I loved the premise of Herrick’s End. A secret fantasy underworld, vengeful witches, righteous revenge against abusive partners – it all sounds fantastic. The story is fast-paced, the characters are vivid and interesting, and there’s a high sense of urgency with plenty of twists. I just could not overcome the hurdle that is our protagonist, Ollie. The entire narrative is predicated on the fact that Ollie stands by and does nothing when others are in need; otherwise, he’s a great guy. In truth, Ollie is the classic ‘nice guy’ – he doesn’t listen, thinks he always knows best, has a major saviour complex, and blames everything on his weight. When you add this to the fact that the writing is YA fantasy level with dark fantasy content, I struggled to connect. Excellent concept, average follow-through.