Sightwitch by Susan Dennard

Author: Susan Dennard
Title: Sightwitch
Series: The Witchlands 
Publication: February 13, 2018
Publisher: Tor Teen
Genre: YA Fantasy
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Website | Twitter | Goodreads

From New York Times bestselling author Susan Dennard, Sightwitch is an illustrated novella set in the Witchlands and told through Ryber’s journal entries and sketches.

Before Safi and Iseult battled a Bloodwitch...

Before Merik returned from the dead…

Ryber Fortiza was a Sightwitch Sister at a secluded convent, waiting to be called by her goddess into the depths of the mountain. There she would receive the gift of foretelling. But when that call never comes, Ryber finds herself the only Sister without the Sight.

Years pass and Ryber’s misfit pain becomes a dull ache, until one day, Sisters who already possess the Sight are summoned into the mountain, never to return. Soon enough, Ryber is the only Sister left. Now, it is up to her to save her Sisters, though she does not have the Sight—and though she does not know what might await her inside the mountain.

On her journey underground, she encounters a young captain named Kullen Ikray, who has no memory of who he is or how he got there. Together, the two journey ever deeper in search of answers, their road filled with horrors, and what they find at the end of that road will alter the fate of the Witchlands forever.

Set a year before Truthwitch, Sightwitch is a companion novella that also serves as a set up to Bloodwitch, as well as an expansion of the Witchlands world.

Review

Ryber's told that she will be a powerful Sightwitch but when the times comes she is never called. Her Threadsister gets called under the mountain before she does and as much as she's happy for her she harbors a little jealousy because she wants it to be her. She misses her friend and when she doesn't return, she begins to worry. Each day more sight sisters are called until only she is left alone. Uncertain about her path Ryber discovers that her destiny does lie inside the mountain but not in the way she imagined.


I received an excerpt of this novella, which was almost the entire thing but it cut off right when things were getting good. Ryber's story is told through journal entries with some drawings, which I think is an intimate way to get to know this character and about her life. It felt much more real seeing things through her perspective and easier to relate to her emotionally. This was a quick read with a steady plot that builds mystery about the sight sisters and what may have befallen them inside the mountain. Overall, I think this is a book that anyone would enjoy that likes the Witchlands series and books set in a fantasy world.