Best Fantasy - The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow
I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit of a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Orbit
Published – Out Now
Price – £14.99 hardback £7.99 Kindle eBook
In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.
But when the three Eastwood sisters join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote - and perhaps not even to live - the sisters must delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.
There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.
We say the word witch and generations of stories makes us see someone evil and to be scared of. But why would a witch be someone we fear – a woman with knowledge; perhaps some authority in her society may be feared for reasons other than we think they have a gingerbread house hidden in the woods. Witch gets labelled now at women who protest or challenge the orthodoxy. So if witchcraft was real the power of protest could get really interesting. This forms the starting point for the beautiful The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow where three estranged sisters find themselves in the middle of protests not just about rights for women in an alterative America but one where the old powers of witchcraft are either a sinful practise worthy of being burnt to death or a way to establish freedom for people society wats to always control.
James Juniper Eastwood arrives in New Salem – its 1893 and the local Suffragist movement is about to protest for more rights for women. Juniper is more worried someone will discover she has killed a man…her abusive father. On the same day she meets her other two sisters; the eldest Beatrice a woman on the verge of becoming a spinster librarian who still finds investigating myth and magic fascinating while Agnes works in a terrible factory with appalling conditions but is hiding a secret that could make her become a disgrace. The arrive at the scene of a dark tower of witchcraft arriving and then vanishing in the square; magic is coming back, and it may be key to taking the protest to those in power and in particular an ambitious politician, but it may also help repair a broken family.
What jumps out in this story is the depth of the world Harrow creates. It’s a world where Witchcraft is real; the original Salem and it’s condemned women and children were burned to death within the town. This is a world where magic is accepted as real plus one where women still face the death penalty for its use. But Harrow cleverly merges this with the rise of women seeking rights and on top of that the local Black population which post-civil war is still not seen as equal. Here witchcraft is the power of protest and activism. The Eastwoods begin to involve themselves in these protest movements and experiment with practising these powers some of which were taught by their grandmother and find they are getting increasingly powerful. This is a tale of women finding their voice working together and also how they can strike back at oppression. But it’s not easy – factory workers can be here dismissed or even just have a week’s wages suspended; public protests can be banned and if you annoy politicians enough you can be killed. This is not a problem we know in the past it is still happening and when the witches embrace the traditional outfits, they’re reminding me of various spontaneous protests where women turned symbols of oppression into protest eg Handmaidens in 2016. I loved how this was played with and indeed would have loved to actually have seen more of how the Black Civil Rights movement of the period; the trade union movements and other activist groups that get mentioned in passing. It’s a fascinating take using real history and adding a fantasy dimension for this type of activity rather than say replacing industry as other books have done in the past. Again, I see a book not just talking about the 19th century but our own time too and the parallels between both periods is fascinating.
Fans of The Ten Thousand Doors of January will be pleased to know Harrow has kept the same excellent level of storytelling. The craft of the writing is beautiful, and each scene has a little gem of description or character. When magic happens, it can be glorious or terrifying; the emotional states of characters are explored, and it was an absolute pleasure to read. The quality of storytelling is beautiful and throughout we get small 2–3-page interludes as folk tales that may or may not explain the larger plotlines. Harrow brings a touch of magic to reading and this is very much the kind of book to get comfy and wallow in the storytelling.
With all that and I do stress I think this is a top class read my one reservation here was the initial development of the three estranged sisters certainly in the first two hundred pages feels very traditional – we know they are estranged due to a family secret; this gets revealed and they then join up again. It’s however I think deliberate and afterwards we see these characters start to go in different directions. In particular I loved how the eldest finest admits to being gay and commences a hesitant but lovely romance with a member of the Black underground movement herself. AS we explore the mythology of the Witches, we see the idea of Maiden, Mother and Crone getting constantly repeated and in the final sections of the book these parallels with the sisters are explored even more and our stereotypes interrogated in a beautiful sequence I’ll let you find for yourselves. By the end my niggles were unfounded, and the ending of the tale is powerful, emotional and bittersweet yet feels earned – very much the kind of book I didn’t mind a late train journey so I could finish it in the last hundred pages.
The Once and Future Witches is an absolutely delicious piece of fantasy reading. A complex world, gorgeous prose, and a host of characters we meet and want to know a lot more about. My only reservation is that I’d probably have loved to explore more of the world the Eastwood sisters meet along their way. Perhaps one day we could revisit this world I would not be disappointed if we do. Well worthy of this year’s nominees.
