Witchy season is coming, friends! One way you can greet autumn is with a haunting good book like Alexis’ The Year of the Witching, a creepy, feminist fantasy. If this is any indication of what’s to come, I’m going to need a standing order to get all of Alexis’ books immediately.

I tried starting this book multiple times and could not find myself being invested in it. I am putting this on the DNF, but try again pile.

This book was such an amazing debut! It lived up to the social media hype. The ending felt a little disjointed, but it is still definitely worth a sequel. Would recommend to anyone, especially during spooky season.

I absolutely LOVED this book. It is smart and quick and thrilling. At only 350 pages, it is one of the quickest, and most satisfying, fantasies I’ve read so far. I cannot believe this is Alexis Henderson’s debut novel! She feels like a seasoned writer with the way this was paced. The world was well-built and easy to digest, yet totally unique. The characters were developed fully and excellently. Some were flawed and downright horrible, others had redeeming qualities that made you question their (and your) allegiance. Immanuelle is a heroine who leads you from the shadows and into the light, pursing justice against generations of oppression with a selflessness that makes you root for her every step of the way. She firmly goes down as one of my favorite heroines, ever. And Ezra. Oh my heart. ⠀
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This is exactly what I ask for in a speculative fiction/fantasy novel. It is grounded in reality with some spooky moments (but nothing too scary, I’m a total wimp!), a commentary on racism, classism, and religion, a female heroine who is fearless, an earnestness to the way the story was told that it felt new and refreshing, and a satisfying ending (for now!) In sum: this was feminist and badass and I’m a big fan

Blood, blight, darkness, slaughter.

What more do you need in a witchy book? I went into this book completely blind and having low expectations. I did have to restart the book after reading a few chapters because the lore in the beginning was confusing and led me to miss important details, but after getting a feel for the book and restarting it, I thoroughly enjoyed the read.

I mean its dark and twisty. What is there not to love. I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be going back to re-read it again because I am sure the experience will be just as great as the first time.

I loved, loved, loved this book and am so glad I read it this close to Halloween—atmospheric, spooky, feminist. It was pitch perfect!

This was not a book I expected to enjoy as much as I did. I love a good witchy book but wasn’t so sure about the strong religious elements in this story as it can go a few different ways (many of which I don’t enjoy) but wow was it powerful. Definitely giving off some of those Handmaid’s Tale vibes but also beautifully dark, the sort that revels deep in the forest beneath a new moon. Truly, the setting was its own character casting shadows and holding a mirror to a severely flawed society so one woman can see truth. The vibes were strong with this one in all the best ways and I found myself going deeper without realizing it. Honestly, my only “complaint” with this one, if you could call it that, is I wish it went even darker still, further into the horror elements. Otherwise it was a great read and put Henderson on my must-buy list.

Enchanted by this brutal and gripping religious horror, one of my favorite subgenres. Incredible worldbuilding. I am chronically ill and disabled, and the imagery of this world made me forget about high levels of pain for long stretches at a time. Thrilled to find out just now that it has an upcoming sequel!

The atmosphere in this novel is on point. The darkwood, the puritanical fantasy elements--it's all very Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow meets The VVitch meets The Grace Year and I am here for it. The plot is a bit more standard fare: Immanuelle is a biracial girl in Bethel, a land of white people, confined to the margins because her mother a) slept with a Black man and b) got too familiar with the darkwood, where the witches reside. All her life she's been marked as different by the color of her skin, but she's so far unaware of how far those differences go. When she stumbles into the darkwood by chance one day and meets the witches, she's given her mother's journal and discovers two things: her mother worked magic and there are plagues coming to Bethel.

So the plagues begin, and Immanuelle sets herself on a race to end them. But doing that requires discovering what she is and what her town is, peeling away all the patriachal religion to finally seeing the evils that make Bethel.

It can be somewhat hard at times to follow Immanuelle on this journey, since the patriarchal nonsense going on in this novel is so so so obvious. She has a hard time finally realizing how terrible it all is, and then when she's finally there she sometimes feels like a blundering lamb who at the same time puts on this brave front that doesn't always translate. Her love interest is a little too good to be true at times--too woke to the world around him that's prepped him to be its leader, although given his father's dismissal I can at times believe it. Sometimes the magic doesn't entirely make sense (the plague of darkness initially has all the fire go out, but then it comes back? why? because it's convenient for the characters to see when they need to see, it seems). There are certain details to obstacles the book skims past--like why get a warrant to go outside Bethel if you don't actually have to show it to the guards? Things like that took me out of the narrative a bit, but they're little things in the grand scheme.

Overall The Year of the Witching is an immersive novel and with a new twist on puritanical terribleness. With witches! Recommended.

This book was just not a good read for me. Something that I can't quite put my finger on was bothering me about it. The style was bland and I couldn't even start it much to finish it.

I’m not sure why I thought I would enjoy this one because I don’t generally like historical fiction or paranormal so it’s me not the book.

I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. It didn't seem fair for me to review a book that I didn't finish.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this digital advance readers copy to preview for my library and our customers.

One to recommend for my readers of a variety of genres.

From the moment I started reading The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson, I could not put it down. In the moments I was absolutely required to stop reading it, I continued to think about it.

I've never been truly interested in Mormon-esque families with polygamy and sister-wives, but something about the world of Bethel captivated me. It's quite possible that the discontent and sense of dystopian undercurrent were evident within the first few paragraphs and that caught my attention. I love a good dystopian novel and The Year of the Witching is more than just that.

The intriguing duality of Immanuelle's world cast between right and wrong, light and dark, cultivated and wild, magic and religion illuminates the corrupt and immoral patriarchy that rules over Bethel with an iron grip. The plot explodes with the first of four plagues brought on by Immanuelle's coming of age and she works with the eldest son of the town's Prophet to find a way to end them before her entire town is slaughtered.

I would definitely consider The Year of the Witching to be a dark mood read but it was like nothing I've ever read and the entire story was lit with just enough hope to keep it from feeling gloomy. I absolutely cannot recommend this book enough and thank NETGALLEY for the Advanced Reader's Copy.

Absolutely fascinating take on Puritanical America and witchcraft. I was horrified and couldn't put it down. The intersection of racism and sexism in this book is so beautifully handled. I can't wait to see what Henderson writes next.

It was impossible not to root for Immanuelle as she learns about her origins and the (dark?) power she has access to despite a lifetime of being beholden for a patriarchal society that views women and girls as disposable property. Perfect for fall, perfect for feminists, perfect for women who know what the price of forging your own way can be.

This book was the perfect blend of historical fiction, creepiness and feminism! I'm so glad I waited to read it during the spooky season though I feel a little bad about waiting so long since this was a NetGalley book I received an ARC of last year and probably should have read much earlier.

The Year of the Witching actually tackles quite a few issues. The setting, the town of Bethel, is a very Puritan type of place where people of darker skin are outcasts and women are meant to sit down, shut up, and do whatever the men tell them to. But there's an additional factor for why everyone should listen to . The Darkwood, the former home of witches and dark magic, surrounds the town of Bethel. Now, in our main character Immanuelle's time, the Prophet (the holy man of the town) tells everyone to stay out of the wood because it's still cursed even though the old Prophet killed the witches. But Immanuelle(an outspoken, mixed race girl whose very existence goes against everything Bethel stands for) soon discovers that the witches are still very much alive and they are very interested in her.

What ends up happening is a series of plagues that descend upon the town, just as Immanuelle starts to discover what her and her mother have to do with the Darkwood and the secrets it holds. It honestly gets a little creepy at times with the way the stages of the plague presents. People literally try to smash their own heads into walls until they die at one point.

Immanuelle was a great character and I really enjoyed her PoV and her journey as she discovers more about herself in a world where she's everything her town doesn't want.

The Year of the Witching Earns 5/5 Woodland Sanctuaries...Compelling Drama!
Alexis Henderson has penned an epic tale in her Bethel series riddled with darkness, secrets, and revelations that had me enthralled and engaged from the first chapter to the last with vivid description, diverse characters, insightful quotes to begin each chapter, and a fascinating world. It is an intense, but compelling, drama about Immanuelle, a young woman whose true nature, family, revenge, and resolve are challenged. The epic tale is rich with a variety of characters, deep class division, and an all-controlling religious sect that bordered disturbing, and although it was a complex tale, I found it easy to follow. Excellent!

This was some thing that I didn’t get into but I think that others might still enjoy this one. Overall a three star