Red Witch (Crow Moon #2) - Anna McKerrow [Review]

Book: Red Witch (Crow Moon #2)

Author: Anna McKerrow

Published: 10th March 2016

Publisher: Quercus Children's Books
Source: eARC provided by publisher via NetGalley

Pages: 416

Rating: 3/5 stars

McKerrow delivers the second book in the Crow Moon series, which provides a satisfying read, although lacking in some areas.

I'll start off by saying that I had enjoyed reading Crow Moon, and was excited to start reading the sequel, which follows the adventures of Demelza Hawthorne, or Melz, for short. The character of Demelza is well-rounded, she's naive but sure of herself, and cautious at times, whilst still being brave and determined. I liked her a lot, which is just as well because the whole book is told from her perspective anyway. 

Some of my favourite parts of this book were those containing the Gods & Goddesses, especially the Morrigan, who would dominate every page she featured on (every time she appeared I had constant visions of the Morrigan from The Wicked and the Divine series, just me?). These sections were some of the most well-written, and were the easiest to get caught up in, mainly because I love mythology and deities, and all that mysterious goodness (so if you do too, this is a major draw).

Initially, I loved the character of Bran, again, because of the intrigue associated with his character, however, as the book progressed, I found his motivations to be too well cloaked, and ultimately, I felt like his character ended up slightly underdeveloped. The same can be said for the characters of Catie, Ceri & Demi, who I can only hope will make a reappearance in the third instalment of the series. 

The book started well, and finished well, however the middle became a bit muddled for me, I found myself growing slightly bored, and the story did not take the direction I expected at all. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that although a lot happened in this book, the pacing was uneven at times. 

The concept of Greenworld/Redworld continues in this book and provides an interesting take on societal segregation, especially with regards to the commentary on the powers of those in charge to present a distorted version of reality to citizens; this is something I enjoyed and appreciated. 

Ultimately, this is an enjoyable read with some good characters, however the lack of further development in terms of particular story-lines and characters left the book feeling slightly disjointed and lacking a consistent pace, although, hopefully this may be remedied in the third book in the series.