Didikai Witch
Didikai Witchby Alison KershawThe lovely Alison Kershaw contacted me during the summer about her book - the first one in the Beyond Series. It took me a while to read it, only because I haven't really been in a reading mode and once classes started back up at the University, I got super busy. I'm not a student, but the secretary to a Dean of a really great music School. So, I have been busy with the work and the being exhausted when I get home and not so much with the reading. Although the book had it's little place in the bathroom for when I took baths and whatnots. So it got read a chapter at a time mostly.Amethyst Romanov is a fifteen-year old witch and has grown up in a very sheltered life in her clan in the UK. Along with her older, half-brother Michael, she lives a life of magic and cut off from the rest of the world, The Beyond as they call it. Even though the women must defer to the men and there is a very primitive dynamic within the clan, everything seems fine and safe until one very important night for the Romanov clans during a sacred ceremony, three other girls turn on their family and it's almost a complete massacre of the clans. To save herself, Amethyst invokes the Spirit of their God and is shunned and cast out by her father and clan and sent to fend for herself in The Beyond. No woman is ever allowed to invoke the spirit as that is only for the men, as it's been told only they can and will be able to handle the power.Amethyst learns a lot about herself, her family and the world in The Beyond. She meets two humans Carla and Alex who are paranormal investigators and they help her through her tough times and try to help her find out more about where she came from and the Prophesy that her family is trying so hard to prevent. Things aren't as Amethyst has thought and things get worse before they get better.Now, here's the thing. Although this book is classified under the Fantasy and Fiction categories on most online stores (that I can find) I would put it way more in the Young Adult category. Amethyst is 16 and so are the three other girls who turn against the family. Sure, all the other characters are adults in their 30s and up, but the whole feel of the book is more YA than adult. There's the occasional curse word, but Holly Black's books are way more graphic than what I read in this story. I would say that it could work either way, however I am going to tag it in both because I'm leaning more towards the YA side.I wish I hadn't read the book in such a disjointed manner, I feel like I kept losing the flow of the story and had trouble getting back into it. It was certainly intriguing. :)