The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill

Goodreads synopsis: When Ned and his identical twin brother Tam tumble from their raft into a raging, bewitched river, only Ned survives. Villagers are convinced the wrong boy lived. Sure enough, Ned grows up weak and slow, and stays as much as possible within the safe boundaries of his family’s cottage and yard. But when a Bandit King comes to steal the magic that Ned’s mother, a witch, is meant to protect, it's Ned who safeguards the magic and summons the strength to protect his family and community.

In the meantime, in another kingdom across the forest that borders Ned’s village lives Áine, the resourceful and pragmatic daughter of the Bandit King. She is haunted by her mother’s last words to her: “The wrong boy will save your life and you will save his.” But when Áine and Ned’s paths cross, can they trust each other long enough to make their way through the treacherous woods and stop the war about to boil over?

With a deft hand, acclaimed author Kelly Barnhill takes classic fairy tale elements--speaking stones, a friendly wolf, and a spoiled young king--and weaves them into a richly detailed narrative that explores good and evil, love and hate, magic, and the power of friendship.

My rating: 1 star.

Content warnings: PG. Some middle grade violence, odd undefined magic.

Thoughts: I feel a little harsh giving this only one star, but I will heavily emphasize that my rating comes as a result of my own personal tastes. Barnhill may be a good writer, and certainly plenty of other people think so. But this story did nothing for me.

I don't really understand how the magic worked, and if I don't understand the magic I've found I have a hard time getting into a story. But even so. I didn't really even know what was going on with the story, and I didn't really care about any of the characters or any of the action. I'm not even sure what happened in the end, or why I should care. Granted I was skimming at that point so that I could say I finished.

Middle grade books just normally don't do much for me. The writing and the characters are an odd melding between complex, but still very flat, and the general style in most that I've read feels more juvenile than I like. It feels like being talked down to most of the time, rather than being an age appropriate story. So maybe if someone liked middle grade, they would like this one. But I couldn't get into it, and the one thing I picked up the book for wasn't really in there at all. So it just wasn't for me.