on a much different path than they ever expected. Now they don’t just need to leave town, they need to try and survive.
The pair goes into hiding until they can be smuggled out of the city. Split up by their Guildmasters to try and keep them safe, Iseult becomes restless as she in a rented room under a fake name. When she ventures out, she is spotted by the Bloodwitch and runs back to her the village where she was raised to seek shelter. Safiya is taken back to her family home where she meets Prince Merik Nihar, and an ever greater political plot to either start or detour a war.
The world-building in Truthwitch is meticulous right down to the characters’ names but might leave less patient readers scratching their heads. Dennard doesn’t handhold the reader with lengthy exposition explaining the magic system, the world’s history, or its wars and treatise. Instead, she shows you how the world works. Some of this sowing is achieved by allowing each character to be ignorant to different aspects of the events so bits and pieces can be revealed, or to just describe what is happening and allow the reader to be comfortable with not fully understanding, but place faith in the author that all will be made clear in the end.
Told from multiple viewpoints, Truthwitch gives the reader a full survey of the world, its many magics, and cultures. Whether it’s Safiya who rejects her noble roots to pursue her truthwitchery, Iseult, a hated Midenzi threadwitch (from what I gathered, the Midenzi people are akin to Romany peoples in our own world), Prince Meric who just wants to do right by his wartorn subjects, and Aeduan a Bloodwitch and fallen Carawen Monk desperate for his father’s approval. The plot is character-driven, to say the least, and Dennard holds the reins of the story firmly and never lets them slip. In fact, I liked Truthwitch so much, I bought the second book in the series, Windwitch right after finishing it.
