Title / The Witness for the Dead
Author / Katherine Addison
Published / 2021
Page no. / 240
Series / The Goblin Emperor – book 2
Overall Rating / ★★★★★
The Witness for the Dead is a standalone sequel to The Goblin Emperor. It follows Thara Celehar, a Witness for the Dead, who we met in The Goblin Emperor – in this instalment Celehar is the main protagonist. He now lives outside of the court and works as a Witness in the city Amalo. This is one of my most anticipated releases of this year, after reading and loving the prior book, and I’m happy to say that it didn’t disappoint. It will definitely be one of my favourite books of 2021.
In very basic terms, a Witness for the Dead is a calling that involves various tasks concerning the dead, from performing funerals, to communicating with the dead, to banishing the undead when needed. A witness can only communicate with the recently deceased and so they can sometimes use this to solve disputes or to find a killer. This concept is one of my favourite things about this book and it was so good to be back in this world. Celehar was a fantastic character in The Goblin Emperor so I love that we get to see him as a protagonist in this book. We get to learn more about the role of the Witnesses and Celehar as a person. His character development in this book was so well done and there are so many well written characters within this story. The plot contains mulitple strands to it, all of which mainly focus around his role as a witness. Mysteries and crime solving play a large part in the story of this book, which I really enjoyed. There are so many things to love about this book – the characters, especially Celehar, the unique and vivd world and a compelling plot. I cannot recommend this book (and The Goblin Emperor) highly enough.
Overall, I loved this book and I really hope that Addison will write more books set in this world. If you enjoyed The Goblin Emperor or enjoy a good fantasy mystery then I think you’ll enjoyed this one. Have you guys read this one? I’d love to know what you thought. Let’s chat in the comments. I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I will see you next time.
Pippa
thelittlebookowl 