Early Review – Portrait of a Witch Undone by K.S. Shay (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Erewhon Books
Release Date: August 25, 2026
ASIN: ‎ B0G7P7Z68G
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Once, Maeve Ryan was the strongest witch of her generation. But Maeve messed up a spell to contact the Lady of the Fens, an eerie Revenant who lures the unwary to their deaths in the brackish marshlands of the North Shore. Maeve destroyed her reputation, hurt her best friend Ash, and tainted herself with unbound, wild magic that transforms witches into insane Revenants.

With unbound power eating away at Maeve’s mind, all she wants is to get rid of her magic. Forever. But Ash’s research into how the spell went awry leads in an unexpected direction: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a link between the Lady and a decades-old art theft worth $500 million. When Ash disappears through a stolen painting’s empty frame, Maeve has to follow.

Inside is the Other Marsh, a haunting, deadly realm where only the Lady’s rules apply. Within this half-world lie secrets about North Shore’s history, Maeve’s failure, and the fate of the masterpieces that disappeared over three decades ago. But as Maeve fights toward the truth, she risks her friendship, her coven, and her life against enemies hiding in plain sight.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an ebook of this for review from NetGalley..

Thoughts: Initially, I thought the premise of this was intriguing. However, after the first couple chapters, the story drastically slowed down, and I realized I didn’t like any of the characters. This whole book felt like the author had an idea around the stolen paintings at the Gardner museum and then kind of tried to make a story around that premise without filling it out very well. I almost stopped reading this multiple times but pushed forward in hopes of it getting better. It did not.

Maeve Ryan and her friend attempted a powerful spell to contact the Lady of the Fens, and it went very wrong, injuring Maeve’s best friend. Now Maeve has sworn off magic. However, when her friend, Ash, decides to dig into some links between The Lady and some art pieces stolen from the Gardner Museum, Ash ends up in trouble. Maeve rushes off to her rescue only to find that Ash wasn’t the only one interested in the stolen art pieces. The connection between the art pieces and the Lady is twisted, and the fate of Maeve’s whole coven is at stake.

This starts out with an intriguing premise. Being able to journey into art pieces and having them woven into a complex binding spell to hold something evil was interesting. However, I quickly soured on the story as we spent more time with these characters. The characters are all very immature, lacked depth, and were hard to engage with (that includes the main characters and the adults surrounding them). They all are very selfish and never think through their actions.

The characters did a lot of things that just didn’t make sense. Ash was just are responsible for the initial messed up spell as Maeve, so why did Maeve get flake for it? Why did Ash rush off and do something so stupid (multiple times)? Why are all the adults okay with bullying teens and letting young kids die? What was up with the matriarch being able to compel people? I mean basically, the compelling was forced slavery.

The idea of Maeve becoming “unbound” was also intriguing but the way that resolves feels a bit…well…lackluster. If the solution was that simple, what was the point of all the drama behind it?

Gabriel is presented as a romantic interest for Maeve, but this feels very forced. It felt like the author thought “well, this is paranormal YA, so I should have some sort of romantic interest here”. It’s something the book would have been better with out.

In the end, the whole thing is very predictable, I didn’t enjoy the characters, the pacing, or inconsistencies. I pushed forward and finished it but seriously considered stopping this book from about the 30% mark on. The writing itself flowed well enough and it was easy (if infuriating) to read.

My Summary (2/5): Overall I would have been better off not reading this one. The premise is intriguing, but it isn’t well thought out. The characters all make selfish and/or stupid decisions throughout and I found that frustrating. Everything here seemed sketched out, like the idea wasn’t fully thought through. This is pretty typical YA paranormal content but isn’t engaging or thought-provoking, the premise ends up being more gimicky than engrossing. The story never really pulled me in. I don’t plan on reading future books by Shay at this point.