Ratchet the Reluctant Witch
Sara Pascoe
Rachel (that’s Ratchet to you) has been stuck in foster care ever since her schizophrenic mother was deemed to not be stable enough to care for her. When Ratchet starts hearing voices and seeing things, she is determined to run away before anything else goes wrong. Unfortunately, she time travels away to the witch trials of Essex.
Sigh. The blurb gives away the whole story. I mean, everything of it. So if you’re going to read this novel, please don’t read the blurb. Why are people so useless at writing blurbs that don’t give away everything?
For me, the part in Old Istanbul was the most enthralling and where we actually got to see Ratchet growing as a person. She might only be 15, but she has a right to work out what she wants for herself.
This is nice entry level teenage fiction that surely can’t offend anyone. I think there is one mention of sex, but the majority of the novel is about Ratchet and how she begins to deal with things – and realise that really adults often have no idea of what is going on. And therefore, you need to be ready to save yourself.
I interviewed Sara a while back, and have finally read this novel. Well worth it, despite the cover making me worry it would be to childish. I’d put it on a slightly higher reading difficulty than The Dragon of the Month, but give it similar points for providing a good reading experience. 4 stars from me.
