The Witch and the Vampire follows ex-best friends Ava and Kaye. Two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their little town, killed Kaye’s mother and turned Ava into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house – since Ava is one of the few vampires who still retains her witch powers, her mother Eugenia refuses to let her leave, taking Ava’s magic to hide that her daughter is a vampire—and she is one as well. Desperate to escape her cage, Ava decides to flee and seek help from the vampires who live in the forest. Kaye, meanwhile, is at the end of her training as a flame witch and is ready to fulfil her destiny: killing any vampires that threaten the town. And Ava happens to be one of them. On the night that Ava manages to escape, Kaye follows her, plotting to act as her ally only to turn her in. But what begins as a plot turns into both Kaye and Ava questioning everything they’ve ever known—about their world, their rules and themselves. If they want to make it out of the forest alive, they’ll have to do the one thing they thought they’d never could again: trust each other.
You know I was hooked the second I heard queer Rapunzel retelling. As someone who is very much here for the queer retellings we’re being served with recently (just think of Kalynn Bayron’s Cinderella Is Dead or TJ Klune’s upcoming In The Lives of Puppets), I knew I needed to read this immediately. And while I wasn’t as blown away as I would have hoped, I still think this is a solid entry to the retelling genre.
While there are quite a few moments that rather tell the reader what characters are feeling rather than showing the anguish, fear and frustration Ava and Kaye struggle with, you could still see what makes them tick on their own and why they hold so strongly to their beliefs, whether it’s because of what they’ve learned or what they’ve been conditioned to accept as irrefutable truths. I’m always intrigued when we get to meet new worlds with other rules and concepts that seem to feel so ingrained in the characters until they inevitable have to question whether what others have told them is really the truth or just a convenient smoke screen and Flores delivers beautifully in this aspect.
As compelling as the premise was, the character and relationship development left a lot to be desired. I was frustrated at times because, while the “natural” enemies part between Ava and Kaye is well established and called back into focus many a times, we never really get the development from enemies to allies to friends to something more. There are flashbacks that tell us that Ava and Kaye used to be friends, but I needed more during the actual plot to feel invested. Instead, most of the development of their relationship is left until the very last chapters of the novel and thus feels pretty insubstantial and somewhat rushed. However, there are a few moments that made me root for Ava and Kaye to figure out how to work together to save their seemingly incompatible worlds.
All that being said, I still adored the premise and am always here for more sapphic witches and vampires. There’s a lot of promise in this story and with a bit more work on showing rather than telling and character development, I’m excited to see what Flores comes up with next.
Sapphic ex-best-friends-to-natural-enemies-to-lovers meet in this queer Rapunzel retelling that’s perfect for fans Kalynn Bayron’s Cinderella Is Dead and The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl.
The Witch and the Vampire is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of March 21st.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Francesca Flores’s The Witch and the Vampire is a queer Rapunzel retelling where a witch and a vampire who trust no one but themselves must journey together through a cursed forest with danger at every turn.
Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until one night two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their town, and in the ensuing attack, Kaye’s mother was killed, and Ava was turned into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house. Her mother Eugenia needs her: Ava still has her witch powers, and Eugenia must take them in order to hide that she’s a vampire as well. Desperate to escape her confinement and stop her mother’s plans to destroy the town, Ava must break out, flee to the forest, and seek help from the vampires who live there. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes.
Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. Ava agrees, hoping to rekindle their old friendship, and the romantic feelings she’d started to have for Kaye before that terrible night.
But with monstrous trees that devour humans whole, vampires who attack from above, and Ava’s stepfather tracking her, the woods are full of danger. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other’s greatest threat—and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed.
