Cover Image: The Once and Future Witches

The Once and Future Witches

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Member Reviews

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.

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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.

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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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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%

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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'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.

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This was so good!

Written like it's part of a fairytale, part journal, part book of shadows this witchy fictional book set in the suffragette era was a really entertaining read.

I'd never read anything by Alix E. Harrow till now and I will certainly be watching for future books from this author!

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I was really excited to read this one. It sounded like a bit of a mix between fantasy and historical fiction - two genres that I absolutely love to read. The premise for the story really enticed me, and I was keen to get those witchy vibes.

I did enjoy the story, but I didn't connect with it as much as I was hoping to. I found the narrative a bit unnecessarily long-winded, which meant I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. However, the writing was beautiful and gave fantastic imagery, and the characters themselves really sold it for me. They had depth, were engaging and intriguing, and really helped to elevate the book.

It's a shame it wasn't quite as good as I anticipated, but I think lots of other readers would love it more than me.

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I have wanted to read this beautiful looking book for over a year. This author's debut was a stunning piece of magical historical fiction and she's followed it up with something just as good - maybe even better.

In this book, the author beautifully weaves together historical fiction and fantasy. She whisks us back to an alternative late 1800s Salem during the time when the suffragettes are fighting the good fight. But there's an underlying current. Because these women don't just want rights for women. They want to bring back the old powers, the magic and witchcraft their ancestors passed on to them through the generations.

The author makes this blend of desire for rights for women and power for witches make a lot of sense, as the many burnings of women over the years prior to when this story was set inspires this kind of fantasy where women can truly fight back agains "the man", fighting fire with a whole different kind of fire.

Our fiery protagonists are three sisters - Juniper, Agnes and Beatrice. The three are estranged but find themselves brought together in New Salem when a magical event occurs. The three sisters are as different as can be, from feisty young Juniper who is determined to fight for what's right, to studied, careful Beatrice who has adjusted to a quiet life as a librarian. Together, the three sisters are the maiden, the mother and the crone. It's a classic combination, and the author beautifully weaves fairytales and folklores throughout their story.

Despite being packed with magic and intrigue, at just over 500 pages this book does feel a little slow in places. But I do have to look at the bigger picture, and the exquisite writing combined with an atmospheric historical setting, authentic characters with real issues that women still face and a whole lot of magic - this book has completely earned its five stars from me.

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Here we have a powerful, feminist, magical tale.

I have to congratulate the author as the writing is exquisite! I admired her research for this book as you can clearly see the social, political and historical contexts of the era. I also liked the fact that her way of writing is adjusted to that time too and feels like an old classic read.

The characters are so powerful, strong willed, determined and empowering. I felt so represented only by reading this! As a woman, I found myself drawing strength and wanting to be part of such a story.

The magic world was well structured and rich and I wouldn’t change anything in it.

I cannot recommend this book enough!

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