Review by Ian Keogh
After three volumes it’s clear that Witch of Mine concerns a group of witches, with a different one being the focus of each successive volume, and the named members of the group increasing. Writer Haeyoon opens the books with the witches talking together, then focuses predominantly on one of the group. It was Cordelia in Flower of Evil, and plots associated with her continue here alongside what’s far more an ensemble story than the previous volumes.
First spotlighted is Violetta, whose dabbling in the mortal world consists of writing very successful novels. There’s always a comedy element to Haeyoon’s scripts, but allowing for the presence of witches the stories are broadly realistic without any great exaggeration. However, the ridicule of her publishers due to her being a woman writer breaches that veil and is difficult to comprehend. So is Haeyoon’s writing style, which flits from place to place without ever seeming to accept an overall structure. Three volumes in, most readers will have come to terms with that, but even so Glass Plate is unusually discursive, featuring group scenes that don’t appear to have any great purpose. That’s not the case. Discussions between the witches about Cordelia and her activities, and love in general, run parallel to her story in the previous volume and serve to promote Linda to greater prominence with her gung-ho productivity featuring heavily. So do the contrasting characters of Holly and Margaret.
Artist MAS continues to be contradictory, offering beautifully drawn figures almost completely devoid of backgrounds. As with the every volume to date, the effect is first admiration of the talent then an ever increasing desire for backgrounds. The exclusive concentration on figures and faces reduces the effectiveness over so many pages, no matter how well drawn they are.
Roughly fifty pages in the prevailing plot finally emerges. There are humans resistant to magic, and aspiring writer Rein is among them, able to recognise Violetta when she’s disguised as a man. Rein is well intentioned in protecting Violetta from abuse in her human identity, and despite his lack of writing talent she’s drawn to him, which for her is an emotional puzzle. Linda’s a little more astute in figuring out the reasons for her attraction to a different man. As noted, more so than has been usual, there’s a constant switching between events on Earth and commentary from the group of witches.
Witch of Mine continues to be a frustratingly flawed series with undoubted promise where some drawbacks could so easily be fixed. Including some backgrounds, including some clues when the scene switches and attributing the word balloons would be major progress. Many readers, though, aren’t bothered and the books are due to the continuing popularity of the feature in its online version, but given the lack of concession to new readers, Witch of Mine needs read from the beginning.
