An immensely well-crafted story of redemption and triumph, this beautiful and harrowing tale leaps from the page. I could easily picture it as a limited television series with amazing special effects and perfect set dressing.

But it wasn’t just shallow spectacle, either. The complex relationships between what could have been blandly archetypal sisters and their familiars (both human and otherwise) were rich and layered. The story was woven beautifully and I found the only times I came up for air were those times when I needed the breath back in my lungs.

Such an empowering and moving experience. You absolutely must dive in!

I received a free copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you are someone who once loved Mists of Avalon but no longer feels comfortable recommending it to others, then THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES may well fit your need. It covers the same intersection between feminism and witchcraft, and while it is not quite so epic or paradigm-shifting, nor its plot as long-ranging or multi-faceted, it is still a gorgeously rendered story on a grand scale. I can heartily recommend it as a story of sisterhood, born to blood or forged by creed, and the magic that holds the marginalized together in a world run by a very small subset of unyielding men.

The book is not flawless. There's a little haziness in the worldbuilding which bothered me, especially in the first third of the book. It takes a while to warm up to the main characters, especially since they're keeping secrets and speaking at cross-purposes for a good chunk of the book. But once you get there, their story comes together beautifully. Especially in the third act, I found myself very moved by the story, its stakes, its sacrifices.

This is a great read for fall 2020, when you are likely furious and frustrated and wishing you had a little witchcraft on your side.

Sisters Juniper, Bella, and Agnes reunite at a New Salem suffrage rally after many years apart. When the sisters and the suffrage movement are threatened, they turn to the tricks and charms passed down from mother to daughter and woman to woman to protect themselves, and realize that witchcraft has been cleverly hidden, not lost.

Featuring a huge and diverse cast of characters, a setting that is both historical and fantastic, a creepy villain, cathartic lady rage, a secret library, and fairy tales woven throughout, there’s a lot going on and a lot to love in this book. The pace dragged at times and a few themes felt repetitive, but this was still a fun and satisfying read, especially for spooky season in an election year.

“Writing a book is dangerous business, if done correctly.” Alternatively titled, Why read problematic 'classics' when Alix E. Harrow exists?

Harrow's sophomore novel is yet another love letter to stories and readers. Her writing is, as always, vividly beautiful and descriptive.

After reading and falling in love with The Ten Thousand Doors of January, I immediately needed to read The Once and Future Witches as soon as it was announced. Of course, it's a completely different story but still as relevant as the former. Luckily, it didn't take very long for me to get approved for an arc. Though, it did take me awhile to actually pick it up due to an extended reading slump and whatever Twilight Zone episode this year is.

(quote)In stories the sisters are always set one against the other—the beautiful one and her two ugly sisters, the clever one and the fools, the brave one and the cowards. Only one of them escapes the wicked witch or breaks the terrible curse. But maybe tonight— just for a little while— they can pretend. Maybe they can stand hand in hand, once lost but now found. Maybe it will be enough to save their wild, wayward sister from a world that despises wayward women.(quote)

The Once and Future Witches is the story of three witch sisters in the late 1800s. This is the story of three women who finally say 'enough'. This is the story of the heart and soul of women.

(quote)“Children’s stories! Nursery rhymes! Nothing respectable, nothing verifiable!”
“Must a thing be bound and shelved in order to matter? Some stories were never written down. Some stories were passed by whisper and song, mother to daughter to sister. Bits and pieces were lost over the centuries, I’m sure, details shifted, but not all of them.”(quote)

I have adored fairytales my whole life. My grandmother read them to me and told me so many more that I've never been able to find in print. It wasn't until I was in high school, doing research for a paper, that I learned just how much they are rooted in real life and real events. It was absolutely exhilarating and eye opening. And I loved how they were weaved into this book and story. Especially as spells. I hope that people are inspired to do more research about it, too, if and when they read this book.

The release of Once couldn't come at a more perfect or revelant time. Women exist. Women matter. Women will be heard. #Vote

(quote)Sometimes, if you reach deep enough into the red heart of magic, some little scrap of magic reaches back out to you. Sometimes if you bend the rules long enough, they break.(quote)


***Thank you so much to Redhook/Orbit for giving me the opportunity to review The Once and Future Witches. Quotes are taken from an arc are subject to change.***


🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN, WITCHES 🎃

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I tried so hard to love this book and so hard to finish it but ultimately I had to put it down. The author has a talent for storytelling and a way with her words to make the story interesting. There was promise of magic and witches but I just felt like those things were tainted by the political ness of the book. I know it was the authors intentions to make this a magical tale with political lessons to learn from but it just didn't work for me. I think some people are going to absolutely love this book though. The writing is vivid and the characters are strong and intriguing.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC of this book!

This good had me at suffragist witches! James Juniper, Beatrice Belladonna, and Agnes Amaranth are sisters who have suffered a rift between them that time and memory have colluded to make grow. When they find themselves all in the same place for the first time in years, they find that they might be the key to bringing back the witching that's been lost to the world. No longer full of magic, witching has been reduced to nursery rhymes and simple spells passed down from generations. The sisters will have to fight against the darkness that invades the city while fighting for the witch's rights to vote and even live at all.

Alix E. Harrow is a fantastic author. We saw it in her storytelling and prose in The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and it's the same here. She weaves imagery and world-building together to create a stunning book that will put you in the middle of the suffragist movement and in the middle of a witching war.

The characters are so well developed right from the beginning. We see the story from the POV's of the three sisters, and it's easy to distinguish between their voices. They each have interesting personalities and backstories, and I liked all of them, which sometimes doesn't happen in multiple POV books like this.

The overall themes in the book are so important, even in today's world. The fight for justice and the look at how women, including women of color, are treated is important. Them coming together to fight and scheme and form bonds is important. I'm glad we got to see this here.

There was a moment or two when there was a lot of info given, and as a result, the book dragged a bit, but overall I really enjoyed it!

Even though I don't read much fantasy, I was a big fan of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and I liked The Once and Future Witches even more. Alix Harrow does a fantastic job of creating a believable world that addresses interesting and important themes, and adds in some fun nods to reality in her naming of items. Her prose is really beautiful ~ there were many paragraphs that I read multiple times just to absorb the words she used. I look forward to reading whatever she writes next! Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook books for the advance digital copy!

I had Ten Thousand Doors of January in my stash and I heard that it was slow to get going but I ended up really liking it. I put off reading this because I needed something that would wow me right out of the gate but I shouldn't have waited. This is not my normal type of book but perfect for October and I loved it!

Juniper's sisters have left her with their abusive father and when he finally passes away Juniper starts looking for her sisters. She ends up at New Salem at a suffragist rally and unknown to the three of them the sisters, Bella and Agnes, also live there and are drawn to the rally. The suffragists are witches and witches aren't evil. They are women trying to make their lives better in the late 1800s. This is a story of love and devotion between these sisters. They are so different but so well defined. Juniper is the youngest and a wild child, impulsive, out for revenge and ready for a fight. Agnes is the strong one. She works in a mill and keeps her head down, not wanting to be noticed for her beauty and be taken advantage of. She keeps her circle closed not willing to open her heart to anyone but when she finds herself pregnant she found the ultimate love, a mother for a child. Bella is quiet and studious, works in a library, searching the books for the spells of witches.

The town of New Salem is in the grip of evil and the women are determined to overcome it. The town was vividly described and I felt that there was a greyness over it all with the sisters being a bright spot.

It is hard to sum up this story that encompasses the love and bond between the sisters, the battles they fight to right the wrongs against woman. They develop a bond with the women in town as the teach them spells and help each other. They had to overcome the misunderstandings that tore them apart in the first place. In the end love prevails.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook Books for providing me with a copy.

Thank you, NetGalley, Redhook Books, and Alix E. Harrow for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I requested The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow immediately after seeing the cover and title. I didn’t even know what the book was about but I just knew I had to read it. Picture it. New Salem, 1893. Estranged sisters: James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna run into each other in the middle of the square. All are drawn to the suffragist movement. However, they all have a secret. The old ways are in their blood. Witches haven’t been around in years, but that is all about to change.

“The Words, the Will, the Way”

THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES
THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING!

Everything!!!

Where to begin?? First of all, it incorporates everything from fairytales to legends to history. There is social justice, sister relationships, and a whole lot of magic. The magic is so intricate but powerful. It includes the history of the persecution of witches who were burned. It discusses the atrocities that women face and how we had to work so hard to get the right to vote…and how white women left Black women behind. This book addresses that suffragette women were mainly wealthy, white women, and HOW those white women viewed poor women and Black women. I LOVED the inclusion of sex workers and the LGBTQ community. This book gave me all the Girl Power vibes —Trans women are women! When we ALL lift each other up and leave no one behind, we are even more powerful.

“Because it’s easy to ignore a woman.” Juniper’s lips twist in a feral smile. “But a hell of a lot harder to ignore a witch.”

THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES
I loved every single character. The Maiden, James Jumpier is the youngest and was left to fend for herself after her sisters left her behind and has been consumed with anger and bitterness. The Mother, Agnes Amaranth is stubborn and fierce. The Crone, Beatrice Belladonna was the first to leave. She is more likely to be in the company of books than with people. Their lives have no been easy and it will be even harder to come together. I could really relate to them being the oldest of three sisters. I understand the hurt, the love, and the willingness to lay down one’s life for their sibling.

The pacing is fantastic. The prose is stunning. I couldn’t put this book down for longer than 5 minutes because I became utterly addicted. Alix E. Harrow just became one of my auto-buy authors. This book does release October 13th and you will NOT want to skip this book. This book gets 5 PERFECT stars.

“Avalon wasn’t the first library. Alexandria, Antioch, Avicenna…they keep burning us. We keep rising again.”

THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES

It’s a special kind of heartbreak when you so badly want to like a book more than you actually do; this is precisely what happened to me and The Once and Future Witches. I know that many readers will adore this story about suffragette witches—personally, though, its execution just didn’t really work for me.

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Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried (AND VERY HARD I DID) I just couldn’t connect meaningfully with any part of this story.

At the end of the day, the writing and I meshed like oil and water. Harrow writes prose that is just shy of purple—the kind of thickly descriptive storytelling that is overladen with quirky adjectives and metaphors, and that readers will either find wholeheartedly enchanting or vehemently irritating. I was very much in the latter category.

I also felt that the protagonists, who are meant to represent recurrent female archetypes in fairytales, didn’t end up being more than their tropes: Juniper = Maiden (aka the wild one), Bella = Crone (aka the wise one), Agnes = Mother (aka the strong one). I appreciated specific moments and scenes (see below!) but overall I just couldn’t connect with any of the sisters.

Their respective roles are hammered repeatedly into the reader’s head, akin to the book’s heavy-handed treatment of its themes of feminism and the empowerment of women. Women’s rights—like other issues affecting the autonomy and wellbeing of marginalized people—are not up for debate. But… tell me something I don’t know? Tell me something with nuance and ambivalence? Or at least tell it to me in a way that isn’t weighed down by flowery writing that holds me and my emotions at a distance?

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That being said, there was a not-insignificant number of things about this story that I truly enjoyed.

I loved reading about Bella’s relationship with Cleopatra Quinn, a Black witch. I loved its themes of resistance and rebellion against patriarchy (tempered by Agnes, who recognizes that “Sometimes you can’t fight. Sometimes you can only survive.”) I loved the camaraderie between all of the book’s women characters. And I especially I loved its examination of what counts as knowledge, what knowledge should be reproduced and written about in theses and sermons. This book head-on tackles the devaluing of women’s knowledge—be it folklore or fairytales, nursery rhymes or recipes—by patriarchal systems. It reclaims these modes of knowledge by imbuing them with literal magic: turns out, the witches’ lost powers have been passed down from generation to generation through folklore, fairytales, nursery rhymes, and recipes. I found this so, so beautiful.

Bottom line: The Once and Future Witches will be an incandescent story that speaks straight to someone’s heart—unfortunately, she isn’t me.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to DNF this title. I’m still giving this a four star rating because I feel like the writing is actually spectacular but the story itself just isn’t for me. I’m not going to fault a book for me not being it’s demographic.

While this book may not be my taste right now, I can see many people loving and devouring this book.

This one is fun and filled with a level of satisfying enjoyment not often found in witchy books. Author Alix Harrow has created a a believable world where witchcraft is almost, just, right beyond the finger tips of women everywhere. If only they had access to the necessary words to make their desires a reality. Three sisters are at the heart of THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES and they manage to love, quarrel and redeem themselves through a rollicking good story. All sorts of real word historical points are neatly woven into this tale and the author gets extra kudos for her great creative chops. It was fun to see how fantasy and history collided and a wonderful tale emerged. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Once and Future Witches sounded like such a delightful book, mixing the historical with the magical to create a fun, feminist tale of suffragette witches. And while it is somewhat flawed, it did more or less meet all my expectations.

I love magic-lore in stories, and the fact that this book contains this in spades without bogging the story down is a major plus. I love the allusions to fairy tales (including some loose retellings of popular tales in-text), fun twists on real-world references to folklore like the Grimms, and the way familiar witchy and other magical sayings we’re familiar with were incorporated into the incantations that make up the epigraphs that begin each chapter. It really helps to form the backbone for the forgotten knowledge that the Eastwood sisters are bringing back.

I also liked how it tied in with the story of the sisters, and their general arcs of fighting back against the patriarchy. Each sister takes on one of the signature archetypes of Mother, Maiden, and Crone, but also subverts it, so they are not just that, and are each well-rounded people.

I did feel like the book was a bit too long at times, so there were bits that didn’t always hold my attention. However, it was more or less a solid read.

If you love historicals with a dash (or more) of magic, or are looking for books that explore feminism in a historical and magical context, I think you will enjoy this book.

I loved this book and enjoyed it even more than 10 Thousand Doors of January. Alix Harrow is definitely becoming someone who I will pick up everytime a new one comes out. Such a fun story for October and a great cast of strong women!

At first, this felt very Alice Hoffman to me (which I mean in the best possible way), specifically The Rules of Magic and not necessarily Practical Magic. Quickly though it became something else entirely - wild and wildly engaging, very nearly impossible to put down, despite its length. This Alix Harrow is one to watch.

When the premise for Alix E. Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches was announced, I was incredibly excited because I greatly enjoyed Harrow’s debut historical fantasy novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January. This second novel blew all of my high expectations out of the water—the only reason I didn’t finish it sooner was because I didn’t want it to end! The combination of the suffrage movement, fairy tale archetypes, folklore, magic, and the indomitable spirit of women (and witches) through the ages as told in Harrow’s lyrical, evocative prose worked a magic all its own.

I’ve been craving a witchy novel that explores the full range of witchyness, from hearth magic to hexes, and I got all of that and more within the pages of this book. All three of the protagonists felt so vivid and real on the page, and I fell in love with each of them for separate reasons. The LGBT representation also contributed to my enjoyment. One of the three main protagonists is a lesbian and the most developed romance subplot is WLW.

All in all, Harrow delivers an excellent witchy, feminist, character driven, historical fantasy tale with her sophomore novel. It’s definitely worth picking up and reading ASAP upon release; October sets a perfect stage for its mystical, magical autumnal vibes.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I used this review copy to interview the author on the Fantasy Inn podcast. The interview can be found here: https://thefantasyinn.com/2020/10/06/e53-alix-e-harrow-interview/

The Once and Future Witches is the second full length novel by Alix E Harrow, a SF/F writer who has kind of stormed onto the scene the last few years. Harrow won a Hugo for a short story two years ago, and this past year was nominated twice, including for best novel for her novel The Thousand Doors of January. I enjoyed The Thousand Doors of January quite a lot although I've found less enjoyment in Harrow's award nominated short fiction work, which I've kind of felt relied upon a stilted narrative that I couldn't quite get into.

And well, The Once and Future Witches reminds me more Harrow's short fiction than The Thousand Doors, to its detriment. It's a feminist novel about a trio of sisters leading women to take power for themselves in an alternate late 19th century Massachusetts and the characters are in general likable and enjoyable. But the narrative again feels kind of stilted and hard to flow for me, several characters do not have consistent character arcs, and the book's attempt to deal with the racial issues of the women's suffrage movement fall very flat. The ending is fine and fitting, but the end result is a novel that just feels like it had so much potential to say something and provide a wonderful story with a strong message, but instead just doesn't.

----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------

Magic exists, and men may use it here and there in society, even if they don't quite talk about it. But Women aren't supposed to use magic - as witches are supposed to be a thing of the past, even at the very moment when some women fight in the city of New Salem for Women's Suffrage.

But for the three Eastwood sisters, Agnes, Bella, and Juniper, witchery and witching tales were part of their birthright thanks to their grandma, Mama Mags, who taught them its ways. But the girls' abusive father drove them each away, and they haven't seen each other in years.

That all changes one day in New Salem, when a spell brings the three of them together once again, with a vision of a lost tower - a tower of witching power from the past. The vision will tie the three together on a journey to bring back the witching ways to the women of New Salem, women tired of being abused and mistreated by the men in the city, & and want to make a stand. But the puritan forces of the city, led by an aspiring politician, will not stand by as the three sisters rediscover the witching ways, and will do everything they can to ensure the costs of defiance are all too high.....
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The Once and Future Witches is a story that is told from the perspectives of its three protagonists, Agnes, Bella, and Juniper, with occasional interludes at times where one character tells another an old witching tale - which is generally an adaptation of a classic fairy tale. At the start of each chapter is a witching spell, which is also generally an adaptation of a classic nursery rhyme or children's song, which often ties into the plot of that particular chapter. But other than those peculiarities, the book swaps often between following one of the three sisters, as they struggle to understand each other, themselves, and what they want to be as they find themselves drawn more and more into learning and teaching the witching ways.

The book takes place in an alternate Massachusetts, in a city called New Salem, at the end of the 19th century during the movement for women's suffrage. Yet while the Amazon summary highlights the women's suffrage movement, and Juniper gets her start at the beginning by being introduced to the movement, the plot quickly leaves it behind in favor of emphasizing the use of magic as the story's focus for women's power. After all, in this setting, men having magic such as the ability to rust metal and destroy parts of factories as part of their labor movement is considered an open but acceptable secret, so why shouldn't women have that same power in the fight for rights? And the setting, unlike our own US, is one in which "witchhunts" are of actual witches, who men and the other forces of patriarchy hunt because they symbolize women gaining actual power - not just over their representatives, but over every part of their lives.

And well, we see this symbolism in the storylines of each of the the three main characters, all of whom grew up with a grandmother trying to empower them and an abusive father trying to put them down and struggle to undo the damage caused by his actions. So you have Bella, who has become a wise librarian who secretly has feelings for women instead of men, who wants to research the history of magic but needs a pushes to truly put that research into practice. You have Agnes, the practical one who once wanted to help but soon learned that helping could have consequences, and thus fears what will happen if she dives back into the magic. And you have Juniper, the wild and angry one who is most outspoken about the needs for the empowerment of women, but who doesn't always think about the long term consequences of her actions, and how things for others might not fit the world that she thinks really is. The trio's storylines involve them struggling against how the patriarchy has warped them in the past, as the patriarchy does its best to keep them down further in the present as well.

Alas, while the general idea works, and the general plot works, and the magic system is really well done, there's just so much of this book that doesn't quite work. On a character level, the book honestly feels like it can't decide which storyline is Agnes' and which is Bella's, with the book starting seemingly at the idea that Agnes is the strong practical one looking out for everyone and Bella the coward and then...flipflopping that to make Agnes the coward and Bella the one willing to do the research to try and help Juniper out as Juniper gets more into trouble as the plot goes on (it has Bella keep calling herself a coward mind you, even as it flips the two). It's like halfway through the drafting the author decided to switch their arcs, and it is kind of jarring.

That's not the only idea that honestly feels like it was shifted during the drafting - for example a major character introduced early as a potential love interest for Bella is a Black woman, Cleo, who seems at first to be part of either a black woman's suffrage movement or more likely a secret organization fighting underground for the rights of Black Witches - something exceedingly difficult in a time when the suffragettes frowned upon the very idea of including Black women in their cause. Early parts of the book involve Cleo making it clear to Bella (and the others to a lesser extent) that they don't understand the prejudice that Black Women face is exceedingly worse, and how the Black women aren't just going to agree to bind themselves to these White Women just finding out now what they've already known from their own traditions. It's a really interesting conflict based upon the real world.....and the book essentially punts on it having any effect on the plot, with Cleo basically turning entirely to Bella's side midway through as her unshakable love interest who becomes the only person who will keep pushing Bella forward, despite Cleo's mother giving her occasional snide comments about it. The result is that Cleo just feels utterly wasted - as if the author wanted to make it clear she understood the difficulties that would be faced by Black women in this time, and then felt she'd done the work after doing the bare minimum.

Add to that the writing style which honestly just doesn't really work for me - I call it stilted but I'm not really sure how to best describe it - and well an ending that fits the story but just doesn't really seem to say anything? It just essentially makes this a book that's fine and enjoyable to some extent, but not one that leaves anything lasting behind, which is a shame because the setup shows so much promise.

"If he peeled back her pretty skin he'd find nothing soft or sweet at all, just busted glass and ashes and the desperate, animal will to stay alive."

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So, I'll admit, if this hadn't been up for review on Netgalley, I probably wouldn't have read it. I was one of those unpopular opinions for the Ten Thousand Doors of January. I adored the concept but was just left wanting with where the story went.  But ever the girl for second chances, I decided to go for The Once and Future Witches, and I'm so glad I did!

This is my favorite witch novel since The Discovery of Witches.  Set in the 1890's, it follows three sisters who are fighting for the rights of women.  Those rights are not just for voting but also to bring back the ancient power of witchcraft. The novel splits between following the sisters and their relationships and their quest to form women's societies to lobby for women's and witches' rights.  Each sister is carrying traumas from their childhood and resentments about the hard lives they've had to live just to scrape by. One ruthless, reckless and principal; one strong, selfish and practical; one wise, reserved and clever. Their bond reminded me a lot of the sisters in Practical Magic or Sanderson sisters in Hocus Pocus: lots of love, lots of attitude and lots of girl power. 

The book really captures the hysteria and potential for accusations of witchcraft to destroy a life. The punishments and torture were awful. The one thing that was missing for me, was the camaraderie and loyalty of the women. While I like to see that in a novel… I think what was presented here was quite true of that time - lots of people pointing fingers to save themselves rather than banding together.  And even though, unlike the witches in true history these witches had power… it shows how truly powerless they were to even just be themselves.

I also really loved the use of fairytales and nursery rhymes that’s the way to pass on the spells. I also really appreciated the fact that this book was inclusive and dealt with gender, race and sexuality very well.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January was my favorite book of 2019. I adored Harrow’s way with and respect for words and stories. The tale was such an ode to both that it made my heart feel as though it would burst. I kept having to pause periodically and close the book and my eyes so I could just soak in the exquisite prose. I wasn’t sure Harrow could ever again pen something quite that beautiful. But while I didn’t quite connect to her second novel as deeply as I did her first, I needn’t have worried. The Once and Future Witches is just as lovingly and impeccably crafted as Harrow’s incredible debut.

I love the symmetry of the first three chapters. The introduction of each sister feels whimsical because of it. The way in which Harrow takes familiar fairy tales and turns them on their heads in subtle, interesting ways is also very effective. The story is in large part a blending of fairy tales and the women’s suffrage movement, which felt like a unique combination. However, while I was infatuated by the form, the soul of this novel resides within the three sisters at its core: James Juniper, the youngest and wildest; Beatrice Belladonna, the oldest and wisest; and Agnes Amaranth, the strong one between them. But when we first meet these sisters, they are far from each other, and from who they were each meant to be. Witnessing their growth over the course of the novel, both internally and in their bond as sisters, was lovely to behold.

The novel is so purposefully and perfectly written that it was actually difficult for me to establish any emotional connection. It reminded me of The Starless Sea in this regard, though I definitely enjoyed The Once and Future Witches more. But I enjoyed it on a purely cerebral level instead of ever truly feeling it, try as I might. I think that lack of connection is likely a failing on my part, a side effect of the horrific year that has been 2020. Both my personal life and the state of the world have been so chaotic and terrible that things which would usually impact me deeply can’t seem to touch me at all. It’s quite possible that this lack of connection will be completely rectified on a reread, when my world is (hopefully) a little less awful.

I’m so thrilled to have been given the opportunity to read Harrow’s newest novel. It’s a story I definitely intend to read again. And I have a feeling that it will resonate more deeply with me the next time I visit with the Eastwood sisters as they take New Salem by storm. If you’re looking for a beautiful, witchy, feminist way to celebrate Halloween, is this ever the book for you.