A loner witch named Marie is forced to take a 13 year old witch in as her apprentice one day. Though he is incredibly powerful, he doesn’t know the first thing about magic. Will Marie be able to handle him?
You can check out a sample of this series for yourself below!
Author
Genre & Tropes
Info about this series
Official Synopsis (Titan)
The last in a long line of Witches of the Black Wood, Marie Blackwood lives a quiet life in Edinburgh – away from the scrutiny of the Church. But when the Church thrusts 13-year-old Theo into her hands for safekeeping, Marie suddenly gains the responsibility not just of taking care of a teenager – but protecting the world, and Theo himself, from the amazing power that lives inside of him.
My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)
If you enjoy the type of fantasy series that doesn’t hold your hand as it explains its vast world to you, but rather drops you into the story and trusts that you’ll be able to put all the pieces together, I highly recommend checking out Witch of Thistle Castle.
This series follows two prominent characters: the red-headed witch Marie, and the 13 year old witch Theo. Marie is our guiding figure in this world, and we watch as she begins taking care of Theo as her new apprentice. As she helps him adjust to life outside of the church where magical creatures are able to interact with him, we learn about this new world alongside him. Theo is said to be “The Blood of Righteous Anger”, but exactly what that means remains unexplained. We know it makes him incredibly powerful and attractive to magical creatures…but why?
The magic system in this world is rather unique for a witchy series—it focuses on the idea that witches need to interact and negotiate with magic creatures to be able to use their magic. Witches are called witches as they are able to see the creatures. There is a lot more nuance to it, but the majority of this volume focuses on Marie adjusting to her new life with the boy. Rather than sit him down and explain everything to him, she takes a more practical approach to help him get adjusted. This allows readers to really get a feel for the world that they live in! We see how regular citizens interact with the known witches, and we can see what Marie would do on a typical day.
In this magical world, the church seems to have a strong influence on all of society. At least, it does in English where Marie and Theo reside. It is the church that decides Theo need be locked away, and it’s the church that decides Marie needs to be his caretaker. As witches are an oppressed class, it feels like it’s mostly the fault of the church. While they didn’t have much of a presence at all in this volume, the priests we did see felt rather off-putting and arrogant. This dynamic makes things all the more interesting when Franz comes all the way from Paris, instantly smitten with Theo.
Maddies Manga 
Leave a comment