Synopsis
The Holly King is coming, and you’re on his list . . .
It’s December 1940, and Christmas has come to Woodville. Faye Bright is looking forward to a good old knees-up after a year of supernatural mayhem and Luftwaffe air raids, but it seems glad tidings are in short supply.
Already contending with food rationing and sky-high beer prices, the village is upended by the arrival of the Holly King, an ancient power bent on reclaiming his woodland domain. No mortal magic can stand in his way.
As the winter solstice draws in and the villagers fall under the Holly King’s spell, Faye, Bertie and the witches race to prevent his sinister Feast of Fools from reaching its deadly conclusion. But when terrible truths threaten to tear them apart, can they confront the mistakes of the past to save the village from destruction?
Or has Woodville seen its last Christmas?
Review
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.
I hadn’t read any of Mark Stay’s books before The Holly King, but I was intrigued by the premise of the book, and I love my historical fantasy books. After reading this book, I’ll definitely be looking into reading Mark Stay’s other books, particularly his Witches of Woodville books. This book felt as though it was bursting with magic from the first page. Stay’s writing is infused with this sense of magic and wonder throughout, and I never found myself becoming bored or thinking that any part of the book was dull or a drag.
I’m sure that coming into this series at Book 4 probably puts me at a disadvantage to those who have been reading this book from the start of the series, but I never felt as though I was at a disadvantage because Stay’s writing makes it easy to immerse yourself in the world he’s created and pick things up quite quickly.
Speaking of the world, I adored it. I was surprised by how effortlessly I was sucked into the world, a mystical world of magic and witches with WWII taking place in the background. That premise sounds like there should be some dissonance between the horror of war and the wonder of magic, and yet it felt natural and seamless.
Moving on to the characters, I found that they were interesting and very fleshed-out, with their own personalities and motivations. They didn’t feel two dimensional, and even the characters who are minor or side characters are still interesting enough for the reader to become invested in them, and aren’t simply treated as throwaway or supplementary characters, there to simply bolster the main characters.
This was an interesting departure from what I normally read, even though it does have witches in it, as I tend to avoid historical fantasy fiction, but at no point did I ever find myself becoming confused or bored while reading it. I’d gladly read the book again, and I’m almost certainly going to read the other books in the series.
Rating: ★★★★☆
The Ink Thief 