A beautifully written book with strong female characters.
I enjoyed this book a lot, although I found the beginning dragging on. As the story progressed I became more and more enthralled and keen to read on.
It’s a great story of three siblings; their relationships with each other, their romances and most of all, their talent in witchcraft.

A very interesting story on feminism and witches, which strong characters. I really liked the historical poitn of view and the little song at the beginning of each chapter.
The relationship between the sisters is very interesting and I'd like it. The romances are also good.

I was sometimes lost by the worldbuilding, but overall a very intéresting and feminist read.

I couldn't put the book down. That's how good this book was. A feminist story of witches, and magics. The writing was beautiful and easy to get to. However the pacing wasn't my cup of tea.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: none
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

I feel bad for this book because it has been sitting on my NG shelf for, um, five months? And, the thing is, I’m normally super disciplined: I read from the bottom to the top, except to switch genres (since it can be unfair to read a book from the same genre you just read if the previous book was super good or super bad). But I knew this was long, likely to be a bit dense, and taking on some complicated stuff besides. I mean, the elevator pitch is “witching and women’s rights” but it’s so much more than that. In any case, I kept waiting for the world to feel a little safer in terms … well, not just the pandemic, but human rights in general? You, see, The Once and Future Witches is set in a sort of altish-history America, where once magic was real and powerful, but has been mostly burned away with the witches. The thing is, though, for all there’s a layer of “the magic was really real” here, the actual history of the world is very much our history: plagues, social inequality (along axes of gender, race, sexuality), exploitation of the working class, corrupt judicial systems, church and state mandated institutions of social control, and y’know, all that murdering women we did in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Anyway, flash forward five months, there’s now literally a war in Europe and I came to the conclusion the world isn’t going to get any better, so I’d might as well read the damn book. And, honestly, I did struggle a bit, not because of the book, but because of everything else: basically I recognise this is excellent, and there are deep feelings roiling away in my heart about it but I JUST CAN’T AFFORD TO HAVE ANY FEELINGS RIGHT NOW.

All of which said, it is not actually the worst book you could possibly read in the midst of generalised existential despair: it’s a dark journey, and a rough one, but it is ultimately a story of unity over loneliness, love over hate, hope over fear, of finding a way when no ways seem possible.

The deal is this: three sisters, raised in rural nowhereville, their mother dead, their father abusive, separated during their childhood following a significant fire on their farm. The details of this come out later and are resolved, but at the beginning of the novel the sisters are splintered, hurt, lonely, convinced of the necessity of that loneliness, and equally convinced that they have both betrayed their sisters and been betrayed by them. Despite everything else that happens in this book—and the characters feel simultaneously vulnerable and strong, so there’s an air of permanent threat from the opening chapter which I found quite hard to take—this was the emotional thread that caused me the most trauma. Trauma, I hasten to add, because it’s well done, not because it’s overwrought or gratuitously suffering-centric. But there’s something really painfully real about the fact that the sisters, all too aware what a terrible person their father is, still ultimately find it easier believe in each other’s betrayal than in their love. It’s a subtle way of exploring their father’s abuse—the way the impact of abuse extends far beyond abuser and victim—without focusing too heavily on him or making him too much a part of their story. But it does make the early sections of the book, where the sisters feel so very damaged and so very lost, hard to read, especially because all that’s really standing between them and reconcile is one honest conversation. A conversation, I’m glad to say, that does take place by the mid-point of the story, after which the book gets a lot less emotionally claustrophobic (although the general air of menace remains).

The plot kicks off when, in the last decade of the 19th century, fate … or a spell … or something draws the three sisters, Bella the bookish one, Agnes the, um, one who happens to pregnant, and Juniper the wild one, to New Salem (the old Salem having been burned down with the witches inside it). Bella chants a spell that causes the Tower of Avalon—supposedly the stronghold of the three last witches—to briefly appear in the town square. What follows is complicated to explain. On the most basic level, I guess, you could say it’s about how the sisters, along with various marginalised communities of New Salem (including workers unions and the suffragist movement) use witchcraft to challenge the established hierarchy of their society, as represented by Gideon Hill, an ambitious city councillor with his eye on the mayorship. But, honestly, that barely scratches the surface: you’ve at least two love stories here (one queer, one straight), you’ve got themes of motherhood and family and found family, you’ve got recovery from trauma, on both the personal and the social level, you’ve explorations of power, powerlessness, and abuse, especially in the context of marginalised identity, all artfully woven with folklore, nursery rhymes, fairy tales (and a sprinkling of Arthuriana).

As you can probably tell from the description, this is a story with a specifically feminist … I hesitate to use the word agenda because that sounds negative, as if a piece of art having a point of view was somehow a bad thing, so I guess I’ll go with sensibility? But I’ll also say that, to me (insert sixty-five paragraphs of me checking my privilege and acknowledging my lack of standing to make assertive statements on the subject) it was of the most inclusive flavour: I think what gets lost in our increasingly bifurcated social justice discourse is, often, all rights are human rights. By empowering those who are marginalised—even if they are marginalised along different axes to us—we empower society as a whole: while the book does focus heavily on the sisters, and the position of women within their society as a whole, it’s equally interested in intersectionalities of class, race, sexuality and gender. All of which is to say, while both the main antagonists of the book are men (if we count the sister’s deceased father as an antagonist, which I think we should), not every bloke is evil. I’m not necessarily saying it would be a problem per se if they were (I’m not here to tell women how they can and can’t portray men) but it’s an approach that reinforces the idea that freedom and equality are, and should be, universal concerns, not merely fringe issues restricted to the affected group.

Another element of the book I personally found was handled with a lot of care was the witchcraft itself because I think it’s very easy for … how can I say this … women-centric depictions of magic, particular witch-themed magic, to go to some, at best, essentialist and at worst TERF-y places. Something The Once And Future Witches makes super clear—and while it’s not dwelled upon, I actually found this an incredibly interesting element of the setting—is that magic is not inherently gendered. It is socially gendered. As the book continues, it becomes very clear that there’s no such thing as “women’s” magic or, indeed, “men’s magic.” That anyone, cis or trans, can perform any type of magic. It was simply that witchcraft was explicitly associated with women and forced into a domestic sphere that encouraged people to view it as trivial, as a way of marginalising and devaluing it. This is partially why it survives as tales and rhymes, passed down through family lines (usually from mother to daughter). For me, I found this an incredibly successful allegory for the way marginalised experiences and areas of influence become culturally diminished. Our history reduced to fragments and turned into stories.

Big themes aside, the writing is *chef’s kiss*: it’s quite artful, I will admit, because it’s got that edge of fairy tale to it, but Juniper’s more matter-of-fact perspective provides just enough texture to stop the self-consciously stylistic prose becoming wearing. The characterisation is similarly deft, despite the breadth of the cast and the complexity of relationships between the various characters: the trio of sisters, in particular, are their own little interpersonal web, as they each has a specific relationship with the other two, as well as relationship to the … sibling unit, if that makes sense. I also really enjoyed Bella’s relationship with Cleo Quinn, a dashing reporter (who is also a member of a group of Black witches called the Daughters of Tituba—who have what felt to me like a realistically complicated relationship with the white suffragist movement) and Agnes’s slightly more tentative love affair with August Lee, an agitator for worker’s rights. It was really intriguing to me to have two thematically resonant relationships, one straight and one queer, developing … not quite side-by-side but close enough to reflecting upon each other in fascinating ways. For Agnes, healthy heterosexuality involves learning to trust she can be loved without having to surrender her power, for Bella, healthy homosexuality is simply learning to love without shame. And as if this wasn’t an embarrassment of riches, there’s also a … complicated, though definitely not romantic dynamic, between Juniper and Gideon Hill that adds an extra layer of nuance to someone who could very easily become a one-note antagonist, or bland representation of the patriarchy. I mean, he is very much a representation of the patriarchy but in an interesting way: dangerous, entitled and desperate, yes, but almost (keyword almost) as damaged by his own toxicity by the people he has destroyed.

The only slightly off note for me—and please be aware that this is personal and once again I have no authority or standing here—was Jennie Lind, a transgender witch who we later learn is the daughter of the former Mayor. For me, she was treated respectfully by the narrative and her fellow witches (bit depressing, isn’t it, that fictional 19th century suffragists are more accepting than certain elements of modern feminism) and while there’s several hints about her identity (her mother’s name—the middle name that all women have—is Gemini, she performs a spell that Juniper notes is ‘boys magic’, and when the women are arrested she is separated from the group, only to reappear later having, apparently, been sent to a different workhouse) I liked the fact that the text didn’t find it necessary to make those hints more explicit or directly out her. She even gets a love affair of her own, albeit one that is barely on page, with a fellow suffragist witch called Inez. I think where the wheels came off for me was the final scene between Juniper and Jennie where Jennie explains who she is to Juniper. I mean, the exchange made emotional sense because Juniper and Jennie are friends, but it felt almost … narratively redundant to me. Like it was there for the reader, more than anything, in case we hadn’t noticed the trans woman was trans—but that begs the question, why did matter if we noticed? It also ended up making the climax of Jennie’s story talking to Juniper about her transness … which, I don’t know. Made her feel less like a person and more like an issue of the week. Plus there’s this line from Juniper when she thinks of Jennie working “shoulder-to-shoulder with sisters she couldn’t quite trust with her secret.” Again, this troubled me slightly because it seems to imply that trans self-acceptance is contingent upon cis acceptance? That if it’s not disclosed, then it’s a secret, and I don’t necessarily think that’s the case? Like, I don’t think not disclosing your identity is the same as withholding it, if that makes sense.

But who knows. I’m picking at nits here. Ultimately, this is a rich, complicated and fascinating book that somehow manages—like many of its characters—to be both very angry and very hopeful at the same time. It is, however, also a really intense book. So, do check the triggers before you pick it up and maybe don’t read it immediately after a war kicked off?

In an alternative historical time line the witches have been hunted down relentlessly. Their homes and books are destroyed and when caught they are chained with iron, tortured and burnt at the stake. The survivors hide their knowledge and spells in nursery rhymes and stories, passed on from mother to daughter.

A story of sisterhood, persecution, the fight for emancipation and the strength that brings women together.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

The Once And Future Witches was such a fantastic book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The writing was beautiful and I couldn’t put this book down! I highly recommend it.

I was prepared to love this book
I know stories with magic spells are not my preferred genre but an alternative history with a feminist bent written by the author of a favourite book should be just my thing.

However, I liked it but I didn’t love it. Unlike The Ten Thousand Doors of January this one didn’t quite sweep me up into the fantasy.
There was some great world building and interesting characters but it all felt a little distant, I didn’t emotionally connect with these women.
Also the back story of the main villain seemed a little flat. The shadows were chilling but somehow didn’t go far enough.

In the middle the pace was slow, a little repetitive and quite frustrating as the sisters never quite seemed to achieve full understanding or control of their magic. And of the sisters only Juniper’s personality seemed to develop.

Yet it is still a compelling tale of women find their strengths in a world where women are disregarded or disparaged, women’s voices are suppressed, and women’s knowledge is viewed as sinister and dangerous. Although the women are heart of this story there was a place for good, strong men such as August Lee and Mr Blackwell.

And interesting book, recommended if you like spells.
3.5 stars rounded up

This book was amazing!
The writing was absolutely beautiful and the story kept me hooked.
Not only this, but there was a great cast of strong and diverse characters as well as witchy magic and an amazing world that you never want to leave. I’m definitely going to read more books by Alix E. Harrow!
5/5 ⭐️
Read this book, you won’t regret it!

I enjoyed parts of this book but unfortunately I did not love it as much as I hoped I would.

First lets focus on the positives. It had a beautifully lyrical writing style. It was a pleasure to read the prose itself.
I also think that the general concept of mixing witches with the suffragette movement is a great one and was the reason why I was so excited to pick up the book in the first place.

Unfortunately it was something in this mix and finding the balance between it that let the book down for me. I've heard some say the book was too historical, some say too magical. I don't particularly fall on either side of this I think it's more of the balance in individual moments combined with the pacing. It felt like the two elements were two separate things rather than combined to make a story.

I don't think I'm explaining this well but I have spent a while now trying to put my thoughts on this book into words and I still can't.

I enjoyed parts of this book but unfortunately I did not love it as much as I hoped I would.

First lets focus on the positives. It had a beautifully lyrical writing style. It was a pleasure to read the prose itself.
I also think that the general concept of mixing witches with the suffragette movement is a great one and was the reason why I was so excited to pick up the book in the first place.

Unfortunately it was something in this mix and finding the balance between it that let the book down for me. I've heard some say the book was too historical, some say too magical. I don't particularly fall on either side of this I think it's more of the balance in individual moments combined with the pacing. It felt like the two elements were two separate things rather than combined to make a story.

I don't think I'm explaining this well but I have spent a while now trying to put my thoughts on this book into words and I still can't.

I was so excited when my request on Netgalley was approved, the synopsis intrigued me and I heard great things about the author particularly her prose.

The Once and Future Witches is a tribute and celebration of women's power and what women can accomplish which is represented by the Eastwood sisters, the mother, the maiden, and the crone. It blends witchcraft, sisterhood, and the late 1800s suffragist movement that is brimming with misogyny.

Rating: 3/5🌟
I enjoyed the story, the plot is brilliant, atmospheric, and has beautiful prose. It's really awesome how they used witchcraft to help women gain more rights like the right to vote. The political, historical, and social elements are well done, you can really see how much the author spend so much time researching. I loved how they used nursery rhymes and fairy tales served as spells. And I especially loved the unbreakable bond between the sisters, how they did their best to heal the damage that has been done.

Unfortunately, despite admiring their bond I didn't connect with them as much as I wanted to. One of the reasons is that as the story progresses, tons of other characters keep on being introduced that appeared out of nowhere. Also, I described the prose as beautiful but at times, I found it unnecessarily, long-winded and bordering on purple. It felt like being written for the sake of being lyrical if you get my point. Lastly, the pacing felt too slow at times making me lose interest.

Thanks so much Little, Brown Book Group UK/Orbit for the DRC via Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

The cast of characters overall is quite big with all of their allies, the women’s rights association and the sisters' workplaces but it never reaches a point where you might get confused. Even minor characters are distinct enough to be memorable.
The chapters start with spells/nursery rhymes or short-form fairy tales but with a different spin that puts the witches in them in a different light.
The writing is beautiful and gets even more vivid and visceral whenever the sisters work magic.

I started this book with really high expectations. Unfortunately, it wasn´t my favorite. The concept is good and I think there was a lot of potential, but the delivery was sort of weak in my opinion. I couldn´t connect well with the characters and the plot felt very confusing at times. I even pondered not finishing it but I felt like things picked up well in the end.

Good god, I couldn't read another word. I was so bored. This book promised to be marvelous, a lot of bookstagrammers I follow loved it, but it was not my cup of tea.

DNF at 15%

Magical, twisting and lovely.
The sisterhood of this novel was totally believable, even with the fantastical subject matter. All the girls were individually fascinating characters, and I loved learning about the American history of witches as I have mostly read about English ones.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

I can’t rave about this book enough. The writing was utterly beautiful and the story so absorbing. I was completely hooked and engrossed in the lives of these three characters. Such a unique book. A must read!

DNF
My Rating: 1.5/5 stars

“One witch you can laugh at. Three you can burn. But what do you do with a hundred?”


I tried. I really did. Three separate times in fact… I think it’s time for me to accept that this book, and Alix E. Harrow as an author, just aren’t the right fit for me.
I feel a bit of a déjà vu, as last year around this time I started my multiple attempts of reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January and couldn’t for the life of me get into the story. After eventually finishing it over a month later, after 2 false starts, I ended up not liking it.
At this time, after 2 identical false starts, I’m on my third attempt of The Once and Future Witches, and I’m struggling harder than ever. Considering the experience with Ten Thousand Doors of January, I’ve decided not to finish the final 30% of this book.

What I liked:
Similar to The Ten Thousand Doors of January, I was immediately fascinated by the synopsis and began highly anticipating this book, despite having never read anything by the author before. The story combines a historical tale of the suffragist-movement of the late 1800 with a fantastical narrative of witchcraft and magick. Honestly; with the way misogyny and witchcraft have been closely interwoven throughout history, you cannot tell me that that isn’t a brilliant concept. I loved the way the novel set off and set up the frame-work for its story. Unfortunately, these great ideas were pretty clear to me within the introduction, and after that, the novel offered little else to keep my interest…

What I didn’t like:
My main problem with The Once and Future Witches was my failure to connect to anything; the same feeling that left me feeling so completely indifferent about The Ten Thousand Doors of January..
Part of this, I discovered here, has to do with Harrow’s prose, that’s constantly on the edge of purple. I love a lyrically written novel, but I don’t love the use of nonsensical metaphors ´for the sake of lyricism” (Think Stephany Garber and at times Sarah J Maas). Both Harrows novels suffer from this, and it takes me out of the story completely.
My second problem with Harrow’s writing is her incredibly flat characters. I described January as “flat as a doormat”, but this was even worse. I can see how part of that was intentional: the three sisters are based of the classic archetypes for female characters in folktales and paganism (the Crone, the Maiden and the Mother) and their traditionally attributed characteristics. The story does little to elevate them above these archetypes however, making them in essence more stereotypes that fully fleshed characters.
Last but not least: this 500+ brick of a novel moves at an absolute snail’s pace. Some of my all-time favourite fantasy novels are slow-burners, but this book just went out like a dying light. I don’t say this lightly, but with a little cutting of unnecessary info-dumps, over-explaining of the obvious, and general parts that didn’t move the plot along; this book might have been cut in half.

If you’re looking for an, in my opinion, better, more mature and more diverse novel centring a trio of sisters, witchcraft and nature-based magic: I’d recommend Tessa Gratton’s The Queens of Innis Lear.

Many thanks to Little Brown Publishing for providing me with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I've been sitting on this review for a while because I found it so incredibly hard to write something even vaguely coherent about this book. I often find it hard to write reviews for books I loved, and The Once and Future Witches is no exception!

The Eastwood sisters completely captivated me right from the first page. The three of them couldn't be more different, yet I found myself becoming attached to all three even despite their many, many issues. I loved how beautifully fleshed out all three main characters were and how much each of them struggled to reckon with age-old scars (both spiritual and emotional) to ultimately grow into her full potential - and re-discover the power of sisterhood.

Sisterhood is probably the main theme in this book, although there are many to choose from. Starting from the three blood sisters and their fraught relationship, the story lends itself to a wider reflection on sisterhood as a wider concept, encompassing all women. Feminist themes and reflections abound, as the story is set in an alternate version of the United States in the late 1890s and the fight for women's votes, and freedom more generally. I liked the fact that there were mentions of inequality between the various women in the diverse cast, particularly due to class, race and sexuality, as well as the fact that some male characters joined the fight.

I particularly enjoyed the author's depiction of witchcraft in this book. It's no secret that I love witchy books and books with magic, so it was off to a great start because of that alone, but as I read quite a few, it can be hard for me to find them original. This was not an issue here, as the magic system is quite different from others I have read (at least that I remember reading recently). I liked the fact that magic was based on having the words, the will and the ways, and both the limits and the freedoms that this brought. One thing I absolutely loved was the way in which old stories, nursery rhymes and fairytales were used by women to preserve the memory of these spells when witchcraft was forbidden, and I was very happy to find some of these tales included in the book.

I could probably keep writing about this book for much, much longer than I should, so for now suffice it to say that this is easily one of my favourite reads of the year. For quite a chunky book, it was surprisingly quick to read and its themes and characters still stay with me: the more I think about it, the more I find to reflect on!

Filled with complex characters, an engaging plot, beautiful writing, and fascinating lore, The Once and Future Witches is one of those books I will be recommending to everyone for a really long time, and one I hope to revisit soon.

Gotta admit, in the beginning I wasn't really feeling this book. But am I glad that I kept on reading because, as it turns out, this is such a good book. I was hooked by the story and the relationship of the three sisters. The magic! I just loved it.

I will now gladly check out the author's other books.

'The Once and Future Witches' follows the three Eastwood sisters -Juniper, Agnes, and Beatrice in late 1800s New Salem. These sisters had misunderstandings among themselves but now unite to reclaim women's rights, witches rights and fight against misogyny.

- dark, atmospheric vibe
- historic tidbits. Your enjoyment of the book is enhanced as you read about the real life events that happened.
- sapphic love
- feminist glory
- magic systems, family spells, magic wrt men and women
- LOTS of quotes to underline

Cons:
- could've been shorter
- pace drags in some places but as i said above, if you read up on the history, you won't mind.

Read if you love sisterhood novels, magic worlds, history, witches, feminism.