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.
The Near Witch
by Victoria Schwab (Hyperion Books, 2011) [republished as by V.E. Schwab]; audiobook read by Heather Wilds (Blackstone, 2019)
![Book cover: “The Near Witch” by Victoria Schwab (Hyperion Books, 2011) [republished as by V.E. Schwab]; audiobook read by Heather Wilds (Blackstone, 2019)](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Schwab_Near-Witch.jpg)
A claustrophobic fantasy that paints the evils of superstitious fear (and a pig-headed patriarchy) but which makes a protracted novel out of what should have been a novelette—and then omits the more interesting of the final confrontations. Narrated with bizarre emphases.
A Darker Shade of Magic
by V.E. Schwab (Tor, 2015)
On the one hand, a beguiling and assured piece of fantasy world-building; on the other, a rehashing of old character tropes and a denouement that does little justice to the scenario thus fashioned. Very readable but not as epic as perhaps conceptualised.