Very beautiful book and is likely to sell in a shop based on the title and illustrations alone. I'm not entirely sure who the audience or intended age range is, though. This book would have been 5 stars with more focus - by choosing the Biddy and apprentice story, or a fuller history of historical witchy women, or by presenting magical herbs etc. As is, it's quite awkward, throwing in a lot of miscellaneous information from many eras, then bouncing back to the fictional story. The book would also benefit from a clear magical or spiritual viewpoint - it's very Wicca and Irish-inspired, but it presents itself as a magical book influenced by many historical figures and different cultures. It also presents terms like "grey witch" and "kitchen witch" alongside terms like Wicca (an actual specific magical path, which is very celtic and norse influenced.) I will be looking out for future work by the illustrator!

Witchcraft: A Graphic History is a glimpse into the lives of witches, mostly focused on Biddy Early. A young girl learns how magic works and how to perform witchcraft after meeting Biddy, while the audience receives facts and guidance on both witchcraft and the history of witches.

The art is wonderful, and I love that the message throughout doesn't seem to be "Witches are real" (which seems too simple and definitive) but instead about finding balance in the world. Working with nature, caring for one another, and manifesting results in your life. That's the message I took from this book.

A beautifully illustrated and engaging story of a famous Irish healer with lots of bite-sized historical tidbits and recipes thrown in.

Framed around a story of a young apprentice, Biddy, who takes lessons from a famous historical witch, Biddy Early. As the story moves on, Biddy teaches Lindsay the basics of witchcraft while also highlighting the ways witches practice. The story sets up well for the lessons. There is also inclusion on how witches were persecuted. While set in a specific time period, the story is also timeless as explanations include modern practices. A fantastic introduction on Witchcraft in a lovely graphic novel format. Add to your shelves.

cute, sweet, light-hearted. i loved the art, but i wish it was a little longer, and focused on several different historical witches, rather than just one.

The illustrations are gorgeous. It is a good book to read for more information on witchcraft throughout Europe. The way fiction and nonfiction were bind together worked perfectly.

This graphic novel is such a gem! It blends the story of Biddy Early, an iconic Irish witch, with the rich history of witchcraft in the most magical way, plus the illustrations are absolutely stunning. Perfect for anyone looking to dive into a cozy read this fall / winter.

Stunning artwork! The history of witchcraft is something I've been interested in for a long time, so this book was a very welcome addition to my digital library. Can only recommend.

This short little graphic novel was both a history story and a gentle introduction to witchcraft. It's a quick read, and contains both interesting historical facts as well as basic information on magical items, as well as lore. Although I didn't find it un-put-downable, I thought the art was nicely done, and the text to be well written, interesting, and informative. There were a couple places where I thought I'd missed a page and went back to see that I hadn't—which made me feel like there were parts of the story that were missing (a major example would be how Biddy's trial never came about). My only other complaint was that one particular illustration did not align well with the text, as the words described a tool "with a white handle" which clearly had a wooden handle in the illustration. For these few complaints I've chosen to rate it 3.75 stars, but I would definitely pick up another Graphic title by this team. Thank you to #NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group/Leaping Hare Press, Lindsay Squire and Lisa Salsi for providing the ARC copy of #WitchcraftAGraphicHistory in return for an honest review!

The graphic novel Witchcraft is beautifully illustrated. It’s a fun and easy read. thought it was cute and it did hold basic information.

The fictionalized history of Biddy Early with a young apprentice, you get a basic understanding of her life.
It gets a bit odd when there is a few pages of other famous “witches” and witch trials. Including ones that happened after Biddy’s lifetime.

I think if the title conveyed this book as the store of Biddy Early and stuck to that it would have made more sense.

I am unlikely to get to this book anytime soon unfortunately. The idea behind it though is fabulous and hope to be in the mood soon. When and if that happens keep an eye out for an update on my review pages.

Want to learn more about the different kinds of witches and the different ways they practice magic? This is a good book to learn about witches. Even though this book does have a small story about one of the witches, it also teaches you about the different kinds of witches and how they practiced their magic as well as how they where treated. If you are an author who writes about witches or want to write about witches, this would be a great resource to add to your collection, and I loved the way the whole book was set up.

The art style is beautiful. I really loved every single picture and moment between Biddy and Lindsay. I will say there some of the information pushes Wiccan narrative and there are other beliefs that don’t follow all of those rules

I enjoy the illustration. Sometimes it's hard for me to read history so it was very nice and really helped the story

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liked it, fun while I was reading it
This is sort of little bit of this and a little bit of that. We get the story of historic witch, Biddy Early, a little bit about herbs and practices, and lastly, a fictional young girl who is fascinated by Biddy and wants to learn from and become her apprentice. It was fun but also trying to do too much.

I did love the artwork, very lush, green and felt very appropriate for the story.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group, NetGalley, and author Lindsay Squire, for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. Witchcraft: A Graphic History is out October 15, 2024.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

The story of Biddy is very interesting and given how this story progressed, it scratched the surface. If someone wanting to get into the basics of witchcraft, this is a good starter book.

However some of it does need to be taken lightly for the story involving Biddy as the author states that the story portraying her is in the author's perception on how her younger self would be interacting with Biddy.

Additionally, there were moments where text did not line up in the green box dedicated for it and made it difficult to read and removes the immersion.

I had a few issues downloading this book at first. Once I started to read and I completely enthralled. The illustrations were beautiful and the story line was amazing. I can't wait to purchase this for our library!

First of all, a big thanks to Lindsay Squire and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this arc.

3 stars :)

The pictures were genuinely the most detailed and cutest drawings that I've ever seen in a book, and you can tell that whoever did them put a lot of work into them. The concept was also very interesting and was something I was curious about before as well, so it was really nice to read about it and I don't think I've seen this idea anywhere else.
This is a pretty unusual book for me, since I normally read romantasy, but I'm happy to say I liked it and it has encouraged me to try other genres.
I wouldn't say I didn't like it, but I didn't prefer the speech bubbles, because the way of reading them was harder but that's just my preference and I think many would like that style.

Thank you again :)

Hmmm… Not the greatest graphic novel, this conveys the life and times of Biddy Early, a 'witch' in County Clare, Ireland. This dramatises her situation by giving her a fan – a girl whose uncle hates the idea of witchcraft and all those shenanigans, and whose aunt is poorly, with all doctor-prescribed medicine failing her. She practically becomes an apprentice, and the whole thing is interspersed with our modern-day author detailing everything we'd need to know, from the types of fairy folk Biddy might have had commune with, to the tools of her trade – and the tallies of dead after major witch-hunts the world over.

The problems are that these pages are just illuminated lists – illustrated encyclopaedia pages, with the paragraphs of caption in a most awkward reading order – and the Early story can be – and is – summarised very quickly. Oh, and the title is clearly wrong. Rather than "a graphic history" it's more of "a graphic example, with modern context", with the modern authorial voice (not the Biddy character, as some have claimed) here to tell us about wicca, hedge witches et al. It is, then, as much of a mish-mash as, say, a bunch of herbs thrown together in the knowledge they can do no harm. Even the credits pages are a confusing melange where it's not easy to work out who to say did what. But then, as nobody comes out of this particularly well, that's not really an issue. A weak effort.

The illustrations and history pair impeccably well. The history was accurate and respectful of the past. This will be a perfect gift for any witchy person in your life.