The Famine Witch is historical fantasy with a dash of horror thrown in. A 19th century Ireland provides the backdrop for this tale filled with sickness, violence, and witches. I loved the cover and title of this, so I thought I would give it a go and let these witches cast a spell on me. Ultimately, this didn't work for me, but it promises plenty of action for other interested readers!

Things I appreciated:
Setting. This was such a cool backdrop for a story! Witches stepping into an already devastated town in 19th century Ireland? Count me in. The descriptions of the time and place made it feel claustrophobic and dreamlike.
Protagonist. Maggie was an interesting character and the story could have benefited from giving her a bit more background and following her more closely.

Things I didn't:
Writing. Way too melodramatic. Far too much repetition. A lot of the novel felt unnecessary. There were multiple meetings between the two antagonists where they just threatened each other and lots of "I will make this town rue the day..." monologues. Many times it felt like the author was just trying to fill up a page.
Genre-blending. This is historical fiction that initially read like horror and then later more like fantasy. The protagonists were all children, but the setting was dark and serious. I think it's perfectly fine to mix genres, but I finished this book confused as to what it wanted to be.
Multiple POVs. I think this was probably my biggest issue with the novel. Bloody Hands basically felt like a Scooby-Doo villain, so it was an odd choice to give him mutliple POV chapters. I also felt that adding POVs from the antagonists took away from the mystery and tension in the story. Just follow Maggie!

I throughly enjoyed this book. I loved that it acted as a historical fiction but was woven into a fantasy. The plot of dueling forces causing the terrible events happening in Belfast was done very well. Stephen’s writing is very descriptive and really lends to the dark themes within the book. I became very invested in the characters and their development and enjoyed how each character you met eventually played different roles in the overarching story. Stephen’s writing was refreshing as his vocabulary is very robust and frequently found myself looking up words. I also liked that there was a lot of traditional Irish words used and found reading this book also educational.

The ending…. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it did not turn out how I thought it would and for that, I was pleasantly surprised.

My only critique would be that some parts felt redundant, such as describing the same things from every point of view and having characters reminisce over the past multiple times. It made the book felt longer than it needed to be. It did take me a bit to become really invested in the story but I think that was because of meeting multiple characters and trying to understand their roles in the story and with each other.

My conclusion? A very well done historical, dark, fantasy that I would definitely read again. I read the ARC on my Kindle so now I will need my shelf trophy when it comes out!

Desecration

Black 47. The Great Hunger of 1847 to 1849 saw unthinkable misery and human suffering with roughly one million Irish deaths from starvation or disease. This is the backdrop of Stephen Black’s “The Famine Witch.” This was a time of nightmares.

The plot begins two hundred years earlier, with Belfast plagued by a supernatural serial killer, “Bloody Hands," who butchered and fed on the lives of young women. One victim he set up was Fionnuala, the legendary Black Lady, framed as a witch and subsequently put to death in a scapegoating frenzy. She cursed not only Bloody Hands, but on the whole of Belfast.

“She would have her vengeance.”

So now it is the time of famine. Bloody Hands is once again soaking the city streets in the blood of his victims. Fionnuala steers a disease infested ship into the harbor, primed to spread more death. A girl named Maggie, vaguely a disciple of The Black Lady, is cast as a puppet in the battle between the two supernatural enemies. The fate of Belfast, of the whole of Ireland, is in the balance.

“The Famine Witch” is well written. It is populated with evil villains and a very few honest souls who rise to seemingly insurmountable challenges. The pacing is quick and the action pays off satisfactorily in the inevitable confrontations. I would rate this somewhere between a three and four.

But…

I am torn. Black 47 can seem like untold years ago, something out of the Dark Ages. Yet, there is the history and the stories handed down from family about the masses dying in the street. I am not sure the horror needs to be embellished with witchcraft and the supernatural. The greed, the callousness, the utter disregard for a whole nation of people is enough. Accounts of The Holocaust need only to be spoken, I could not fathom distorting them with fantasy. So, yes, this time of Irish genocide is a trigger for me… one that bothered me more after finishing the book.

In the Preface the author posts a warning: “A dark, foreboding story that told of vengeful witches and bloodthirsty demons, yet nothing compared to the real horrors that befell the people of Belfast in 1847.” There is also an “Appendix B,” a trigger index. So, again, this is a well written tale– I just have mixed feelings about the need to play in this graveyard.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quill and Crow Publishing for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

“Scare them enough, and they will believe anything.”

At its core, “The Famine Witch” is a good story with an interesting premise. The potato famine in Belfast being the deadly consequence of a woman being unrightfully hanged 200 hundred years prior for crimes she didn’t commit, an insidious ancient being at the true heart of the crimes and her untimely demise.

The historical elements seemed to be well researched and factual, and the magical elements regarding wards are accurate as well. As hard as it was to read about the treatment of the dead or the living conditions, it’s an unfortunately authentic account of that period in history. There is violence but it’s not unnecessarily graphic; the author uses just enough to set the scene and give the reader unease.

I do wish that books would start printing their trigger warnings at the beginning rather than tucking them away at the very end after the acknowledgments which I don’t know that many people read, and a glossary of terms. If a person were to read a sample of the story via Kindle they wouldn’t even see the trigger index at all, which is counterproductive.

While I enjoyed the premise of “The Famine Witch”, it could definitely benefit from some housekeeping. We are constantly reminded of how long Fionnuala and Bloody Hands have waited, what they plan to do and how the people will suffer. It’s not necessary to constantly reiterate one’s evil plans in practically the same manner each time, and trimming the excessive recapitulation regarding their motives would have better helped the flow of the story.

Even showing rather than constantly telling how they wanted to achieve their end goals would have been more effective. It’s like the internal dialogue between both the main villains was an intrusive thought we were privy to and they had to follow the same script to remind themselves of each step of their plan. It gets tiresome.

Honestly, I thought this book was much longer than it was and I was shocked when I looked at the listed page count from the publisher. It felt like a book in excess of 450 pages not one under 300. What would normally take me a day to finish took almost a week as I just could not slog through it all in one sitting.

Aside from their agendas, a variation of the number six is used a whopping 55 times in this story (not including the time in appears in a chapter title), the highest instances of which include the phrases “his sixth” or “the sixth”. Six is used 9 separate times in relation to time passing, weight or quantities; even Mary’s hair grows six inches. I was getting sick of reading the word. I understand using numbers or words as a common thread throughout to tie everything together, and when done well it’s incredibly effective, however this was too much.

That’s not the only thing repeated frequently, as the phrase “two hundred years” appears 17 times, cailleach and abhartach appear 16 times and 11 times respectively (not counting the appendix), and handprint appears 11 times. We also reference Fionnuala’s “emerald eyes” 7 times as well as describing them various other shades of green. There was so much echoing regarding the appearances of beautiful Fionnuala and ugly Bloody Hands that it became redundant rather quickly and I found myself skimming through those paragraphs to get to new information.

The character of Mary was interesting because given her circumstances she could have easily grown into a hardened and embittered young woman, yet we see much compassion and love from her. Even when faced with the prospect of having a lot of power and potentially getting back at those who wronged her or her brother, or even the wealthy who turned a blind eye while so many were starving and dying, she stays true to her convictions and never loses her humanity.

I do wish the final confrontation was more detailed and dramatic. It seemed over before it even got started and then it’s like it never happened. It was rather anticlimactic, unfortunately.

We get to see a glimpse of the near future for both the characters and Belfast, with the last chapter being set 3 years afterward which is nice, and I’m glad the author didn’t take the predictable route of having certain characters ending up as love interests. It’s not necessarily a happy ending, but a hopeful ending which I think is better.

The Famine Witch does well in tackling the difficult subject manner and the writing itself when not being repetitious was solid.
Thank you to NetGalley, Quill & Crow Publishing, and the author for the arc. 3/5 stars

The famine which is a historical fantasy book set during the Irish potato famine in 1847. Maggie and her brother Jinx are slowly starving along with the rest of Belfast before they are swept into an unbelievable world of witches and demons.
I found the book to be a good solid read. My heart broke for Maggie and her brother just trying to survive. There are quite a few TW for this book which the author lists in appendix B:
Grave desecration
Death by execution
Extreme poverty/starvation
Gore
Implied infant death
Violence toward women
Misogyny
I honestly don’t think you could have a book set in this time period without those things but if they trigger you best to avoid this book. Otherwise give this book a chance. The only reason I’ll give it a 3 vs a 4 is because there seemed to be a lot of repetition in explaining things which drives me bonkers.

Set in Belfast, Ireland during the time of the Great Famine, The Famine Witch is an expertly written tale of Irish historical fiction mixed with dark fantasy. It follows nineteen-year-old Maggie Malone and her young brother, Jinks, who are entirely on their own. Their town lives in a constant state of fear due to the cruel murderer who stalks their streets, brutally killing young women and leaving a trail of bloody hands in his wake. Another malicious force, in the form of the Black Lady, is hellbent on bringing further destruction to their tiny town and has a bone to pick with the crazed killer roaming the streets. Maggie and Jinks are thrown headfirst into this ancient quarrel and must figure out a way to save their town - and each other.

I was hooked from the very first page. The author does a spectacular job of teleporting the reader through his expertly-crafted descriptions. The language itself is beautiful and enchanting. It may be a hard read for some due to the graphic depictions of gore and starvation, but there is an appendix of trigger warnings at the end that is very helpful. I loved how it delved into Irish mythology, and there is another helpful appendix at the end that explains the various terms that a reader may be unfamiliar with. It also does a great job of analyzing the class and religious differences amongst Ireland during this time period. The only thing I did not particularly like was a lot of the dialogue. It felt a bit shallow in parts and I think there was a missed opportunity to flesh out the characters a bit more, including their various histories.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the mystery behind it. I do not usually pick up gothic dark fantasy but this was a great introduction to the genre. I would definitely pick up another book by Stephen Black in the future! A big thank you to NetGalley, Stephen Black, and Quill and Crow Publishing House for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the time of the Great Famine, The Famine Witch throws us into a world of frigidness, sorrow, and anguish from the start. The Irish history is what drew me to this book but is also what suckered punched my heart. The Famine Witch is not for the faint of heart-- it includes child starvation and many moments of desperation from extreme poverty.

Against this bleak background Stephen Black intricately weaves together strands of Irish mythology with creations of his own imagination to create a story. While the setting is wonderfully written and thought out, the plot of the story and the characters are lacking.

The Famine Witch is an decent, uncomfortable read! I will definitely pick up another Stephen Black book in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quill and Crow Publishing House for this eARC!

What do you get when you combine the Irish potato famine with Irish lore? The Famine Witch!! This dark, gothic, historical horror fantasy novella follows characters living in Belfast at the time of the famine in 1847 as the city's population fights of starvation, a fever brought on by sick boat passengers dropped off at the dock, and the return of "Bloody Hands," an ancient demon that surfaces every 200 years to kill 6 people to sustain his life and curse, and the Famine Witch, a reincarnated "witch" who was hung as the 6th murder over 200 years ago.

This book does an incredible job of fitting us into the city, seeing the class and religious differences at play (of course its the Protestants vs the Catholics...this is Ireland), and getting to deeply understand our characters in such a short amount of time. While there are quite a few fantastical elements, I think this is a great time capsule for a lot of what was happening in Ireland during the famine. Although I do have a bone to pick with this book...and its that the one character with my last name is killed off unceremoniously!!! (Justice for the O'Donnells)

Thank you to Stephen Black and NetGalley for a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review! The Famine Witch is released everywhere on January 25- check it out!

4.5 stars. The Famine Witch really evokes a time and place that has been largely forgotten by historical fiction (let alone fantasy), so upon seeing this title available on NetGalley, of course I snapped it up. And it did not disappoint!

The only nitpicky nitpick I have is I would have loved more background on the cailleach. While I did come into this book with knowledge of the Crone, I’d like to know more how she fits into the over mythology of the book. How did Fionnuala get involved? How about Maggie and Jinks’ mother? We were given a brief overview of Bloody Hands (the real identity was, as a reader of Irish mythology, a twist I should have seen coming yet strangely did not and really appreciated the surprise) and the same background treatment of the cailleach would have really fleshed things out. Likewise, I was kinda surprised that the case of the witches of Islandmagee weren’t mentioned even in passing in the 1847 timeline.

Finally, the book hinted at the true evil of this period in time — outright prejudice that created the conditions for and then exacerbated the famine to not only kill or force millions to emigrate, thus impacting a population that, even 177 years later, has yet to hit totals since pre-famine years.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free ebook version of this title for review.

Thank you NetGalley for granting me access to this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was exactly what I needed! I’ve been sticking to lighter reads recently but this was definitely not light. I will also say that anything set in Ireland… I will read :)

This book kept me engaged and thinking throughout. I the way the setting was explained and how the characters were written!

I highly recommend reading this book! (But please check the triggers first)

I wanted to like this so badly. and I did like the setting the premise, the fact that he used the actual Irish language. But I just couldn’t connect to any of the characters, it was also really slow and it took a while for the dual timelines to become intertwined. I really wanted to like this but it was just meh for me so that's annoying.

This book is a very interesting read. The author has a unique way of seamlessly telling the story from the POV of different characters without causing a whiplash to the reader. I love how one character is somehow connected to another, and how all these build up to display the final epic scene.
I recommend this book for people looking for something short and dark to read, with no romance.

To read a much detailed review of this book, check out the link to my blog below. Thank you!

The Famine Witch by Stephen Black is a chilling historical fantasy set against one of the darkest periods of Irish history, the Great Hunger , a time when famine swept the country and millions either died of hunger and disease or were forced to emigrate, fleeing the country in so called coffin ships, though thousands of them would never see their final destination.
Against this desolate background Stephen Black has intricately woven together strands of Irish mythology with creations of his own imagining to create a story that held me spellbound from beginning to end. With incredibly vivid description Black quickly evokes the bleakness and poverty faced by many of his characters and establishes the struggles faced not just by the individual characters but by the city of Belfast, and indeed the country as a whole. We meet the determined and independent Maggie Malone who is raising her younger brother Jinks while mourning the recent death of their mother while their father tries to drown his sorrows by spending every last penny in the local pubs. What Maggie does not know is that she is about to become a pawn in a deadly game between a crazy killer known only as "Bloody Hands", once considered a local myth but now slaughtering young women in the city once again , and The Black Lady, a malevolent force determined to seek revenge for her death having been hanged as a witch in the city centuries before , in part because of the actions of Bloody Hands. So blinded is she by her need for vengeance that she is willing to destroy the city in pursuit of it, but Maggie is more powerful than the Black Lady ever imagined, and is not going to be anyone's pawn. She will do whatever it takes to save her brother and her city, even if it means becoming the Famine Witch.
This is a strong story well told, though if I am honest I think the ending was a little rushed, which is a shame given how much I enjoyed the building of the story all along. The writing is descriptive but not overly so, enough to transport the reader to another time and place without distracting from the story being told. The main characters are strong and easy to care about and root for while the secondary characters are very effectively used to help with setting the scene and making the world of the story more believable. I do wish we could have had a little more of the friendship between Maggie and clergyman's daughter Annabelle, I thought the contrasts in their upbringings made for an interesting dynamic and I enjoyed the pairing, so can't help wanting more , though I understand the need to focus more on elements of the story that moved the main plot along more.
Overall a strong historical fantasy with a unique real world setting that should appeal to many readers, I read an ARC courtesy of NetGalley, the author and Quill and Crow Publishing, all opinions are my own.

I love a good Witch story and this did not disappoint! This isn’t your typical witch trial story either. Maggie and her younger brother, Jinks live in Belfast during the famine of 1847. Not only does famine and hunger haunt the town, but young women are showing up brutally murdered and most town folk are worried the legend of Bloody Hands is indeed real. Just when they think things can’t get worse, a storm at sea brings a ship full of sick and contagious migrants to the town and sickness quickly spreads. When the town starts to point fingers at Maggie and she is accused of this misfortune, she turns to “her Lady” for help, she learns about her past and that things may not be as they seem. Now it’s up to her to save the town from bloody hands and break the curse given to their ancestors two hundred years prior.

It took a few chapters to really get into the book and if I’m being honest it was a little hard to follow along and understand what exactly was going on in some parts.
The plot was good but with too many story lines and too much going on, it was hard to follow. It would have been a great series instead.
Overall it was enjoyable and I would definitely read it again. Especially around Halloween time!

🖤🖤Book Review🖤🖤
The Belfast Witch by @stephenblackauthor

The year is 1847 and the hunger is striking in Ireland. This book is based on a brother and sister, who lost their mother, to hunger and their father to the drink. While trying to make it on their own at such a young age, the sister Maggie reverts to asking for help from the old stories of the Belfast witch.. Maggie believes this will protect her and her brother from the killer that also runs the streets during the hunger. They call the killer, bloody hands, and he comes back every 200 years to claim his six victims. the story ties together very well and there was not a dull moment. I really enjoyed each of the characters they were described very well, and I really came to love the sister. if you like any type of stories, this is definitely one to read. this book 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟


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I was really hoping to enjoy this but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. The writing style fell flat for me and I just couldn’t get invested. I really think this book will do great for others, I can see it being well received but again just not for me. Thanks to NetGally and the Publishers for the Arc in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this was a very good book. It really made you feel what the lives of people were like in Ireland during that terrible time period.gut wrenching stuff to be sure. Overall, I found the characters engaging and I enjoyed the female empowerment of the story. I think it will also give people a historical glimpse of the atrocities that were inflicted on that country, important stuff and an entertaining story wrapped into one, well done!

The Famine Witch
by Stephen Black
Pub Date: 25 Jan 2024

Belfast, 1847. They would come to call it Black ‘47.

A town on the brink, ravaged by the Great Hunger sweeping across the island of Ireland. A town living in fear as a crazed killer stalks the streets at night, butchering young women. They call him Bloody Hands.

Amidst the chaos, nineteen-year-old Maggie Malone and her young brother, Jinks, fight to survive each day. But there is worse to come when a mysterious ship limps into port, having miraculously emerged from a savage storm. A ship carrying death itself, summoned by a malevolent force that has haunted the mountain overlooking Belfast for centuries, hellbent on devastation and ruin. They call her The Black Lady.

Maggie and Jinks become unwitting pawns as Bloody Hands and The Black Lady take their ancient feud to new levels of barbarism, threatening the future of Belfast and its hapless population. Can Maggie unlock the dormant power within her and save Belfast from toppling into the abyss? Can she transform into the savior that the people so desperately need?

Can she become The Famine Witch?

#TheFamineWitch

I liked the premise and backdrop to the story, and the strong female protagonist. The characters had substance and personality. However I struggled with the writing style and ultimately it wasn’t for me. I needed a more dramatic ending.
Overall a good book but just didn’t tick my boxes.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for a review.

The Famine Witch is a book set in Belfast in 1847 in a time called ‘The Great feminine’ or ‘Black 47’

I quite love reading books that are historical fiction and this one was no exception. The authour has done a really good job writing about the historical event and I really enjoyed reading and learning about this historical event.

This book is atmospheric, in credit for its heavy usage of descriptions. Every word strings beautifully together, not leaving the most minute of details to chance and perfectly encapsulating the ambiance of the setting

While I mostly enjoyed reading this book, I did sometimes feel like I had to stop reading and take a break to focus.

I’d overall rate this book a four out of five stars. It’s a great book and I think a lot of people will enjoy this.