Uptown Oracle Reads… The Lost Witch | One Witch Must Fight in a Paranormal War

The Lost Witch
Melvin Burgess

(Affiliate Links)

Bea has started to hear and see things that no one else can – creatures, voices, visions. Then strangers visit Bea and tell her she is different: she has the rare powers of a witch. They warn her she is being hunted. Her parents think she is hallucinating and needs help. All Bea wants to do is get on with her life, and to get closer to Lars, the mysterious young man she has met at the skate park. But her life is in danger, and she must break free. The question is – who can she trust?

Carnegie Medal-winner Melvin Burgess returns with a powerful, thrilling fantasy for young adults about magic, myth and following your instincts.

I wanted to read The Lost Witch because I vividly remember reading Burning Issy by Melvin Burgess when I was much younger, and I remember enjoying it. Unfortunately The Lost Witch doesn’t live up to the expectations I had, and it felt very different to his earlier work. However, I would like caveat that I was probably 12 or 13 (So 10 years ago!) when I read Burning Issy so I had read less, and was less likely to review books.

The key thing about The Lost Witch is that it is a quick and easy read. The pacing is extremely fast, especially after Bea finds out she’s a witch and there’s witch hunters. Weirdly though, I found that the pace was almost too much. There are some action scenes which move very suddenly, and then you’re in the next chapter. 

I really enjoyed how the witches were written in this book. Each witch has their own specific powers, and everyone differs. These powers also don’t get passed down, so if one witch has a particularly helpful power, you kind of need to keep on their good side to hope they use it to help you out. I found this uniqueness of the witches helped draw me into the story, as I wanted to know what other powers they may have. 

Another thing I enjoyed about the book was that The Hunt, the witch hunters that sound similar to the Headless Hunt in many stories, try using magic against the witches. As it felt magical on both sides, the war that we’re introduced to felt like it had higher stakes. The bad guys also steal powers from the witches, which further helped my enjoyment of the magical systems in place.

Bea is our main character and she’s only 13 at the start of our story. She’s very plain, quite naive and doesn’t seem to understand what’s happening in some places. I didn’t really care for her as a character, and I found that despite 2 years passing in this book, she didn’t seem to develop as a character. Things happened to her, but she was still very much the same. I think the war storyline may have worked better if our main character was a witch that was born into the war and understood the powers, the hiding and the loss of family that is a risk. 

Bea is actually kidnapped in this book, and it contains multiple trigger warnings. First up is how mental health is handled, then there’s grooming and multiple types of abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual). The book takes quite dark turns and there doesn’t seem to be happiness at the end of the road. It’s very bleak, of course as we’re talking about a war.  But overall it’s probably for a much older teen if classed as YA.

Overall the book wasn’t awful, I enjoyed the overarching story and magic systems, it just wasn’t what I was expecting and it was very dark in places. But I’m definitely thinking of picking up more of Burgess’ work because I do think I like his writing style, and he does have creative ideas. 

Positives of The Lost Witch

• Magic system

Negatives of The Lost Witch

• Pacing
• Main character is dull