Last weekend, I was sitting in a cafe in Melbourne and reading my book when the young woman serving me asked what I was reading. I was reading Weyward and she said “oh I love stories about witches!” We chatted for a moment and made a couple of recommendations to each other, and the one she recommended to me was The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow.
I began listening to the audiobook on the drive home the next day, and I was enjoying the story but needed music for the drive, so on Tuesday I went to my local bookstore and got a hardcopy. I’ve been engrossed ever since.
The story is about three sisters: Bella, Agnes and Juniper - the Eastwood sisters. The three sister are separated years earlier and there is tension between them as to the reasons why. However, they are drawn together in the late 19th century after Juniper leaves the family farm after a fire (that kills their father) in New Salem, which is a new town in Massachusetts after the original town of Salem was burned to the ground after the witchcraft trials.
They find themselves working together to support the burgeoning women’s sufferage movement, and using their collective power when trouble finds them. Trouble is, of course, a man who is running for Mayor of New Salem and who ascribes to a religiously conservative approach to witches; that is, he wants them to burn.
It’s hard to talk much further about the plot of this novel for fear of creating spoilers, but there are themes through it that include lesbianism, witchcraft, abortion, murder and more.
The writing is excellent - it took me five days to read but the novel is also over 500 pages long, and I regularly had to stop because I wanted to look up something or just think it all through - there is a lot happening in New Salem!
Despite the fact I have read a few witchy novels recently (and loved them), I would not have classed myself as a reader of fantasy. That’s the reading snob coming through and she needs to check herself, because although fantasy is not my usual jam, books that tackle witchcradft (particularly in partnership with feminism) are some of my new favourites. So hi, it’s me - the woman who likes a little bit of fantasy after all!
I will be forever grateful to the server in that cafe because The Once and Future Witches was absolutely awesome. On Storygraph, I rarely give a book 5 stars but this one got 5 stars easily - there was nothing about it I would change or improve. The pace, the characters, the storyline…it’s all fantastic.
If you have enjoyed books like Weyward, The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudsley or you like anything to do with witches, I cannot recommend this one highly enough.
I am officially entering my witchy era, and I cannot wait to see what’s brewing next.
