The Witch and the Vampire
A Novel
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- €10.99
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- €10.99
Publisher Description
Francesca Flores's The Witch and the Vampire is a queer Rapunzel retelling where a witch and a vampire who trust no one but themselves must journey together through a cursed forest with danger at every turn.
Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until one night two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their town, and in the ensuing attack, Kaye’s mother was killed, and Ava was turned into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house. Her mother Eugenia needs her: Ava still has her witch powers, and Eugenia must take them in order to hide that she's a vampire as well. Desperate to escape her confinement and stop her mother's plans to destroy the town, Ava must break out, flee to the forest, and seek help from the vampires who live there. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes.
Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. Ava agrees, hoping to rekindle their old friendship, and the romantic feelings she'd started to have for Kaye before that terrible night.
But with monstrous trees that devour humans whole, vampires who attack from above, and Ava’s stepfather tracking her, the woods are full of danger. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other's greatest threat—and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This immersive, albeit uneven, tale by Flores (Shadow City), loosely based on "Rapunzel," follows two questing friends turned enemies through a treacherous forest. Eighteen-year-old witch Ava lives in Arborren, a town bisected by an enormous bone wall erected to separate the human and witch denizens from the vampire residents. Ever since she was turned into a vampire two years ago, Ava's parents have kept her prisoner in their towering attic, where she both longs for freedom and pines after her witch best friend Kaye, 18. Though Kaye misses her bond with Ava, she has also sworn vengeance against her, believing that Ava is responsible for her mother's death. After Ava uncovers a society-shattering truth, escapes her tower, and flees into the forest surrounding Arborren in search of the vampire queen, Kaye pursues her. Though neither trusts the other, both girls must put aside their differences if they hope to make it through the woods alive. Though overwrought expository prose and modest worldbuilding dampen an intriguing premise, Ava and Kaye's gentle romance, which believably unfolds amid their mutual distrust, invests readers in their plight. Characters read as white. Ages 12–up.