YMMV / Whitby Witches

• Awesome Moments: Lots!
  • Miss Boston distracting Crozier from bewitching Morgawrus, enabling it to break free of his mind control, then taunting him over it. "I suppose we should be grateful for your slipshod incompetence. Look behind you."
  • The Morgawrus then no selling all of Crozier's attacks, mocking him the same way he does everyone else all awhile before finally slaughtering the sadistic bastard.
  • Miss Boston is basically a crowning person of awesome. She then uses the Guardian to single-handedly seal Morgawrus away again.
  • She gives the Lords of the Deep and Dark a brutal and thoroughly deserved dressing down in the last book, and later does the same thing to the Brides of Crozier.
  • She bashes a werehound over the head with a tin teapot and gives a Bond One-Liner in the process.
  • Jennet's Not Afraid of You Anymore speech to Meta in The Whitby Child.
• Catharsis Factor: Nathaniel being curbstomped by Morgawrus in A Warlock in Whitby.
  • Miriam's Disney Villain Death in The Whitby Child.
  • Rowena coming back from the dead and turning into an Eldritch Abomination to painfully absorb Nathaniel in the climax of the last book. You almost get the impression that Robin just brought him back to kill him again!
• Complete Monster: Nathaniel Crozier, described as "the most evil man in the world", is High Priest of the Coven of the Black Sceptre, a polygamous cult consisting of lonely women whom he controls through dark magic and persuasion, while abusing them and treating them as nothing more than pawns. A glutton for power, Crozier learns of the Guardians of Irl, three magical talismans with which he could Take Over the World. Later, arriving in Whitby in person, Crozier uses his dark powers to bully a married couple into letting him be their lodger whilst he searches Whitby for the Guardians. To this end, Crozier makes the 12-year-old Jennet Laurenson fall in love with him so that he can use her as yet another pawn in his schemes; mentally tortures and kills the elderly Ernest Roper; and gains control of the terrifying Fish-Demon to slaughter countless Aufwaders, the tribe that guards the final Guardian. Having released the horrifying Morgawrus, Nathaniel intends to enslave it but is thwarted by Miss Boston, whom he attempts to throttle to death. After being brought Back from the Dead, Crozier attempts to make Jennet kill herself in front of him, purely to demonstrate his power, while planning to release Morgawrus again to pursue his goal of world conquest.
• Evil Is Cool: Subverted to Hell and back with most of the Brides of Crozier who are depicted as pathetic, lonely old women enslaved to an abusive master but at times played straight with Crozier himself who although a Hate Sink is still a very powerful, smart and darkly charismatic Deadpan Snarker and master of the Badass Boast, and definitely played straight with Rowena Cooper, Morgawrus and the Lord of the Frozen Wastes.
• Funny Moments: Oh so many.
  • Rook the alcoholic butler saving Miss Boston from werehound-Judith in A Warlock in Whitby. "'Praise be for drunken butlers is all I can say' said Miss Boston, as the mental image of Judith Butler lying amidst the fragments of a port bottle reared in her mind."
  • Give the Devil his due, the way Nathaniel Crozier talks down to the Gregsons for their limited vocabulary and small-minded lifestyle in the same book is very funny.
  • The entire scene with Sister Frances and the "Jolly Cheer-Up Bag" as she tries to make the paralysed Miss Boston happy by reading from vacuous magazines, causing Miss Boston such annoyance that she regains the power of speech. "Get Out!! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT, YOU STUPID IMBECILE!" Made even better by Sister Frances’s response. "You're talking! How fabulous!"
  • Frances getting stinking drunk as a result of Miss Boston spiking the orange squash.
    • "Are you suggesting that I am inebri-hic, inebri-hic, squiffy?"
• Heartwarming Moments: Miss Boston’s response to Sister Bridget talking about how she's the child of a human and an Aufwader.
  Bridget: A freak of nature am I, a hideous cross-breed that never should have been allowed to draw breath.
  Miss Boston: Well, I think you look marvellous.
• Magnificent Bastard: Rosalyn Crozier, better known by her alias of Rowena Cooper, is the High Priestess of the Coven of the Black Sceptre and the second-in-command of her husband, Nathaniel Crozier. When her master sends her to the seaside town of Whitby to find what he is looking for, she instead pursues her own ends. Quickly befriending the majority of Whitby with her charisma and charm, she discreetly murders everyone who suspects her true motivations. Realising that the Aufwader race native to the local caves can lead her to what she wants, she allows them to find Moonkelp, the stolen treasure of the gods which can be used to demand a wish from them and when Benjamin Laurenson finds it, she uses her power to take control of him and force him to make a wish on her behalf, revealing the lost Staff of Hilda which she uses to free herself from her abusive husband’s power, nearly seizing control of the world in the process. In death, Rowena learns that the rest of her Coven of witches have made a pact with the Lord of the Frozen Wastes to bring Nathaniel back from the dead so she too makes a pact with the Deep One to raise her from the dead to kill her former husband when he is restored to life. Having been raised from the dead with the power to become a terrifying Eldritch Abomination, Rowena painfully absorbs and kills her husband, taking revenge for her years of abuse and control at his hands before embracing her eternal life as an enforcer of the gods of the sea. Witty, confident and determined, Rowena was remembered as a Worthy Opponent by her enemies.
• Nightmare Fuel: It's Robin Jarvis we're talking about so naturally there are tons of this!
  • Rowena turning into a huge dog and murdering Alice Boston's friends.
  • The part where she impersonates a woman's missing cat to lure her to the edge of the cliff.
  • Nathaniel is made of Nightmare Fuel. He's a psychopathic murderer who revels in cruelty, has incredibly powerful mental abilities, can control even strong minds and make people do whatever it is he wants, or send them into an And I Must Scream state.
• Nausea Fuel: The dead ocean creatures that wash up on the beach as an omen of the gods' wrath.
  • Esau blackmailing Nelda into having sex with him. Shudder
• Tear Jerker: Plenty but Pear sacrificing her life for Jennet and dying in her mother's arms stands out.
  • Miss Boston's death of course.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A common criticism of the second book, even though the third is even darker.
• Ugly Cute: The Fish-Demon in the illustrations arguably. D’awww, does the ancient abomination want a kit cat? A live one?
• Wangst: Jennet can get into this at times, particularly in the second and third books. Lampshaded by Miss Boston in the third.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: As with most of Jarvis's books, it's astounding that the series is marketed to a young audience as the books feature numerous grisly murders and incredibly dark themes including torture, rape, grief, loss, trauma and death in childbirth.
• The Woobie: Quite a few.
  • Ben and Jennet have lost their parents and bounced from foster home to foster home. They find solace and love in Whitby only to find themselves at the mercy of evil sorcerers, demented psychopaths and Eldritch Abominations.
  • Ben is a bully magnet in school in the second book and is targeted for murder by a deranged cult in the last.
  • Jennet is brainwashed, used and traumatised by Crozier in book 2, chronically depressed in book 3 and befriended by some seemingly pretty cool women in the last book and just as she’s starting to enjoy life again she discovers that they’re disciples of the monster who traumatised her.
  • Nelda’s mother died in childbirth as do all Aufwader mothers, her father was murdered by her Evil Uncle and she was forced into marriage and ultimately raped by the village elder, leaving her pregnant with his child and faced with the prospect of an agonising death.
  • Pear was born into a cult as the daughter of its leader and a crazed fanatic. Their way of life is all she ever knew. She becomes torn between obeying her mother and her friendship with Jennet, who she really does come to care about. Ultimately she chooses the latter, but at the cost of her life.

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