The Blood Witch is the first in a young adult fantasy series by D. S. Nielsen. While I'm not normally a fan of YA, I did enjoy this. Nelsen's story begins with teen-aged Jak and his friend Brigette unwittingly becoming ensnared by the Blood Witch when they stumble across her prison. From there, Brigette is possessed by the witch and leaves Jak; he then goes on a quest to find her and meets up with several endearing and entertaining characters along the way. The quest as a story format has been used by everyone from Chretien de Troyes to Robert Jordan, and it serves Nielsen quite well. With it he is able to take the reader along on a journey with some elements of surprise and danger, along with obstacles along the way that can only be overcome with the motley group that Jak has gathered.
Nielsen does have a few problems throughout the story when he is writing descriptions; the prose tends to get a bit repetitive. Other than that I found this to be an enjoyable story, and I am looking forward to the next book in the series. I would say this book is fine for young teens even though it has quite a bit of violence. The violent scenes are depicted in a way that isn't too graphic.
I give it three cocktails.
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