ebook_em's reviews
929 reviews

I loved a lot about this book, especially the inclusion of audio from the author’s actual sessions with one of her most recent therapists in the audiobook version. Foo’s journalistic voice melds beautifully with her personal reflections to create a vulnerable memoir. I have a couple friends with CPTSD and I feel like this book helped me understand their experiences better. 

A few things I didn’t love: she sometimes uses stigmatizing (and possibly inaccurate) language about other mental illnesses like DiD. While she does acknowledge the allegations of abuse against him — and I realize there are very few credible sources to cite for this topic — I didn’t like how much she referenced Bessel van der Kolk. In general, I think she could have taken a bit more care when presenting some of the “scientific” material that she generalized to others outside her own experience. 

The Witch King is an #ownvoices YA contemporary fantasy featuring a trans MC, who is a witch born to a fae family and mated to a fae prince. The story involves politicking about whether he’ll marry the prince and ascend to the throne in a kingdom where tensions are bubbling below the surface. 

I loved some of the characters and the author’s note about how writing this was healing for him really came across in his depiction of Wyatt. However, I thought the worldbuilding was pretty thin and most of the side characters were underdeveloped. 

Some other things were just not my taste — cringey dialogue, references to real-world things like Starbucks and McDonalds, the fated mates trope, and inconsistent pacing. The big mystery was revealed in a sorta cartoonish way that felt disconnected from some of the subplots in the story. Even though it’s YA, I thought the author could have explored the themes in the book with a bit more subtlety. 

Despite those complaints, this was an enjoyable read and really fun to do as a buddy read! I’m not sure yet if I’ll pick up book 2 but I’m glad I read this one.