I learned a lot at school. I learned literature, history, math (the least I liked), even religion. I absorbed everything my brain was able to assimilate and have continued to learn things over the years. But that wasn't important, the most important thing of all is that I was taught to reason, to understand, to debate and even to question reality. All those things made me who I am today, I have no doubt. And I'm thankful because I think that meant giving me a critical mind, at least critical enough to give me a lot of thought about the things around me.
But that's not usually the case. Although less and less, there are still places where it is better to create sheep rather than critical brains. Children who don't question anything and who live happily with what they've had to live. I'm sorry, I don't share it.
And all of this I have been remembering while reading Laurie Forest's "The Black Witch", and now you'll understand why. Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last black witch. She's the only descendant and the one who has to take her place, but Elloren has no powers and she's very clear that she wants to be a botanist. She has grown up all her life in a magical environment with her uncle and now must enter a university where the powers are the protagonists. There he will meet a lot of different beings who come from different places and whose powers vary depending on the race. That's where the reader will realize the incredible world that the author of this book has created.
We must not forget that, for the moment, it is the first part of four novels that are going to develop in this universe, so it is essential that the first book frames very well the atmosphere that we are going to find in the future. Laurie Forest takes care of it and is very concerned about getting us fully into the world that has come out of her imagination. He doesn't neglect it at any time and that means that the reader can't get out of the story for a second. This is important because the magic that surrounds this story goes beyond paper.
What most strikes Elloren's attention is the evolution he has, and this must be emphasized above all else. She was a child with firm beliefs and a very marked ideology. That's how children were raised in that place. But after entering university and knowing everything she knows, her mind gradually opens up to make her more critical. Through this critical thinking, we will face issues as varied as injustice, homophobia, racism or the wounds of the past that seem to want to open when they were almost healed. That evolution of the main character, which is marvelous, makes this work special. We don't have one more adolescent protagonist who goes to her own and saves the world or does the mission that has been assigned to her. No, we have a protagonist who will help a lot the young people who read this novel. It will teach them that to have a critical mind is essential, that it is better to think for oneself than to believe everything that the environment has put in its head with a shoehorn. That's why I started the review of the way I started it because I think Elloren is a very good main character who is going to like a lot and who is going to hook the minds of the youngest.
The languages - I won't specify if good or bad - say that this book has reminded them of a lot of the Harry Potter saga. Well, it is true that it is about magic, that the school environment (here university, in that school) is the mainframe and that we find classes and notes and books. But for everything else... it doesn't look like anything else. Okay, we could look at the critical gaze that both authors want us to use not only in reading their books but in life in general, but for everything else I haven't found any resemblance.
In short, "The Black Witch" is a book that has surprised me very much. When it came out in English there was already a little commotion among the community of fantasy novel readers, but I never thought I would find what I have found here. You know, about the critical mind and not believing what I don't see and stuff like that.