Witches and suffragettes? Sign me up!

Great female cast of diverse characters! I really enjoyed the plot and the retelling of fairy tales and archetypes from different cultures. Each character is strong in their own ways and feel so real. I loved the a fierce message about the power of women working together to overcome their underlying power struggles due to the patriarchy. It shows the importance of intersectionality and how we need to support each other, especially those from marginalized groups.

The way magic works is really interesting and perfect for something that needs to be hidden away quickly but can still be spread to other women. I loved everything about this book!

The Once and Future Witches is officially on my all time favorite books list. It is lyrical and atmospheric. The themes of sisterhood and women empowerment were *chef’s kiss wonderful. And of course ALL of the witchy-ness that my heart could ask for. While this is a fantasy and not all the magic is realistic, Harrow describes magic and what being a Witch means in such a beautifully real way. And let us not forget that women being burned at the stake was very real. I knew I was a fan of Harrow’s writing from The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and I was so happy that her sophomore novel met and surpassed my expectations. An October publication date is perfect for this book, and I highly recommend putting it on your Fall TBR. *Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for providing this ARC in exchange for honest review.

I really enjoyed this feminist tale of three sisters leading the charge to reclaim women's latent magical powers and fight for the cause of female suffrage in an alternative 19th century, where magic has been banned and the story of Old Salem's condemned witches cast a very long shadow. Though at times the sisters veer a little bit into caricature instead of reality, they are supposed to be archetypes of the female experience, and you always care about them and their story. Especially good is the story of spinster librarian sister, Beatrice, who grows into herself and into a sweet love story as she allows herself to reject the stereotype she's been trying to live up to.

Following in the footsteps of Ms. Harrow's successful debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches is a spell-binding tale set in an almost familiar country where illicit relationships with magic run afoul of a seemingly turn-of-the-century reality steeped in oppression and old-fashioned ideas. Three sisters, each with her own particular persona embodying the Mother, Maiden, or Crone, have inherited a dangerous legacy of witchcraft. Now, they must reckon with the dawning realization that they seem destined to fight the spreading darkness and evil around them. Bound to each other by blood and magic, yet each wanting to follow her own path, Juniper, Agnes, and Bella work separately and together in an attempt to bring forth a brighter future that embraces the power of the past.

The narrative builds slowly at first, as Harrow spends time carefully crafting the characters and the places they inhabit in great detail. However, rather than feeling like setting the book aside, as sometimes happens with slow-starters, I felt The Once and Future Witches was revving up. Indeed, soon the sisters' stories were churning towards a page-turning finish that I couldn't put down.

Reading this story in 2020 feels allegorical, and at times almost literal, as universal struggles for freedom, acceptance, equality, and empowerment are at the forefront and in between the lines. It is dark and lovely, magic and meaningful, and in the end, there is a breathless beauty that leaves you clinging to something desperately close to hope.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I received and ARC of this book from NetGalley and let me just say how happy I am for it.

I read Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow last year and it was instantly one of my favorite books of the year, so I had high hopes for this book. It certainly did not disappoint.

The entire time I was reading it kept me introspective, enchanted, and wanting to know more. The author has a way with words that just grabs hold and never lets go.

The story revolves starts off about three sisters (three witches) who are struggling to survive, dealing with their past, and don’t have much hope for the future. It quickly becomes about SO MUCH MORE. At its heart this is a story about bonds of sisterhood (both by blood and by choice), about women’s rights, about those who suffer unjust persecution based on their race, their nationality, their means, who they choose to love, and who they are as human beings. And it’s all told in the form of an enchanting story with witch tales and fairy tales that have been turned on their heads.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this book since I’ve finished reading it. It has charmed and enchanted me and made me think. I’ve already recommended to everyone I know (which to me is a form of the highest praise). This book clearly has the words, the ways, and the will to be my favorite read of the year.

This book was absolutely flawless. Alix E. Harrow is truly one of the most talented writers and absolutely one of my favorites. As much as I loved The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches completely transcends it.
This book is full of the eerie, perfectly flowing writing that I loved in The Ten Thousand Doors of January. But this time, the book focuses on sisters, witches, and women. Everything about this book was perfect: the characters, their relationships, the witch lore, the plot. It was similar to The Ten Thousand Doors of January in the stories woven throughout the chapters, which is one of my favorite plot devices, and I really hope this continues in her next book.
I highly, highly recommend this book to everyone. I think there’s something in it for everyone, and I really hope it’ll be getting the attention it deserves.

Synopsis

Three sisters bound by blood and witchcraft.In 1893 there is no such thing as a witch. These are fairy tales told to young women, meant to bind them to a life of servitude and obedience. If a woman wants to be heard she needs to cast her vote. The Eastwood sisters join the suffragettes in an attempt to let their voices be heard, instead they find themselves remembering the forgotten words and searching for the old ways. The past will become their future. Once a witch, always a witch.

Review

What if witches were real? What if the feminist movement depended on the acts of “witches”? Harrow creates a world where witchcraft is the only way forward for women struggling in a mans world. The Eastwood sisters are reunited in their efforts to unseat Gideon Hill from local government. Whispers and nursery rhymes are resurrected in secret gatherings fuelling the suffragists.
Harrow does an exceptional job of creating characters that represent different perspectives, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Her female characters are opinionated, strong willed, fiercely loyal, and oh so relatable. The relationship between Agnes, Bella, and Juniper is strained at first but as the story unfolds the reader is assured of their love for each other at all costs. Harrow expertly weaves in details from known history (Salem, Grimm’s fairytales, nursery rhymes) which grounds the story for the reader. An epic fairytale full of magic and mayhem that thoroughly immerses the reader.

Highly recommended for readers of Alice Hoffman and Deborah Harkness.

I had to DNF at 30%. Normally I love a good witchy sister story, but for some reason this one wasn't gripping me. They are all different characters but sometimes it felt like they all had the same internal voice. Perhaps that's just to show how close they are as sisters? Maybe I'll pick this book back up during the autumn spooky months, but for now, it's a DNF for me.

While this book started off slow for me, it really picked up and ultimately I found it a gripping, triumphant story of women’s agency and sisterhood. Parts of it can be quite grim, as the book deals very realistically with the violence against women and misogyny that results from women getting any measure of power, however I found it very uplifting and a celebration of the strength of women. It was a fascinating, compelling story that almost flawlessly wove together political intrigue, social commentary, and magic.

I liked how much the book focused on the bond between the sisters, and how that bond can be tested and thought broken, by betrayal - lack of trust - hurt, but how sisters are tied together despite all of that, and how relationships can be healed by honesty, communication and forgiveness. Part of what made this book so hard to read at times was knowing what real, visceral danger the sisters were in and being afraid that they wouldn’t forgive each other before something truly awful happened. As it turned out, even when things were awful and dire, even without forgiving each other entirely, the sisters still helped each other and that was perfect and real and raw and lovely.

I also really enjoyed the LGBT rep in this book - one of the main characters is a lesbian, and one of their friends is trans. The identities are very seldom questioned, and the relationships are poignant and a cornerstone of the story. I thoroughly needed to read a book where being gay, or trans, or both, isn’t a major plot point and doesn’t entirely revolve around misery.

I would recommend this book to others, and I can’t wait to see what Harrow does next.

Placed in Salem during the women's voting rights movement, this fantastical critique of the limitations of the suffragists explores the lives of three sisters with knowledge of magic. This book excels in quality of content, with a story line I have not heard before, yet the characters lack depth. Each character has a personality that remains stagnant throughout the book. The large number of important characters offsets each individual's lack of personal development. I would recommend this book to all fiction readers and readers who prefer a social justice undertone.

This book was an absolute wonder; a tale of women who tried, and women who dared. Women who took the rules and norms of an uncertain time in their hands and used the ways, the words, and definitely the will to attempt change an untenable situation.

Basically put, the Eastwood sisters are moderately fledgling witches who each set out, individually, from their horror of a home to find a better life in the city of New Salem. Each has their own motivation, and none figured their sisterhood would figure into their bigger pictures.

What pulls them back together is a promise for renewed magic and a strong danger with powers and wiles vastly unknown to any of them.

You have the stalwart Agnes, who finds herself working in a small factory, the studious Bella who satiates her craving for knowledge at a library, and the youngest, and wildest of the three, James Juniper, who embodies the piss and vinegar required to help pull everyone together to right the wrongs pushed on them by a male-dominated society.

In the unfolding of this amazing tale, Ms. Harrow presents an incredibly multi-faceted approach at the history of women and the ways of their folk, their mothers, their mothers' mothers and the subtle wending of witchy ways.

Set in the backdrop of a rising suffragist movement. Very quickly, the Eastwood sisters, June most of all, pulls together a group of high-spirited compatriots to try to sort out the troubling storm brewing in New Salem and the apparent rise of one Gideon Hill.

What unfolds is a very heartwarming tale of determination and sacrifice; a grand story of rediscovering lost histories and unearthing the untapped potential in those who have seemingly lost everything.

This is definitely a book I will be revisiting. The characters are all rich, diverse and very relatable. The twists are all incredibly well-formed and exhilarating as well as heart-breaking. For every gain of self-realization, there also comes the heartbreak of the reality of choices.

I would not have changed anything at all.

Sometimes a new author comes along who absolutely blows my mind with their natural gift for storytelling, and Alix E. Harrow is one of those authors. I will admit that I was nervous to read this book after reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January at the beginning of 2020 because I loved it so much, and I was afraid she might not be able to do it again. But she certainly did with The Once and Future Witches – I was under its spell from the first sentence – and Alix E. Harrow is now officially an auto-buy author for me!

This is a story of three sisters in the late 1800’s in New Salem, when the suffragist movement is just getting on its feet. The story revolves around wise Bella, strong and steady Agnes, and wild Juniper and their goal to escape their abuse-filled pasts and bring back the Lost Way of Avalon, or magic, at the same time giving power back to women who have been downtrodden for so long. In a world that considers magic an abomination and punishes those who use it, comes three women with magic in their blood and the desire for change.

I have always been drawn to stories about magic, which this certainly is, but it’s so much more. It’s a story about love and hate, power and oppression, fairness and prejudice, pleasure and pain, bravery and fear, and compassion and hostility. It’s about the need to fight the battle to give women the respect they deserve and the legal rights held by men. It touches on everything! At its root, its about the need for change, and what a relevant topic that is in our world today.

I love how each chapter begins with a verse we all know in a similar form from childhood tales and nursery rhymes, but each is actually a spell. Also, the number “3” is very important to this story, and although the sisters are all very different from each other, it will take the combination of all three of them, working in unison, to hopefully make change happen. They had been torn apart in the past, but they soon learn that they are stronger together.

Not only do I love the magic in The Once and Future Witches, but I just found this story incredibly powerful. There are so many lessons to be learned from these three sisters, and I came away feeling even more proud to be a woman and truly believing that the more people you let into your heart, the more you have to help you if you should fall.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early review copy of this book which I can’t recommend highly enough. 5 magical stars from me!

Absolutely magical. Alix Harrow writes with such exquisite language, each word and description draw you in to the story of three sisters and their tale of rediscovering each other and themselves. The story is full of fairy tales, the struggle for the rights of the oppressed, and finding love and compassion. A book I’ll buy in hardcover to read again and will recommend to everyone, thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me hours of joyful escape and suspense.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January fans, rejoice! Harrow is back with another historical fantasy, this time set in 1893 Salem. The Eastwood sisters are suffragettes who turn to witchcraft to pursue women’s rights and freedoms. These sisters have delightfully witchy names: James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna. While the rest of Salem believes there’s no such thing as witches, the sisters busily fight forces, create magic, and bond with one another in order to secure their rights. Not a perfect book, and it required some patience on my part, but I admired its exuberance and am glad I stuck with it.

This book was an interesting take on the ideas of witches, which made it quite enjoyable.
It took me a long time to get around the political parts of the book and that caused some slow moments to result in a 4 star instead of 5 stars.
I loved the relationships between the sisters and how represented each was with their own personalities that drove the story forward for the love of one another and eventually the added people into their families. These three sisters were able to push through past trauma and gain strength in fighting together against another dark person.
This book enticed me to pick up her other book, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and I am excited to read through that book this year!

I struggled reading this one and unfortunately DNF’d it after a few slow weeks of trying over and over to just keep reading and push tryout, waiting for the moment where I was totally grabbed. I LOVED Harrow’s first book and was hoping this next novel would capture the same kind of magic. I think had I felt more connected with the characters and cared more about them or had a more in depth understanding of the magic system, I might have felt more invested. I might attempt to pick it up again later - maybe it was just the wrong time.

Okay, I’m loving that we’ve started hyping up witches lately in the book world. There is something so foundationally empowering about witches, for women, that I can’t help but connect with them. That this book connects it to women’s rights is amazing. Definitely recommend.

Many many thanks to Redhook and Netgalley for,providing the advance reader copy! This book was fantastic. It centers on three estranged sisters who are (as you might have guessed) witches. The book combines alternative history and touches on suffrage, labor rights, gender, and more. I’m just in love with this book and sorry it’s over. Put this on your to-read list for fall, I highly recommend it.

So many thoughts...

Let's start with the things I liked: The plot is about three witch sisters who reunite, become suffragists, and fight for women's voices. This book is all about empowering women. I liked the parallel that was drawn between being witches and speaking up for women's rights, as if witching in general was a women's movement. I also like the parallel that was drawn between scared men trying to minimize women and the same scared men who tried to stamp out and burn witches. I like what this book was trying to say.

I'm also a huge fan of fairytales so I loved how the words of these known fairytales were woven into the story. Witches binding themselves to words instead of objects? Love it. I also loved how each chapter started off with the lines of a known fairytale or nursery rhyme and it explained what the "spell" was used for. So creative and it actually made sense.

And there's also some good rep in here - LGBT, single parent, non-toxic masculinity.

Ok so all the good things being stated, let's move onto what I didn't like: This. book. moved. so. slow. The pacing was rough and I got bored often. Unfortunately, once I got bored, I stopped paying attention to what I was reading, then something would happen and I'd have to backtrack to see what I missed. It happened often enough that I can't say this book was wonderful when it just wasn't. At times, it felt like a slog to get through and I felt each one of those 528 pages.

So yeah, I'm sticking with 3 stars because there were some great things in here and the overall story was one that intrigued me enough to continue. However, the pacing is really slow and I will not be surprised if I hear of many people DNFing this one out of boredom.

I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alix E. Harrow has a way with words. As of now, I have read a couple of her novels and short stories. I am always amazed by the beautiful and magical prose.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow follows three sisters: Beatrice Belladonna, Agnes Amaranth, and James Juniper Eastwood. Beatrice Belladonna is the oldest; she is wise, quiet, and bookish. Agnes Amaranth is the middle sister; she is strong and determined. James Juniper is the youngest of the three; she is wild and fierce. The trio finds themselves together in New Salem in 1893 amidst the women’s suffrage movement. The three sisters grew up hearing stories of witches from their grandmother Mags, so they hope to use these words and ways to give power to women. This launches and drives the tale while intertwining magic, sisterhood, and the fight for equality. The sisters soon find that they are not alone in their dreams or their fight. Together, they join forces, wreak havoc to show that witches exist, and make enemies.

This novel is full of twists and turns. At certain points, I could see where it was going, but I was glad that I was still surprised in the end. The story is also very character driven. I loved the main cast of characters and how Harrow juxtaposes them. I loved seeing how wild Juniper can be but how she began to change for those she loves as well. Agnes’s character shows why it is important to not shut people out. Her path to motherhood is also inspiring. Beatrice is very relatable for me personally as the quiet and bookish sister. I really enjoyed when she cut herself some slack and explored her sexuality more. Also I want to mention one of my other favorite characters, Cleo. She becomes friends with the sisters and helps them with finding the lost words and ways, but it is more dangerous for her as a woman of color. I looked forward to the parts of the novel that included her, especially since she seemed mysterious at first when we did not know her background or where she stood with the other characters. It would have been cool to learn more about her.

The Once and Future Witches was a very fun read for me. I love reading about witches, and I think it is really cool that Harrow used it in connection with suffragists and feminism. I absolutely love her writing style and how she crafts characters. I liked the ending as it was really shocking. I did not see it coming, but it was a nice end to the story overall. However, a few things about this novel did not work for me personally. Certain parts did not hold my attention and at times were a little predictable. There were times when I felt like it was taking too long to get to the point. I did not love some of the language and phrases used as well. There are some phrases that I personally find cliché or overused when it comes to writing about witches, kind of like the saying “we’re the daughters of the witches you couldn’t burn.” It just does not work for me. These are only minor criticisms, and overall, it was a very entertaining read. If you love Harrow’s previous works or reading about witches, then this book is definitely for you!

Thank you to the publisher, Redhook Books, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel before its release on October 13th, 2020.

*Content warnings from the author: Child abuse, both physical and psychological; parental death; arrest and imprisonment; mind control; pregnancy and childbirth, including forced hospitalization; racism; sexism; homophobia, both external and internalized; threat of sexual assault, averted; torture (mostly off-the-page, but alluded to); execution (attempted); child abandonment; major character death*