The One We Burn is a sensational debut book about young blood witch name Ranka who tried to ended treaty with pretending to doing her duties to married human prince. The premise is interesting expecially when our FMC finally learned the real truth from peoples she thought as her mortal enemies. I like how author trying to provide diversity in characters expecially at the court. The pace is slower than my usually but still enjoyable and suitable with Ranka's narration. Ranka suffered since young age and badly traumatized. I feel sympathy, understand her angsty, and appreciate saw her character growing in whole story.

The writing style is smooth and easy to understand. Author can fleshed out her characters and delivered her story. I think need extra work on world building development because right now the book only scratches the surface all the potential. I enjoyed the banter between character, and wishes extra chemistry on the romance side.

Overall this isnt perfect but a solid enjoyable read from debut book. Halloween is near and I am glad got my hand on this book full of dark magic and bloody badass witches.

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton (Audio) and Netgalley for provided my copy. Really appreciate and my thoughts are my own

recieved this book as both pdf and audio as part of an advanced reader group in return for a honest review.

I was at frist drawn into the cover art. It was soo eye catching the powerful Great axe and around it the furry of fire.

The words just above the title
" I am the Weapon. Use me "

Together it was like a sirens call. I needed to know who or what they burned .Who was this weapon that was spoken of?

It turned out the ones they burned were witches. Children born with magic in their veins.
.

One such child was Ranka . Her magic was different from that of others it demanded sacrifice , it demanded a life. Ranka was a blood witch.

After her magic destroyed her life with her sister , she was found by the leader of Skra.

The old witch took her, claimed her for the coven and told her she would be strong and she would be powerful.
Her adoptive family the Skra coven took her and taught her to use her magic for the good of the coven.

Then she was named Bloodwinn. The plan was simple she would go to the Prince as part of the treaty between the Witches and non magic peoples and when her blood magic built within her she would kill the prince and her adoptive people as well as others would cease power and reclaim their lands . No more burning.

It seemed simple.

As a debut novel this is breath taking and utterly sensational. It was slightly slow to start but once it did...I couldn't put it down I had to know what was going to happen next. I had to know if Ranka survived.

Pure epic story telling. I expect we will be seeing great things from this talented wordsmith.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Ranka is a blood witch and she is supposed to marry a human prince, who is supposedly evil, in order to uphold a peace treaty between witches and humans. At first, she kept refusing, yet later on she gives up and agrees to marrying him: the only reason behind this change of heart was that, by getting closer to him, she could actually kill him and, hopefully, this would lead to a war. However, once she gets to know the prince and his sister, Ranka changes her mind as she understands they are not as evil as she thought.

I really wanted to like this novel and Ranka's story, but it was really hard for me to get into it. I did have to put it down a couple of times and had to come back to it because I just wasn't engaged enough. It didn't manage to interest me, not even a little bit and it felt disappointing as I was really looking forward to reading and liking it. Also, I found the writing pretty slow-paced. Such a pity.
However, I appreciated how the author talks about some important topics, such as mental health or coping with traumas.
Unfortunately, I found both the characters and their stories very plain and boring. Furthermore, I especially found Ranka to be really annoying and I felt as if she was complaining constantly throughout the entire book.

I am not going to comment about the controversy with poc as I am not entitled to say anything in regards.

My rating: 2.5/3!

A few things before we delve right into my thoughts about »The Ones We Burn«:

1. Yes, I know that the book is supposedly racist.
2. Yes, I also read it anyway.
3. No, as a white person it is not my place to comment on whether this book is racist or not and I don't want to but I thought it would be beneficial to talk a bit about what the book does/does not do anyway because before I read it I tried to find out what exactly the problem was and found it pretty hard to find reviews that talked about it. Between starting the book and finishing it there are more now a lot more positive and helpful reviews than a few weeks ago, where most reviews just said “1 star, I heard it’s racist”.
4. At the end I’ll link some reviews that discussed the book really well in my opinion.
5. People should stop giving 1 star reviews for books they haven't read. I get that we don't want to promote “problematic” books but rating/commenting on a book because of something one person said is… not great.
6. I’ll talk about the book itself first which will be spoiler free and the second part of the review will be spoilers and a bit more context regarding the supposed racism in the book.
7. If I say something wrong or hurtful in this review please let me know 💛

I wasn’t a huge fan of the author or anything before I picked this up, I just thought the book sounded interesting and it seemed like a really good autumn book - witches, blood magic, morally gray characters. And the book was all that, which is great. It’s also queer and I don't have enough sapphic fantasies in my life.

It’s YA but it is also quite dark which I personally loved but also just be aware that it gets a bit graphic (blood, gore etc.) and Ranka also is deeply traumatized and it was sometimes tough to read from her perspective and about what she went through. So, it’s more for older YA readers and I think this book could have also very well been adult and even a bit darker because the foundation was there, I probably would have liked it even more if it went to even darker places. But it is YA and it’s age appropriate and I’m not criticizing it for that.

I immediately liked the writing style when I began reading, my only little complaint is that maybe sometimes it reads a bit modern for the world the story is set in: the characters talk about biological warfare and adrenaline for example and it just felt weird in the setting to me because it’s a pretty technological not developed world. Some phrases just seemed a bit odd to me.

I was also a bit confused in the beginning, the first chapter seemed so random when you don’t know anything about the witches and the world but looking back it was a really good start to the book and I was fully invested by chapter 3 and didn’t want to put it down.

Ranka was such an interesting main character right from the beginning. It gets clear pretty fast that Ranka is an unreliable narrator; she lives in the mountains with her coven, a quite secluded life and she only knows what the leader, Ongrum, tells her. And obviously Ranka trusts her because Ongrum was the one who took her in, who gave her a place to live, a place where she found family and friends.

Rankas character development was great, how she began to question the things she was told, how she began to process her trauma instead of suppressing what happened to her/she did. Ranka felt so real and raw and I loved reading from her POV, even when she did stupid things because I get it. Rankas character was explained so well, all of her flaws and trauma and relationships and yeah, i just really really liked her and enjoyed reading about her.

The story itself was fast paced, the chapters pretty short which I appreciated and made me want to keep reading. The plot was solid, a bit predictable - for the reader, not Ranka, which was sometimes a bit frustrating but as I said, I absolutely get why Ranka did what she did and I liked that I understood her character so well. It was easy to understand her and still see the bigger picture and what was really going on. It made me root for her even more.

But I also have to admit I wasn’t 100% sold on the romance. I loved the relationships between Ranka, Galen, Aramis and Percy, a bit found family and especially Percy was lots of fun to read about. The dynamic between all of the characters was great, I just wasn’t totally feeling the romance and attraction between Ranka and Aramis. But that’s fine because this book isn’t romance heavy and it’s a minor complaint and maybe also a me-thing, not a the book-thing. The romance wasn’t bad and I love that the book is so queer, I just wasn’t 100% feeling it.

Another thing I wasn’t 100% sold on was the world building - the more I thought about it the less some things made sense to me and with that we get to some **spoilers:**

I think its the world building or more the lack of it here and there that let to the statement that TOWB is a book “in which the Black siblings in power are oppressing poor, helpless white ppl” ( [https://twitter.com/AshiaMonet/status/1541085622559035392](https://twitter.com/AshiaMonet/status/1541085622559035392))

Which is in my opinion just not what happened in the book.

- the main conflict of the book is humans and witches fighting against each other - but the thing is that we don't know exactly why? Are they afraid of each other? Why do they hate each other? I have no idea. But apparently they can't live next to each other at the beginning of the book. The thing is, that humans burn and kill witches but witches are also not innocent, its two species at war with each other. So, it is in my opinion not really one species suppressing another but that's probably debatable, it’s just not how I understood the story. I can't find the exact quote again but I think it’s said somewhere that neither witches nor humans are blameless in the conflict.
- the other thing is that witches and humans are both ethnically diverse, its not “the villainous humans are black and the poor witches are white”. And not even the people in power - meaning the royal family - is black or white. Aramis and Galen are Black but honestly, even from the synopsis it is obvious that these two are not the villains of the story and not oppressing anyone. And their parents: the king was white and the mother - a blood witch like Ranka - black.

»Had she trembled like Ranka now wanted to, or had the strode forward with certainty, brown face serene, Arlani robes a swirl at her feet as she accepted the pale hand of a boy king who carried hurricanes in his blood.”

So, are the previous king and queen the bad guys? Also not really in my opinion. For one, we have other villains in the book than dead people, and two, we only know Rankas POV and she only knows what others wanted her to know, so. Not the most reliable narrator regarding the politics of the land I think.
»I know the stories your people tell, of the wicked Skybreaker king and his treaty wife. Of the bloodthirsty, witch burning humans they rule. […] Alus and Lyra were not perfect - but they were not the storybook monsters either. They loved each other. They loved their children and their people even more. And most of the time we loved them back.«

The villains of the story are humans, yes. But not the royal family, not specifically Black people. As I said, Ranka is an unreliable narrator who goes through lots of trauma and gets emotionally abused again and again by the people she loves and so she thinks in the beginning that Aramis and Galen are the bad guys - but its pretty clear that we can't believe everything Ranka thinks. The emotional abuse is hinted at quite early on and honestly, even Ranka realizes pretty fast that she doesn't actually know anything about the twins.

I get that the skin color of the previous king and queen are only briefly mentioned and that its something you can easily miss but I think it’s important for the bigger picture of the book and the supposed reverse racism discussion.

So, getting back to the world building, that I found lacking:
Honestly, I couldn't really tell you anything about the world except that humans and witches have a hard time co-existing. I’m not even sure if Witchik and Isodal are two countries/kingdoms ore if Witchik is just a region of Isodal? Not sure. And if Witchik is its own country, do they have a ruler? Because it didn’t seem so. I have no idea how the world looks, a map would have been really helpful but also a bit more clearer information. (Maybe I’m also stupid and overlooked it, wouldn't want to rule that out.)

Another thing is that I don't know anything about the witches, which is a bit sad because our main character is a witch. Ranka is a blood witch and even after reading a whole book about her I’m not sure what exactly her powers allowed her to do. And the other witches? No idea what makes them witches, what they can do. Why are the humans so scared of them? Are there different kinds? Wouldn't I like to know.

Also, humans having magic seems to be a thing? At least Galen has some kind of wind magic.
»Different magics have different anchors - wind magic is tied to breath.«
So there are other kinds but what, no idea. Can everyone have magic? Galen inherited his from his father but Aramis didn't and she’s also not a witch. How do witches get their powers? At random? Do they also inherit their powers to their children? I have so many questions.

I wish the author would have fleshed out the world a bit more, I think it would have made some things a bit more clear. I absolutely enjoyed the book anyway but it bothered me too much to give it 5 stars.

Nonetheless, overall I am really happy I picked this book up despite so many 1 star reviews at the time because I enjoyed the book a lot and would recommend it.
Is is perfect? For me, no. I get why people are rating this lower but I personally just liked Ranka so much and had such a good time reading about her journey that I don't care about the lack in world building. Would that have made the book even better? Certainly but it was still a solid debut and I am curious to see what Rebecca Mix writes next.

Reviews I would recommend reading:

- [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4812626829?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4812626829?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1)
- [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4814072828?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4814072828?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1)
- [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4250568396](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4250568396)

Honestly, to say this was overwhelmingly good would be an understatement. My high hopes were lifted with each banter-filled, action-packed page.
First of all, I LOVED Ranka. That girl needs a hug and a touch of therapy, but I love her.
Aramis and Galen were the icing on an already amazing, queer cake, and Percy was the pinecone on top.
Rebecca's writing is simply divine, the dialogue is natural, funny and sharp, and while this is a dark novel at times, with themes of abuse, death (and the plague!) it never feels too dark. Ultimately, this is a book about survival, love, found family, and learning to love yourself. It's romantic, and sweet, and brutal and hopeful.

Mix misses the mark in this high fantasy novel. While an interesting premise, there is a severe lack of worldbuilding and character descriptions, relying on the reader to come to conclusions themselves. The novel promised to an epic tale but felt very lacklustre

I don't normally read fantasy, but the reason I requested this ARC is so I could review a book that I had actually read - unlike most of the reviews that have been logged so far on Goodreads.

I think it comes as no surprise that the book does not contain any of the racist/antisemitic elements that someone successfully started a smear campaign about. It is actually staggering how many people mindlessly followed that first accusation without checking for themselves. And in doing so, drove an excited young author away from the internet.

I hope this doesn't come across as rude, but Rebecca Mix isn't exactly an established name in writing (yet). She's had a couple of threads go viral, and they have been very funny, and I would wager that this is how most people became aware of her. Someone quite clearly took umbrage and decided that they would try and ruin her writing career before it starts, and the Goodreads rating very quickly dropped from 4.65 to 3.15 with no sign of recovering, from all the people who made a Goodreads account only so they could one-star this book and perpetuate the accusations.

The situation that the accuser has made up is so blatantly NOT present in the book, all it would take for people to verify these claims would be reading the first ten pages. Instead, we've had users withdraw their previous praise, all because someone made up a racist undertone to the book and they have just taken that as a fact instead of reflecting on their own reading experience. I read a couple of other books fairly recently which mentioned blood magic. Neither was targeted to this extent, or at all, which really drives the point home that this is a personal attack on this particular author. Shockingly, if people have to go back and edit their reviews because they "hadn't realised" that something was racist, chances are it wasn't racist in the first place.

Yes there is an oppressor and an oppressed group in this book - but neither is entirely white or entirely Black. Race isn't what divides the characters in this book and the main conflict and power dynamic is between humans and witches, both of which span several races and genders. Which is made clear from, like, chapter 1.

It is a good story - if a little long - told from the point of view of Ranka, who is the only living blood witch of her generation and therefore must be married to the human prince as established by a peace treaty. There are 4 central characters, all teenagers, with fairly distinct voices which is often easier to achieve in 3rd person narration, and the prose flows really well in spite of being repetitive at times (which I think is by choice for once, as opposed to sloppy editing).

This book is one big allegory for being brought up by a narcissistic parent (or several authority figures in the case of Ranka), yes it's a little heavy handed at times and feels like it's regurgitating instagram infographics about childhood trauma *but* I also appreciate that writing this must have been cathartic for the author as she was processing her own abuse through her characters.

I would have rated this 4 stars if I was rating it in a vacuum, but I am rating it 5 to counteract all of the fake reviews from people who haven't read a single word of it.

With thanks to Hodder&Stoughton and Netgalley UK for the e-ARC of this book.

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Rebecca Mix for the advanced copy of The Ones We Burn via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel.

I will not be discussing anything to do with any controversy discussed on social media regarding this book regarding racism or religious undertones. However, due to the controversy, I will not be reviewing this book outside of NetGalley.

The Ones We Burn is a relatively fast-paced, plot-driven novel which is heavy on the gore and body horror. It is LGBTQIA+ themed, highly inclusive and very diverse, at times to the detriment of the story. It is currently ‘the season of the witch’ and it did sometimes feel like the author was on a box-ticking exercise to try to please as many audiences as possible, trying to include as many identities, tropes, sexualities, interests, etc, into the storyline as possible.

Altogether, this made the book feel cramped and stilted in places. Although contradictory, it was both bulky and empty. Bulky with representation, it was nevertheless empty with meaning. The true feeling behind the characters was lacking.

This is, of course, personal for me. I prefer character-driven books over plot-driven ones. If you prefer a plot-driven story, you may enjoy this more. However, do expect to figure out the ending well in advance. As long as you are ok with not being surprised, you should reasonably enjoy this.

Overall, this book was ‘ok’. It could have been groundbreaking. Some of the ideas were unique. If the characters had been fleshed out and had they had depth of feelings, they could have torn my heart out and stomped all over it. But as it was, it just left me feeling ‘meh’, and it took me twice as long as usual to finish the book than it usually does.

Moods: dark

Tropes: enemies to lovers, forced proximity, peril, redemption/dark past, arranged marriage

Pace: fast

Character development: weak

Plot or character driven: plot

Diversity: high

Spice: 1/5

Trigger warnings: Animal death, Blood/Gore, Child abuse, Death, Death of a family member, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Physical or mental abuse, Physical illness, Violence

Rating 3/5

This book was an OK read for me. I enjoyed and warmed to the characters quite easily however some of them did not feel as developed as I wanted them to be. I feel like only two characters - Ranka and Amaris - were paid particular attention to throughout the writing process by the author and that the others were just "additional pieces" to add something to the story. This meant that I found it very difficult to understand their foothold in the book and the plotline itself so I wish this had been developed a little more.

There was a lot of aspects of the book which, I felt, could have been explored a lot more to further deepen the plotline and bring about further understanding around some of the actions of the characters. In particular, I would have liked the magic element and the covens to be explored alongside some historical background on how the treaty came to be. At times it just felt as though I had been plunged into a world and expected to know what is going on.

I found the plotline to be creative and different to what I have previously and I enjoyed a bit of originality around the whole book. Again, this could have been developed more with the suggestions above but all-in-all it was adequate enough and enjoyable enough.

Some of the chapters simply felt like filler-chapters, as if the author wasn't sure what to put in them and at times I felt out of touch with the book due to this. Alongside this, information was given but then directly challenged by another piece of information. Notably when it is said that it is "rare" for a witch to challenge her leader but then a leader has been challenged "17 times in 13 years". This could have been looked at to make the book flow better.

All in all, the writing was solid and the themes around self-worth, trauma and mental health were well-developed and ingrained in all of the characters despite some of them simply being fillers. I really enjoyed the character development of Ranka throughout.

I want to do this review in two parts: one addressing the controversy, which at this point is unavoidable, and a second on the story and book itself.

- Regarding the controversy: First of, I am neither jewish nor black, so I want to be very clear that this is just my humble representation of what I have read, but I believe it is wiser to trust Jewish and Black reviewers as to how they consider the book to be. It is not my intention to take away from their voices.

I want to address two things:
1) The reverse racism fantasy accusation:
I want to know why people who call it that do, for real, DM me, let’s have a chat, because this might be me being absolutely clueless.
From my understanding, the issue is that the two royals oppressing the witches are black and the witches are white. Now, having read the book, this is not accurate, factually.
I took notes from different parts of the texts, and while the mentions are subtle and could have been more visible, there is racial diversity on both sides. Witches are not all white, some being described by the mention of brown hands and so on. The last bloodwinn witch is described as brown too. On the “oppressors” side, the king before was described as a pale boy, guards are described as brown and pale, kings mages are described as white, nobles are coded as white.
So, as much as I can tell from sticking to the text, there is diversity on BOTH sides.
Are the royals oppressors? Spoiler, no. Even before we actually find that out, the text is very clear in describing them as kind and entirely different from what Ranka imagined.
Based on that, I can’t see what these reviews said I would, this is not black oppressing white by any means. At most, I think the author was very preoccupied with having diversity and went about it awkwardly: in her attempt to be diverse and “color-blind”, she failed at representing it in an appropriate manner. While I understand how handling this that way is hurtful, I do believe that maybe there can be room for discussion without throwing the author away, but then again, what do I know.

2) The antisemitism claims:
I have no way of knowing this. I had no knowledge of blood libel before reading the reviews, I’m not entirely sure I understand, and I know jewish reviewers are torn on this. From my understanding, Ranka’s magic isn’t based on blood or sacrifice, the reason she is called a blood-witch is because her magic runs in her blood, making her stronger, faster, but also murderous. Her magic makes her powerful but also urges her to kill, and is, eventually, supposed to kill her. Ranka herself is not jewish-coded, and has no stereotypical physical attributes that indicate so. Honestly, if someone hadn’t pointed it out, I would have never thought about anything jewish-related while reading this. And I’ve seen many instances of blood magic in fiction, including Avatar (Blood bending), and I had no idea about the history of blood libel. On that front, I will humbly say that I don’t BELIEVE this is antisemitic, but again, I can’t be the one to make that call.


Alright, now for the book.

The plot and the characters were okay, at times very good. I liked Percy, and the dialogue, if a bit on the nose, was fun. I think it was a little bit over narrated, to a point where I would skip paragraphs because the internal monologue was just re-repeating, and re-explaining everything that we could have figured out naturally. The romance was fine….the issue being that the skip was both too subtle and too abrupt. Like, the moments where the FMC starts to feel something, it’s very pointed out and you immediately knew what the author was implying but it didn’t feel organic enough. Then suddenly they’re kissing but then nothing much happens…It made me feel both happy for the lesbian representation and a bid underwhelmed.

I’ll be honest, the controversy gave me so much anxiety, it tainted my reading of the book. I couldn’t really get into the story because I kept trying to see if the claims were correct, because I was scared to get into a book that was hurting people.
I don’t think the book is bad, honestly. The writing is okay, the plot is interesting, and the world building holds up, especially for a first book. The issue is, as has been pointed out in other reviews, that emotional moments didn’t feel emotional enough, even though you could tell what the author was going for. And that the pacing was a bit fast and loose and that the plot never seemed to become concrete enough until the second half. It felt a bit awkward.
But honestly, I think this is a good YA book, it just didn’t draw me in personally. I kept putting it down and it kept feeling like a chore to pick it up. It’s a shame, because at times, the action was interesting, the writing was good, I liked the characters... it just felt a bit like something was missing. But again, outside of the controversy, this is a good YA book, it just could have used better editing.

Another issue is that, when I read medieval type fantasy, while I don’t mind some modern words to come out (“fuck” being one, I don’t care), if it’s too much, it gets me out of the mood, and it ruins it for me.

What I really hope the publisher will do before the book comes out is:
- To ACTUALLY address the controversy, get the sensitivity reader out there and explain her POV too, get the author to acknowledge that she may have been incredibly clumsy in her attempt to create something progressive. It’s good that she tried, hell, I would have loved a lesbian love story in fantasy when I was a young closeted bisexual girl who loved dragons and princesses. And I know that for POC, having diversity in fiction, and handled well, is absolutely needed. I read that the author does not intend on changing a thing by publication, and in a way I do understand. From my reading of the book I don’t think any harm was intended, and I have seen books with much, much, much more problematic representation that flew under the radar. But address the controversy, listen to reviewers and actually engage with the community instead of allowing for this book to be thrown away because no one is willing to discuss the issue at hand.

Again, this writer and book have so much potential, but idk what the hell happened with the controversy and at this point, I feel like whoever was in charge of the publishing should have been more aware of the potential controversy.

At this point i'm afraid to even post a review on goodreads, and I definetly will not push my luck by posting on Instagram.

Leaving aside all the drama on twitter, I thought I'd go into this without any preconceptions and just read it for the YA fantasy it is. I wanted something easy to read and entertaining. And while to a certain extent this was enjoyable, I don't think it's outstanding. The writing is OK and I found the political aspects of the story intriguing, however I didn't really get any emotional connections with the characters, although I did like that Ranka is more than just one dimensional and morally grey. They go through a lot, suffer a lot and this makes them not entirely honest or righteous in their decision making. I also liked the power dynamics of Galen and Aramis. It's just a shame the antagonist didn't get the same treatment. I also found the plot rather generic.

An OK YA fantasy, that I think needs to be judged after reading to form an opinion of it.

I really liked and was intrigued by the synopsis of this book, but after hearing about the controversy surrounding it and the problematic content, I am not sure that I would like to read it anymore

There is a common theme in my reading experiences lately regarding books that are super popular on booktok written by authors that are more-or-less popular social media personas. That common theme is that they disappoint me, and sadly, "The Ones We Burn" is not an outlier here.

I now know there is a lot of discourse surrounding this book and certain elements in its narrative, but I didn't know about that before I finished it and I don't feel qualified to comment on it, so I encourage everyone to read up on these issues in reviews by poc readers.

Even apart from any such issues, this book is just. Not good. It tells the story of Ranka, a blood witch (which is apparently the most powerful kind of witch, though I couldn't tell you what other kinds of witches there are) who is supposed to marry an evil human prince in order to uphold a peace treaty. After refusing at first, she later accepts to pretend to agree in order to get close enough to the prince to kill him, possibly leading to war among the humans. Obviously, she changes her mind about the killing later on because these evil royals are not as evil as she thought.

All of this is told in such an incredibly heavy-handed and over-narrated way that at no point at all was I emotionally engaged or even just interested in what was going on. Everything is narrated in a rather bland, distanced narrative voice, nothing ever comes alive. The characters are not allowed to speak and to be heard by the readers, they remain written words on a page until the end. We are told that Ranka has these important relationships with people but they are never felt, they never exist beyond the narration. The romance suffers from it as well, as it is just told to us instead of developing organically between Ranka and the princess, Aramis, instead of being shown in their interaction.

Scenes that should be emotional are just boring because all of it is tell-don't-show. "Twists" are incredibly obvious because the narration is so heavy-handed (a character later to be revealed as a Bad Guy looks "like he has secrets" in a conversation with Ranka where he does very suspicious things, just to name one example). Nothing in this book ever surprised me because it was so clear where everything was headed at any time. Basically the first time Ranka meets the prince she is supposed to kill, the prince she is convinced is an evil despot who kidnapped her friend and kind-of-surrogate-sister, we are told how kind and sweet and gentle and absolutely not evil he is. Ranka does not discover this for herself throughout the story, we are simply told it is so, completely taking away any excitement and mystery of the kill-the-prince-storyline. No wonder I forgot that was even a thing halfway through the book. This is just one example of plot points that are rendered completely void by the narration, and of that there are many. Things that should mean something are simply irrelevant and insignificant, like Ranka's past with her sister or her relationship with her aforementioned surrogate sister and so on and so forth. None of it really means anything, and so none of it made me care.

I'm frankly very surprised this gets published as-is and I wonder if any editor ever seriously looked at it. It's a badly constructed story that fails to engage its readers in any way, it's overnarrated and badly paced, and it's a shame because there are some ideas in the book that I actually found kind of cool. I liked the general idea about witches, I liked Percy's dragon-like powers though they were never really explored. There are bits and pieces that have potential, but the execution is very weak. I barely made it through the book and almost dnf'd it many times. Maybe with some better editing and improved writing this could become an okay story, but as it is, it's sadly a 1 star read for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Right now i dont feel comfortable as to give an opinion given all there has been going around this book. Was there true in the reviews? Yes. Was there opinions that were not entirelly true or just taken without context or that were developed better later?? yes.

Refer to this reviews for in depth thoughts please.

- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4812626829
- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4810285214
-https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4814072828?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
-https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4015477149?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1

3.5 stars
Ranka is a blood-witch in a world with a fragile alliance between humans and witches. She is named as the Bloodwinn and has to marry the heir of the Sunra’s throne to keep the treaty. Her coven asks her to go, but instead of marrying the Prince, they ask her to kill him. When Ranka arrives in the city, she finds that the Sunra family aren’t quite who she has been led to believe.

I think this is a good fantasy book. The magic is particularly interesting, with Ranka’s (the MC) magic literally craving death. There are other characters with different and intriguing magic too, and I wish it had been explored a bit more.

The plot is pretty straightforward, and while I guessed most of the twists, they were entertaining enough with betrayals, misconceptions and lies.

The writing was solid too, very easy to read and I flew through the pages. The themes of self-worth, and the conversations around trauma and mental health were well written.

I liked the characters well enough too, especially Ranka and Aramis. The rest of them felt a bit flat for me, and though they were all very distinct from each other I didn't connect with them much. I am also not convinced on the enemies-to-lovers aspect, as I didn’t see much enmity past a few arguments, but romance is something I can take or leave anyway, so it didn’t bother me much.

This book is a standalone, and I feel like it suffered for it. There were so many things that I wish could have been explored further, and characters I wanted to understand more of. However, the author had said that there may be more stories in this world, so we shall see!

A final review note: this book is quite violent and has a lot of body horror, and I am very surprised to see it is technically for teens.

I want to finish by stating that I am aware of the complaints surrounding the book, but am not going to be adding my voice because it is not my place to say if this book is or is not racist etc. Check own voices reviews if you feel you want to know more.

The Ones We Burn
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Rebecca Mix
⭐️

The synopsis of this book sounded great but I have to admit, I was disappointed.

It's meant to be based on the enemies to lovers trope but the main characters, don't even hate each other. They argue a couple of times and then fall for each other which put me off.

The pacing was slow and I did put it down a few times and had to come back to it because I just wasn't engaged enough.

I wish there was more magic and history/world building because I was left a little confused sometimes and some of the themes themselves made me uncomfortable, especially the claims of reverse racism and potential antisemitism.

The writing style itself was fine but ultimately this book isn't for me. If you're thinking about reading this I would suggest reading some reviews first and checking out the TWs.

*Thank you to @netgalley and the publishers hodder and Stoughton for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

to address the elephant in the room: no, i do not think that this book is racist or promotes white supremacy. the Black royals who are "oppressing" the witches are very clearly framed as the main characters and heroes of the story, even when ranka, the main character, is biased against them at the beginning due to the abuse and conditioning she's suffered since she was a child. without getting into spoilers, the villains in the series are white, and it's made very clear early on that the Black royals are just kids who have been manipulated by the adults around them. additionally, witchik, ranka's kingdom, and isodal, the human kingdom, are multiracial, so i think viewing their conflict through a racial lens would be unnuanced. however, i am not Black, so i encourage you to seek out reviews from Black people who have read this book.

i also want to say that this book does not contain any blood libel or antisemitic tropes (i've consulted with my jewish friends on the matter). ranka's magic is called blood-magic, but there is no ritual bloodletting involved. it's called that because it compels her to take lives, and it makes her stronger and more impervious to pain. moreover, ranka is not jew-coded. she doesn't have curly hair, a hooked nose, or olive skin, and the culture she comes from isn't jew-coded in the slightest.

now, onto my actual review: this book has heartwarming themes of friendship, breaking free of abuse, and realizing what love truly is. however, i have a bit of a gripe with how this book is marketed by the author. becca mix is super funny and nice, but i dislike how she marketed aramis and ranka as intense enemies to lovers, because ranka and aramis BARELY dislike each other. they argue about two times and even then the current of attraction between them is very obvious. as a fan of the enemies to lovers trope who has been catfished way too many times, i am TIRED.

this book is supposed to be set in the pre industrial era (and i'm saying this with a lot of confusion because i could not get an accurate grasp of the time period this book takes place in, but whatever, it's a second world fantasy), but the characters constantly used modern lingo that took me out of the story. I KNOW, this is a second world fantasy with witches and magic, but modern lingo in a pre industrial setting is super weird. why did a character describe another character as "unhinged" in the context that we would use it in the 21st century? at one point, someone gives ranka the finger. percy calls ranka a "useless lesbian." why does the word "lesbian" exist in this world?? did this world also have an island called lesbos wherein a poet called sappho waxed poetic about her attraction to women? i am confusion. also, i found percy annoying. i mean, the characters find him annoying, but it's clear mix wrote him with the intention of him becoming a fan favorite. his quips felt so out of place and forced. 😭 when percy randomly blurted out "i'm too pretty to die" after being beaten and betrayed, i cringed so hard.

also, i might just be stupid, but i had a hard time grasping the logistics of the villains' plans and one of the villains' motivations.

as you can tell, my gripes with TOWB can be boiled down to my own personal preferences. after reading adult fantasy and encountering complex, immersive worlds and interesting morally gray characters, ya fantasy just doesn't cut it for me anymore. i only picked my netgalley arc up because i wanted to see if the accusations of this book being a reverse racism fantasy were true or not. i'm not the right audience for this book, and that's okay because i think it'll resonate with a lot of teens.

Hmm, I was really looking forward to this book and although it was enjoyable I was left a little disappointed. I love magical books and there wasn’t enough of that to me, the main character was a little bland and morally grey but I still enjoyed some of the storylines and plot developments, just the execution fell a tad short for me!

So my views on this book, I enjoyed the story but it felt a little slow at points, it wasn’t pulling me to read it all the time, so took me a little while to finish it.

I really enjoy the main characters and the relationships between them. I really enjoyed chapters with the Aramis and Ranka interactions.

The magic was quite a weak aspect of this story in my eyes so if you are reading this for magic, you will probably be disappointed.

Enjoyable but a little stretched out.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the egalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix was one of my most anticipated releases for 2022, I was excited by the idea of an assassination plot waylaid by sapphic love and the purported high stakes of a community pushed to the brink by a mysterious plague.

I literally checked for it on edelweiss everyday for months!

Alas, the twitter controversy surrounding this book sparked then raged into an inferno all while the author remained silent about the claims of ‘reverse racism’ in her debut.

As a black reader this saddened me greatly, I’m always cautiously excited by books featuring diverse characters when they’re written by white authors, hoping that for once we would get a portrayal that isn’t deeply offensive and harmful.

YA’s audience is teenagers, and I think that we, as adult (early) reviewers need to be more diligent and more analytical in our reading and reviewing of these books, especially when they try to tackle themes such as the ones here.

Enough soapboxing, and onto the actual review.

TOWB is a pleasantly complex story. It attempts at themes of abuse, manipulation, overcoming childhood trauma, self acceptance, forgiveness and love; TOWB felt like such a thoughtfully written story in some parts, whilst failing and being so misguided at others.

Seems like a case of doing too much with too little space (just one book) but also there were parts in which the pacing was off, and months where nothing happened passed by in the span of a page?

Ranka is the beating heart and driver of this story. She’s a Witchik blood-witch, the last known one in the North, a position and power that isolates her from those who should care for her — as more than a weapon to be used — the most. As she is the only one the witches can use to continue the Bloodwinn treaty which links the humans and witches in blood and marriage and is supposed to serve as a beacon of cooperation and peace between the two groups.

But the treaty is not worth the paper it’s signed on.

Witchik witches are starved and hunted, the Skra troupe forced to the northernmost cold and barren tundra, their sovereign lands beset with pillagers and thieves after their copper and elk.

So we’re all on Ranka’s side when her best friend, confidant and only tie to community, is stolen and she decides to fully embrace the title of BloodWinn, travel to the capital to save her friend and volunteer to carry out assassination.

Ranka is painted as this person who’s committed many wrongs and fought in violent skirmishes with humans (we’re told, but never see), she’s tired of it all, and longs only for life with her sisters and peace, so her fury-filled stomp back into the fray is a very bittersweet decision, and I certainly felt for her.

We find out very quickly that the image of Seaswept, Ongrum depicted, especially about the prince standing to inherit it all and his sister, was just a cruel mirage of the real thing.

It’s here, in Seaswept, that Ranka finds true friends, a home and understanding, which is a source of conflict and heartache for her. The decision of who she stands with and the comprehension who stands with her, regardless of her past, of her witchery, is one that is fraught and this allegory for victims of abuse was very visceral and one of the better developments of the book. I think that real care was taken with this aspect of TOWB.

Recognizing the importance of self worth, and that to save the world, maybe start by wanting to and saving yourself by breaking the chains of abuse are at the heart of this story, and probably would have stood very strongly on its own.

Where the cracks in this came, was from the very foundations. When writing about oppression, a lot of writers take “inspiration” from the real life past and continuing oppression of marginalized communities, and usually rip the methods of oppression out but strip it out all context and meaning and white-wash it.

This is world in which magic exists, and is celebrated, where humans can be born of witches and vice-versa, where the only difference between ‘humans’ and ‘witches’ is that for witches their magic is innate, in their bodies, that are stronger, tougher and live longer and for humans their magic effects and mimics the elements.

I know that humans look for petite differences and sameness to form their little cliques, but we weren’t given enough history of this world to understand why a conflict between these two factions even exists! Much less a treaty to solve the problem involving the marriage of much hated and reviled witches into the royal ruling family???

Another issue I had, and do have when writers write outside of their experience, is that they create characters, like Galen and Aramis, their diversity is just skin deep— or shallow as it was. There is a lack of any cultural signifiers, any distinction from a generic white protagonist in the same position, that would make them even the tiniest relatable to me as a black reader.

And in a story like this where they are the rulers of a kingdom violently oppressing another— whether they themselves have charming personalities, want to save the sick and infirm, are ‘soft bois’ with eyes easily filled with tears, what is the point being made by making their skin colour different from Ranka’s?

Is it any wonder that this is being called a ‘reverse racism fantasy’. On the surface, the face of the oppressors are black twins and the face of the oppressed is a white, blonde female scared of her own power and fragile in so many ways.

But is it actually? Better minds that I have broken this down on goodreads and twitter.

Spoiler

What actually offended me, was being lead around by the author on what to think and who to root for— and having to root for an oppressive force? Having the villains of the story end up being the very witches being oppressed ????

With the way the story was written, it ended up being commentary on how both sides of an issue, no matter who’s right or wrong, can do horrible things. Which ties in to the vilification marginalized communities get when they merely stand up for themselves.

Galen and Aramis being the scions of a powerful country, trained up from birth to rule, but somehow unable to call upon enough power to even know about, much less tackle the inequality present off the beaten path of their own society didn’t gel well with me.

I was clearly supposed to have great sympathy for Galen, and view him as some sort of victim of circumstance, a boy who doesn’t want the mantle of leadership because of the tough decisions involved, and feels free to ignore and turn a blind eye to whatever is going on in his country rather than try to help regardless.

End of Spoiler

All in all, this was a pretty frustrating read. I liked the prose, and the writing itself I found to be very readable, with the themes of self-love and difficulties of prolonged abuse and what you do to survive in the moment and how to deal with the emotional fallout of your own harmful actions and the non-linearity of healing being handled beautifully, I hope that this book will resonate with those it’s dedicated to. However, I was let down by the world building which was lackluster and unclear, I didn’t have a well formed feel of how this world and it’s magic worked, the much anticipated enemies to reluctant allies to lovers and back dynamic fell flat, even a knife to a throat scene being super cringe, missing that vital and tumultuous chemistry that carries such scenes and the shaky conversation about morality in the response of the marginalized to oppressive violence.