Being a Witch and Other Things I Didn't Ask For
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Being a Witch and Other Things I Didn't Ask For
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Narrated by:
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Fiona Hardingham
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By:
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Sara Pascoe
About this listen
After a life of hurt and disappointment, Raya, the spiky-haired, Doc Marten-wearing 14-year-old decides it’s time to strike out on her own. She leaves the boring English village and what she's determined will be her last foster placement for the excitement of London. But it turns out she’s a witch, with the annoying habit of time-traveling - by accident. And a sarcastic witch’s cat Oscar tags along for the ride. Why would she fling herself into the midst of the Essex Witch Trials in 1645 England?
After being arrested by one of history’s most notorious witch hunters, her social worker and witch mentor Bryony goes back to try to save them from the gallows. But returning to present day London remains out of reach when they find themselves in Istanbul in the year 1645. There, life is more amazing than she ever dreamed. Can she stay? And at what cost?
©2015, 2017 Sara Pascoe (P)2019 Sara PascoeListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Being a Witch and Other Things I Didn't Ask For
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 16-08-19
Fun but disjointed
A fun listen aimed at young readers. However the story is rather chaotic and there are lots of plot holes that are never resolved.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 03-05-19
Being a Witch
The Story:
Being a Witch follows Raya a 14 year old girl who has had a life time of disappointments and life in foster care. Her mother is schizophrenic and when Raya starts seeing things she figures she has schizophrenia like her mother and doesn’t know what to do, but she soon discovers that she is actually a witch – which explains why she can hear the cat talking! She runs away from her current foster home and meets as homeless man who can hear her thoughts. From this point this is where she discovers she is a witch and meets other like her, but this is also where it takes a strange turn! Raya somehow manages to time travel with Oscar the Cat and Bryony (her social worker who is also a witch) to old London and then again to Istanbul in the same time frame.
I have to admit I got confused at first – as we were plodding along in the present and them bam we are back in time. with Raya thinking it was all a dream. I did love the element of time travel and Pascoe really got the the timeline down though there some elements of modern day speak involved that wouldn’t have been around then, but apart from that it was spot on.
The pace of the story was a little all over the place – it would go slow then pick up only to slow again.
The Narrator:
Fiona Hardingham did a wonderful job at bringing this story to life. She flowed with ease between characters and accents nailing them all. We had New York for the cat and then all the way to Turkey! The audio was flawless and flowed evenly with no background noise etc.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 10-04-19
Don't be fooled by the cover - it's a worthy story
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The story grabbed my attention from the beginning and held it all the way through. Raya was a very interesting character even if I sometimes thought she was a little snot. The story starts off in a modern England where witchcraft is an acknowledged gift or condition (it’s called being an Integrator) but not everyone has embraced this. Raya is one of them. She’s struggling with it since her mom had a serious mental illness. Instead of chatting with someone about it, she runs away and right into trouble.
Luckily, Oscar (a delightfully opinionated cat) sort of adopts her and helps navigate her to a relatively safe place. But child welfare services tracks her down eventually, and in steps case worker Bryony again. Raya is very stressed out and then her young friend Jake goes missing and it all becomes a bit much and ‘poof’! She’s suddenly in the past by a few hundred years, at the time and location of a big witch hunt (Essex Witch Trials).
So, this modern-day fantasy adventure turns into a time travel adventure tale, which worked just fine for me. The pace was fast to begin with and I did worry it might slow down with the time travel, but it stayed moving at a good clop. I never got bored with the plot. Raya and Bryony barely avoid deep trouble when they accidentally time travel even further back, but this time end up in Istanbul. There, they have a chance to catch their breath a bit and Bryony can give Raya some real witchy training. But don’t worry – more trouble is right around the corner!
Raya struck the right balance between a kid developing into a young adult and bratty teen. There were times that she was so mean to Bryony that I wanted to throttle her myself, but that’s frowned upon. Raya feels that Bryony as an adult should have all the answers, that it’s up to her to save them. Yet Raya also craves independence and to be taken seriously, as an adult would be. Raya does a lot of growing in this book and that was the true gem of the story. All told, 5/5 stars.
The Narration: Fiona Hardingham did an excellent job with this book. I loved her sourpuss voice for Oscar the cat. She was the perfect fit for Raya and I loved her teensy bit frazzled voice for Bryony. She also performed several accents well, from various UK accents, so a kind of New York accent for Oscar to Turkish accents for the characters in Istanbul. The pacing was perfect and there were no recording issues. 5/5 stars.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Sara Pascoe. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 12-08-21
Tracy Beaker meets Worst Witch - wonderful YA read
Tracy Beaker meets the Worst Witch in this wonderful YA story.
I loved this book. It's a time-traveling, globe-trotting adventure with rich characters and descriptive scenes that really deliver you back to the heart of medieval witch-trial England and 17th century Istanbul in all its prime.
Sara Pascoe has a fantastic narrative style that at once manages to evoke vibrant scenes, while simultaneously setting them through the lens of a young teen-turned-witch, viewing moments in history in her own adolescent way. In this style, descriptions of places and the people Raya (our classic rebellious teen protagonist) meets feel accessible and easy to imagine for younger readers, yet still artfully detailed enough for older readers to enjoy.
And aside from teen-witchy mishaps that result in accidental time-travel, the focal point of this story is Raya’s journey to find confidence in herself, her peers and a safe place she feels she belongs. Following her through time and trials (quite literally in 17th century witch-hunt England) we witness her growth. Pascoe really captures the awkwardness of a young teen, contending with all the regular insecurities of puberty, but with the added chaos of unstable magic powers. She touches on mental health fears and deals with the difficulty of fitting in, especially focusing on those challenges for children in care. Finding family in unfamiliar and unexpected places feels like the strong allegory for life that this story imparts to its readers.
And what witchy adventure would be complete without a witch’s best friend? Oscar is a feline with more sass than a witch’s cat has nine lives. At times intransigent and sarcastic, but at heart a faithful feline friend to Raya throughout her journey, his witty quips really add a whole new layer of charm to this story.
The best youth stories teach readers a little about the world and this book entices you into times and places children (and even adults) would likely never learn about in a history class or textbook. It introduces a subtle internationalist outlook to the wider world through its exploration of 17th century Istanbul, teaching young readers about a culture and society they would not otherwise encounter. And you cannot help but be drawn in, just as Raya.
Fiona Hardingham is a fantastic narrator. Her versatile range of voices make it feel as if a whole cast is narrated. In particular, her interpretation of Oscar leaps right out of the pages. If you read this title, absolutely give the audiobook a go and let Pascoe’s superb writing coupled with Hardingham’s excellent narration masterfully take you on this teen-time-travel-tour of witch-hood and wonder and just a few little misadventures in the Middle ages.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 12-10-20
Brilliant
Loved the book. Narration was really good and clear. Will be reading more Sara Pascoe
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