The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol

The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol is an enchanting novel about an apprentice witch named Arianwyn. Arianwyn is an apprentice witch living in the town of Lull, a place she has gotten used to over the couple of months she’s been there. However, how she got there is a long story. Before every witch is sent to guard over a town, they must take an evaluation, and unlike every single other witch at the evaluation, Arianwyn failed. And instead of being awarded a moon brooch, she is given the star brooch, and most likely only because her grandmother, a witch on the Council of Elders, convinced the evaluators to do so. Since Arianwyn was given the star brooch, she is sent to what the council of witches thought was an easy place to build up her status, but what she finds out is that it’s quite the opposite.

The first incident happens before Arianwyn even gets to Lull. On the bus ride there, a Crawler appears, an evil magical creature who senses with his nose and ears. A quick banishing spell should’ve worked to get rid of it, but nothing has been going well for Arianwyn, so she stuns the creature and they get back on the bus to quickly drive away. Things only get worse for Arianwyn, with no clear end to her misery in sight.

I liked this novel because of the way the author really drew you into Arianwyn’s world. Using words that we wouldn’t use in our life as if they were normal especially helped with drawing the reader into Arianwyn’s world. Such as with the use of the runes that witches use for magic. Nicol barely explains them, and when he does, it is through the storytelling, and not with Arianwyn as a narrator. Doing this makes the story so much more engaging and a much better read.