Witch's Pyre by Josephine Angelini

 

Yesterday, I finished reading Witch's Pyre by Josephine Angelini. This fantasy novel is the conclusion to the Worldwalker Trilogy which I began reading several years ago and decided to pick back up because I wanted to know how it ended. In this series, Lily Proctor, a teenage girl from Salem, Massachusetts, is transported to another universe, discovers that she is a witch, and falls in love. Without sharing too much, what I remembered about the second book, Firewalker, is that it ended in tragedy and Lily and her coven were dropped off by half-human, half-bee creatures called Warrior Sisters outside a city on the west coast of America. In Witch's Pyre, Lily learns that this city is called Bower City and it's ruled by a woman named Grace Bendingtree. It also turns out that Rowan, Lily's new love who betrayed her, followed them to the city. Although Bower City seems perfect at first, Lily's coven discovers that Grace herself is a witch and has been controlling the Hive to maintain power. Even worse, Grace has sinister plans to take over the country, possibly even the whole world. Although Lily doesn't want to resort to using nuclear weapons and mass murder, she must work together with her alternate self, Lillian, to win a war against Grace.

Despite a few distracting typos, I really enjoyed reading Witch's Pyre and thought it was a satisfying conclusion to the series. I've always loved the system of magic in this series and it was very cool to see it expanded upon even further in the final book. I was definitely devastated by the end of Firewalker, but there is a twist towards the end of Witch's Pyre before the final battle when Lily learns from the alternate Tristan that Rowan's betrayal is not what it seems. I was definitely very happy after that because their relationship was one of my favorite parts of the series before the betrayal. I also liked learning more about the different kinds of Woven, which are man-made creatures, and their behavior. I admired how their freedom was just as important to Lily, so she decided to include them in her plans to defeat Grace. A huge part of this series is the ability to put oneself into another's shoes and how our similarities are more important than our differences. There is no room for prejudice in the fight for freedom. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy and adventure.