The Witch With No Name – Book Review

The Witch With No Name (The Hollows, #13)

by Kim Harrison

★★★

 

Expectation

This is the last book in The Hollows book series. I had it for a few years now without reading it. I did not the series to be over and have postponed reading it. This book series was with me for almost a decade and a half. I have went trough some tough times reading these books and have grown to love the characters quite a bit. It has been a few years since I’ve read the previous book and I was not sure what to expect. I had no expectations for the book series finale and was open to anything. I have finally picked out this book for a reading challenge I made to read more books I own and pushed it to the top of the reading list.

Summary

I had some trouble getting into this book. I guess I let too much time to pass since reading the previous one in the series. Other than the characters not much else seemed all that familiar. I remember having issues with the urban fantasy world the author has build for her characters. The main character starts out as a witch in a world full of many different fantastical creatures. The witches, the elves, the vampires and the demons are just some of the creatures the author has created and added her own mark and flavor to them. The plot of the whole series spans over just a few years but the world the author has built has a long history and culture of the mentioned fantastical species. I remember being shocked at the outright dystopian setting of the books being revealed in one of the previous books. I had some difficulties understanding the magic and the metaphysics of the characters and the world in general.

This was painfully clear to me while I was reading this last book of the series. The plot has come to a boiling point of the metaphysical forces and I could not keep up with it all. I spent a big part of this book fumbling to understand all that the author had to say in this book. 

The saving grace for me were the characters I still loved. They were as dear as I remember them to be. Their complex relationships were the only part of this book I actually enjoyed reading about. There were some high drama moments through the books that threatened to topple everything down and the sometimes pathetic state of doubt the main character found herself in at times was a bit annoying.

Conclusion

I guess this serves as a lesson for me not to let so much time pass between reading the books. I felt totally out of sync with this book and just could not make myself enjoy it as much as I did the others. I decided to concentrate myself on the good things and all the quotable parts of the book series before deciding on a three star rating.

The ending has left me feeling down and not pleased at all. After reading this last book I got the sudden urge to sell the whole series and be done with it. I still have the Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond short story collection that goes with it to read through but now I’m not so sure about it anymore.