Hello Bookdragons!
Hope you all have been doing well. It’s super chilly here in Calcutta and I have been spending most of my time cozying under the blankets reading books (or at least trying to). I am still struggling with the slump which is why I have resorted to audiobooks. It did help me a lot.
Moving on to the post, today is my stop on the White Trash Warlock blog tour hosted by The WriteReads. Thanks to The WriteReads and Blackstone Publishing for my spot on the tour and for providing me with a copy of the book.
Guthrie was a good place to be from, but it wasn’t a great place to live, not when you were like Adam, in all the ways Adam was like Adam.
Adam Binder hasn’t spoken to his brother in years, not since Bobby had him committed to a psych ward for hearing voices. When a murderous spirit possesses Bobby’s wife and disrupts the perfect life he’s built away from Oklahoma, he’s forced to ask for his little brother’s help. Adam is happy to escape the trailer park and get the chance to say I told you so, but he arrives in Denver to find the local magicians dead.
It isn’t long before Adam is the spirit’s next target. To survive the confrontation, he’ll have to risk bargaining with powers he’d rather avoid, including his first love, the elf who broke his heart.
The Binder brothers don’t realize that they’re unwitting pawns in a game played by immortals. Death herself wants the spirit’s head, and she’s willing to destroy their family to reap it.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Death, Homophobia, Child Abuse, Murder, Child Neglect, mentions of Mental Institution
Whoa! What a book! If I had to sum up my reaction to this book, this would be it. As you all know I am still new to Fantasy and I still find the genre a bit intimidating. But, Urban Fantasy is something which I have found is easy to get into. White Trash Warlock was another challenging book for me but I am all here for queer characters!
White Trash Warlock is heavy on the supernatural elements and I haven’t read much of paranormal stories other than watching Shadowhunters and The Vampire Academy (or at least tried to watch). It’s not that I am not open to such stories, it’s just that I don’t have a whole lot of experience reading them. So, I dived into the book not knowing what to expect. But hey, I love a creepy atmospheric story!
The plot revolves around Adam Binder and the story talks about his capability of seeing the magical world for what it is, including the spirits and otherworldly creatures that travels in and out of the real world. Adam comes from a poverty-ridden family and is all too aware of his difficult upbringing. The people whom he thought were close to him turned their back when he needed their help. Locked away in a Psych ward, Adam returns to Denver to save Bobby’s wife (his sister-in-law) who presumably have been possessed by an evil spirit. But Denver is no longer the place anyone feels safe about. Soon after his arrival, Adam becomes the spirit’s next target. Together the Binder brothers have to fight Death herself and find out the evil warlock.
I actually don’t know where to begin. I read this book in three days and that was not really good decision. There are a lot of details and underlying themes that you can miss if you’re not paying much attention. My suggestion would be to really savour the plot and the characters. For someone who is still new to fantasy, I loved the world-building in this. It wasn’t too difficult for me to get into it and everything was connected so well, that I didn’t really feel lost which is the case most of the time when it comes to the Fantasy genre. Having said that, I do have to mention that I didn’t quite grasp some parts of the world building, such as some of the magic and how they were practiced. Now that we are on the subject of magical elements/creatures, let me tell you whom you can expect to see. We have Warlocks (of course), Elves, Death in her unapologetic form, Reapers and Leprachauns.
For me, it were the characters that I found fascinating more than the plot. The narration switches between Adam and Robert Binder’s point of views. I think this dual POV really allows the characters to develop and narrate their own experiences. The overall narration is in third person. I can’t help but feel empathetic towards Adam Binder, the main character. In fact, I loved all the characters in this book. Slayton has such a vivid writing style that all the characters came to life. From their experiences to the circumstances that forced these characters to experience such events in their lives; everything was so well-written.
Overall the plot was enjoyable but there a lot of questions that were left unanswered. But since it says that it’s the first book in the Adam Binder series, I guess there will be other books in the series and I sincerely hope that the author would explore more of this story in the future books. For someone who is not a huge fan of supernatural or paranormal stories, I did end up liking White Trash Warlock. First of all, the characters were real, they weren’t exaggerated at all. Secondly, the way the author has explored the relationships in the book was truly commendable. There’s angst, there’s romance and a whole lot of emotions. Everything that I love in a book.
When it comes to the writing style, I felt it could have been better. Given that I was new to the whole supernatural concept, it was a bit difficult to understand and at times confusing. I think if there was some explanation regarding the magical world and all its elements at the beginning, it would have been a lot easier for me to get into the supernatural world. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read and I absolutely loved the characters in White Trash Warlock.
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Signing off,
Sohinee Reads & Reviews 
I’m glad you enjoyed this book!
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