Guest Review: Literace Reviews: A Twisted Fate by Kaylyn Dunn

A Twisted Fate by Kaylyn Dunn is an interesting story of a young adult whose life has been turned upside down and everything she has ever thought she knew has drastically changed. The material of this paranormal novel was intriguing and unique, but I did find some things were missing. Continue reading below for a more in-depth take on A Twisted Fate.

Summary

“No matter how unwilling they were to admit it. They were all aware – no, they were all sure of the likely possibility of me being a bloodthirsty demon. Maybe it was more true than I realized.”

300 years ago, during the Salem Witch Trials, two organizations emerged to destroy each other. The Hunters of the Leadership and the Council of Witches. When a woman is wrongly accused and put to death, the Council puts a prophecy in place that a girl would be born with so much strength and sorcery that she’d be a mortal god, strong enough to rip the world in two with sheer will. On her seventeenth birthday she would come into her power and use it to avenge her fallen ancestors, free her persecuted kin, and flatten the earth. As a counteract, the Leadership too told of a girl who would bring the first to her knees in an epic war.

Present day, Evangeline Welt has become a little too comfortable with her mundane routine. Completely unaware of who she and what she is meant to do, she thinks it’s all just an elaborate bedtime story when her best friend tells her she’s a witch. But when he whisks her away just before she is murdered, she begins to think there is some merit to what he’s saying. Not fond of the idea of being a weapon she begins on a trek across the country, meeting people who grant her safety and comfort; and family who provide her with answers. All in the effort to discover if she’s truly the genocidal maniac she is said to be in the two weeks before her birthday.

Review

(Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

A descendent of the Salem Witch Trials, Evangeline learns of her powers right before her seventeenth birthday. These new changes make her the target of two paranormal organizations, the Leadership and the Council. From the beginning, A Twisted Fate takes off quickly following Evangeline and an unlikely gang of kidnappers-turned-friends all across the United States. The group is racing to avoid the Leadership and Council while also saving the world from destruction at the hands of Evangeline’s power.

The story and lore of A Twisted Fate are what I enjoyed as it was unique and imaginative. Unfortunately, that was not able to carry the entire novel for me. I think the main issue I had with the novel was the pacing. The author seemed to try to fit an inordinate amount of content into too few pages. As a result of this, I did not get a good sense of the characters and their personalities. Their motives were unknown, rushed, or waffling depending on the character. The relationships felt forced and not very compelling.

Due to the pacing and the nature of the car trip-esque theme, it felt like A Twisted Fate skipped too quickly from place to place and briefly meeting so many new people. Multi-day trips occur within a couple of paragraphs and new characters are introduced and nearly forgotten by the end of the page. This makes the transition between scenes problematic and has the narrative feel very rushed.

Overall,

It seemed that the author was attempting to include too much in this novel. I feel like if only part of the plot was taken, focused upon, and developed, A Twisted Fate would have been a much stronger novel. The basic plot of this novel was interesting and very promising but had issues with pacing that caused rippling issues throughout.

Find A Twisted Fated on Goodreads & Amazon.

Discussion

If you had to choose between being a witch and a witch hunter, which would you choose?

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