The Fallen Witch

I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes at first—*another* wrongly accused witch? But *The Fallen Witch* disarms you by making the protagonist’s guilt feel plausible, even to *her*. LaVaun’s writing thrives in the gray areas: the coven’s politics aren’t cartoonishly evil, just ruthlessly pragmatic, and the “crime” at the center of the story unfolds in layers of misdirection that had me pausing to rewind. Moyen’s narration is a masterclass in vocal acting; she doesn’t just *read* the protagonist’s panic—she *embodies* it, especially in the audiobook’s standout scene where a truth-spell interrogation goes catastrophically wrong. The sound design is subtly immersive (I loved the way spells sound like they’re being torn from the narrator’s throat), though I docked half a star for a few overly dramatic pauses that broke the rhythm in key moments. My biggest critique? The middle act sags slightly under the weight of its own conspiracies—there’s a 20-minute stretch where the protagonist’s internal monologue repeats the same fears, and Moyen’s performance can’t quite salvage the redundancy. But the payoff is worth it: the final confrontation is one of the most satisfying magic duels I’ve heard in audio, precisely because it’s less about flashy spells and more about psychological warfare. If you love fantasy that’s heavy on paranoia and light on easy answers, this is your next obsession. Just don’t start it before bed—trust issues are contagious.