I tried very hard to like this book that I bought mostly for the pretty cover and witches. It's historical fiction and has characters stuck in nature for a long time - two things I dislike in books (but this is a me problem). It has an odd writing style that is meant to sound 17th century and reads like a fairytale which made it very difficult to connect with the characters. It's also overall really bleak and depressing. I'm giving one star for the pretty illustrations in the book and another for the first half of the book that wasn't too dull. ( )