These aren't your average witches and wizards!

                                                      "Brew" (Salem's Revenge #1) 
                                                                 By: David Estes 
                                                        Published: October 1, 2014 
                                                                     440 pages 

                                                      Source Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

                                              Buy, Borrow or Bin: Buy (Totally worth it.) 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. In no way does this affect either my review or my rating.

Okay. Wow. Just wow. This book was so any things, but the thing that probably matters most is that it was fantastic.

So here's what it was about. The book follows a 17 year old foster boy named Rhett Carter. Rhett has had a rough life, but things are starting to look up with his newest foster family; he calls them his mom and dad, he has a younger foster sister that he adores, he met a girl, Beth, who he loves more than anything and who loves him in return and his best friend Xavier (who everyone called Xave) who he's known since he was 5 and they were both in the same foster home lives near him and attends the same school as him. Life is looking pretty good. Rhett's world is exactly like ours except for one key detail; witches exist and they are being persecuted and executed in what the press has termed "Salem's Return". Hundreds and possibly thousands of witches have been tried and either burned at the stake or, if that didn't work, drowned. The action in the book starts when "Salem's Revenge" occurs. The witches are pissed and they're not going to take it anymore. There are different witch covens, although in this book they are coined as gangs. There are the Pyros who specialize in fire, the Brewers who make potions, the Conjurers who summon things out of thin air, the Necros (guess what they do; yep, they reanimate corpses) and numerous others. Though they have never worked together before, all of the witch gangs come together, along with wizards (because apparently they're real, too) against a common enemy; humans. In one brutal and terrifying night, the witches, warlocks and wizards attack and slaughter the majority of humans all over the world, leaving few survivors that they later start picking off one by one. Luckily for many of the survivors, once the common enemy is mostly destroyed, the witch gangs separate again and their petty skirmishes over territory and whatever else it is that witches fight over, helps to distract them from killing everyone else, although they do kill many more humans in between. 

After witnessing the slaughter of his foster parents and seven year old foster sister, and not finding being able to find Xave and Beth, Rhett becomes a witch hunter, following the Necros for revenge because of a cryptic note written in blood and supposedly signed by Beth stating that the Necros have taken Xave. The only things that keep Rhett going are his dog Hex, who he found abused in a warehouse and being used for magical experiments by a witch and who now has magical powers of his own because of it (It's a magical dog! How cool is that!?), a 16 year old sharp toungued girl names Laney and her silent little sister Trish who he ran into in an abandoned Italian restaurant and are now traveling with him, and his burning need for revenge against the witches who killed his family and who took his best friend and girlfriend, as he never found either of their bodies. Also driving him is a spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, Beth and Xave are still alive. 

There is a lot, and I mean a lot, that happens in this book, from running into groups of evil witch hunters, most notably a group called The End, that kills almost as many humans as they do witches, to avoiding a siren (yes, they exist, too) who seems to have her sights set on Rhett. I can't get into much more detail about this book without giving too much away. Everything that happens to Rhett, Laney and Trish happens for a reason, all of which is revealed by the end of the book. 

David Estes managed to give me closure while at the same time allowing room for his series to continue on. Brew is definitely not for the faint-hearted, or for the sensitive stomach. There is a lot of death and blood and gore and a lot (a lot) of sadness. I cried numerous times during this book. My heart went out to Rhett and Laney and Trish; I just wanted to pull them all into a hug and have a good old-fashioned cry with them. Mr. Estes managed to evoke a lot of emotion into his book and really made his characters come alive. You will be cheering for the good guys and wanting to to bash the brains out of the bad guys. (There's a lot of that happening so I'm being literal when I say that.) 

Overall, this book was absolutely fantastic. I reccommend this book to anyone and everyone, although maybe not for younger children; I am not kidding when I say that this book is bloody and gory. But for everyone who can handle that, and for anyone who wants to read a fantastic book that mixes reality with fantasy, this book is definitely for you. I for one will be buying the second book as soon as I hit the save button.