Review: Night of the Witch

Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am struggling with whether to round up or round down with this book. I really enjoyed it up until the big "battle/climax" portion, and the way the story kind of switched tone kind of threw me off and kept me from truly loving the book.
I did enjoy the story of Fritzi and Otto, their respective struggles, and their beliefs. I appreciated the way both of them hung on to their personal belief systems without getting too preachy, and this allowed the reader to think while still being immersed in the story. I rooted for both of our main characters and I liked their journey against the people and institutions that were oppressing them, and their journey toward personal understanding (and understanding each other). The setting and tone of the book was very well done, and I really found myself drawn into the world of Fritzi and Otto.
The last act of the book, however, when our group of weary travelers finally reach their "destination," seemed to not fit in with the rest of the book at all. I do realize that Fritzi and Otto had to come to terms with their belief systems and are confronted with some totally new "truths," but so much time was spent earlier in the book on world-building and creating this system of politics, hierarchy, etc., that all of this new stuff almost felt like everything that had happened previously in the book didn't matter. The tone of the book went from the gritty dark city streets and cold countryside of Eastern Europe to (this might be a spoiler alert) a sort of airy ethereal Lothlorien from Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy. It was too much of a jarring contrast and it blew up everything the story had been working up to. The ending felt like it belonged to another book.
So despite loving the book up to the last act, at that point I was just thrown for a loop and it marred my enjoyment of the book.
I am not sure if I would recommend this book or not, and despite the fact that the reader is left on a cliffhanger, due to the way the last part of the book took such a turn, I am not sure that I would read the next book.

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