The Ash-Born Boy
by Victoria Schwab (Hyperion Books, 2012) [republished as by V.E. Schwab]; audiobook read by Heather Wilds (Blackstone, 2019)
![Book cover: “The Ash-Born Boy” by Victoria Schwab (Hyperion Books, 2012) [republished as by V.E. Schwab]; audiobook read by Heather Wilds (Blackstone, 2019)](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Schwab_Ash-Born-Boy.jpg)
A cheerless novelette serving as a companion piece to ‘The Near Witch’ but offering little more than an expansion of a tale told therein. A superstitious prejudice is called out as being unjust, but there is no catharsis beyond the character backstory.