I'm not sure how to classify "The Witch House." I really thought that since the title of the book was, in fact, "The Witch House," there might be more focus on, explanation for, and activity tied to the actual, physical, house - but no. If you are looking for a real "haunted" house story, this book is NOT it! I can't even say that the book was particularly scary, even though it was moody and, other than Lola (who likes pink and sparkles), fairly dark. Although it was well-written from the standpoint of being interesting and kept me turning the pages, I found the plot very difficult to follow and the overall metaphor the author was trying to convey as heavy-handed and confusing more than clever. I feel like it could be a better book with some significant editing.

Specifically, "The Witch House" is about a middle school-aged girl (Jayla) whose father is out of the picture and who lives with her mother in a town far away from the only place the girl has ever known. Her mother remarries a man who is very distant and our young protagonist has difficulty relating to him. Basically, she has difficulty relating to anyone - until friendly Lola sort of "adopts" her at school the way extroverts have been adopting introverts forever. Lola asks precocious questions and, as noted previously, love sparkles and the color pink - pretty much the opposite of Jayla's all-black wardrobe, dour demeanor, and penchant for watching horror movies alone in her basement.

The plot, from here, is kind of...messy and all over the place. There's a witch in town that might be the school librarian (although we're really not ever sure), and people are being kidnapped into the shadow realm and replaced with witch versions of themselves, and Jayla's house - or at least, her kitchen - is half-haunted, and there is cat who I never quite figured out if it was alive and looked like a ghost, or was an actual ghost. Lola's parents abandon Lola so she stays with Jayla, and the girls are sucked into trying to fight the shadow realm and the fake witch-people. Or something like that. Basically, people we thought were good, aren't; similarly, people we thought were bad, turned out to be good. And some things were just back and forth and never quite categorized as one or the other - just, they were, then they weren't, then they were again, etc. Rinse and repeat.

I liked the characters - I found them to be realistic portrayals of pre-teen and teen girls (based on my own experience and that of raising three daughters.) I also realize that good characters can do bad things and bad ones can do good things, but every time I thought I had the plot figured out and knew the rules of the shadows and the boxes and the connections in the dark corridors filled with boxes - all aspects of the alternate world created by the author - I'd read a few more pages (or chapters) and find out I was wrong - I didn't understand it, at all.

Of course, part of that might be due to my own deficits, but at least part of it was due to the author's insistence on making the entire story a metaphor (I won't say a metaphor for what so as not to reveal any spoilers) even when some fact scenarios did not necessarily fit into the chosen metaphor. Let's just say there was some serious reaching going on by the author, and that although I recognized what she was trying to do, it was not a smooth conversion.

In the end notes (skip this paragraph if you don't want to know) the author does say that this book is, in part, based on her own childhood experiences. I think it would have been more effective as perhaps a two-part endeavor: A non-fiction version that closely resembles her own life, and a fictionalized version that is just a good story. Trying to mash the two together into one weakens both.

On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, I rate the individual elements of this story as follows:
Main Characters: 4 stars
Supporting Characters: 2 stars
Plot: 1 star
Pacing: 2 stars
Language: 3 stars
Setting: 2 stars
Grammar/etymology: 3 stars
Average: 2.4 stars out of 5

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The premise is unique and interesting and most of the characters were great, and the author obviously has tremendous writing talent. It's a shame this book did not live up to the promise of that talent. Still, I would definitely read other books by this author as I think, given some heavy editing and time, she will only get better with the plotting and pacing (the two real detractors here.) ( )

Great concept with fun characters and lots of interesting twists, but hard to follow. I loved the fact that you knew this was written from a middle schoolers point of view without having to be told. The dialogue and surroundings were spot on for how it felt to be in middle school. Overall an enjoyable fall read for any time of year!

I’m finding The Witch House difficult to efficiently recap. It is a middle grade book mostly told through the alternating journal entries of middle schoolers Jayla and Lola, and also there are witches! That’s the best I can manage, because TWH is way weirder and more experimental than a simple summary. It is a really cool and scary book. Like, imagine The Babadook but told from the perspective of the kid. That is the vibe, but there is more to it. TWH is a ride for sure and requires some active engagement from the reader, which I LOVE in a middle grade book. At the end there were some things left unexplained, which I appreciated. Once the scary thing is defanged with a description, it isn’t scary anymore, and I thought TWH did a great job sort of toeing that line between scariness and satisfying explanation. Absolutely recommend!
Thank you DeAnna Knippling and LibraryThing for the ARC!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily



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