In Witchshadow, Susan Dennard returns to the world of the Witchlands for a fourth installment focusing on one of the most complex and central characters of the series, one who holds a power that could shape the looming conflict: Iseult. As she finally faces the truth of her magic and the choice of what she will do with it, her Threadsister Safi struggles to recover from a collapse of carefully laid plans that has left her a kingdom away, alone, magicless, and a prisoner of the Cartorran Emperor. Meanwhile, Vivia finds herself allied with Vaness to reclaim her kingdom while Aeduan is blindsided by an unexpected enemy. This book is a good fit for YA high fantasy readers who enjoyed Throne of Glass (Sarah J. Maas) or The Remnant Chronicles (Mary E. Pearson), revel in detailed worldbuilding, and are willing to put in the effort to keep track of many characters and plotlines.

As the fourth book in the series, Witchshadow moves beyond what readers have seen of the characters and their relationships – especially side characters – to give them more depth. It was particularly satisfying to see somewhat neglected characters like Leopold, Grechya, and Vaness get their moment in the spotlight and to understand more of what drives them. However, in some places this character development felt inconsistent with what reader had seen before, even at earlier points in the book.

This was especially true for the characters with Paladin souls (essentially consciousness of past lives), as in many cases it seemed to add a layer of complexity that the book simply didn’t have the bandwidth to juggle effectively and instead resulted in behavior that felt inconsistent for that character. In general, the book had a problem with biting off more than it could chew. The entire series cultivates a feeling of the scope of the growing Witchlands conflict by weaving together a wide cast of characters and many simultaneous storylines. Of course, this also makes it more difficult to follow and is often frustrating as some plotlines are necessarily less interesting. Witchshadow, however, added to this problem by jumping ahead a month since the third book and gradually revealing what occurred over a series of flashbacks interspersed through the main timeline. This, added to keeping track of the twelve extra characters of the Paladins, whose identities are often mysterious or even false, made for a frustrating and confusing reading experience at times.

Readers up-to-date with the rest of the series will be aware of the author’s commendable attempts at queer representation, and Witchshadow includes the possible beginning of new queer relationship. As a queer reader, though, this dynamic felt like it missed the mark. Only blooming over halfway through the book, the sudden romantic feelings and irritating number of almost-maybe-kiss scenes felt at best like an unfulfilled promise and at worst like a lure intended to hook LGBTQ+ readers without providing a meaningful queer relationship.

Despite the occasional character inconsistencies and somewhat intimidating number of storylines, however, Witchshadow is a solid read that will leave YA high fantasy lovers, as well as fans of the series, satisfied with the magical showdowns, expansive worldbuilding, and tangled web of connections and betrayals.