The Once and Future Witches

🐦‍⬛ Bookish Thoughts I was not ready for the emotional damage of this book. This is a story of sisterhood, forgiveness, resilience, magic, and love. I connected deeply to all the sisters, and it’s rare for a book to make me feel so seen and so invested in every relationship on the page, but this one did it effortlessly. Every chapter began with a spell, adding a whimsical and magical touch. The writing was beautiful and intentional, with passages I had to pause and reread just to take them in. This book did not shy away from the difficulties of being a woman in a patriarchal world. It dives deep into the hardships and heartbreak women experience. The helplessness, the rage we have to keep quiet to stay safe, and the way women are infantilized and silenced. “What’s so hard about calling a woman by her full name? Why do men always want to give you some smaller, sweeter name than the one your mama gave you?” “It’s a risk just to be a woman, in my experience. No matter how healthy or hardworking she is.” It also shows the resilience and the hope we carry. The love we have for each other that becomes our guiding force to fight back. “You’re here because you want more for yourselves, better for your daughters. Because it’s easy to ignore a woman.” Juniper’s lips twist in a feral smile.“But a hell of a lot harder to ignore a witch.” “For your sister.” Or perhaps for all of them: for the little girls thrown in cellars and the grown women sent to workhouses, the mothers who shouldn’t have died and the witches who shouldn’t have burned. For all the women punished merely for wanting what they shouldn’t have. And finally, the sisters: James Juniper is the wild sister, fearless as a fox and curious as a crow. Agnes Amaranth is the strong sister, steady as a stone and twice as hard. Beatrice Belladonna is the wise sister, quiet and clever as an owl in the rafters. The Once and Future Witches is a 6 star read and one of my favorite books of all time. The ending was so bittersweet, the kind that leaves you both satisfied and heartbroken. I know this will be a book I return to again and again. 🪄 What to Expect • Sisterhood • Found family • Sapphic rep • Feminism • Witchcraft • Suffragette movement • Feminine rage • Alternate America

Set in an alternate 1893, Alix Harrow's second novel gives us the story of three estranged sisters who are very different women, who have come through the abuses at the hands of their angry and bitter father by running away from home and each other. James Juniper aka June, is the youngest and she opens the story her flight from a burning house to the town of New Salem where, in a suffragist rally she encounters she miraculously finds her sisters Agnes Amaranth (the middle daughter) and Beatrice Belladona (the oldest). Each of the sisters has a personal struggle, whether June's sad childhood leg injury and anger that is a force of nature, or Agnes' being pregnant out of wedlock, or Bella's struggle with her attraction to women. Possessed of some of the keys of magic like the will, they will seek the words and the ways of magic together, in pursuit of women's equality and a better future for Agnes' soon to be born daughter, Eve. The journey will be long, hard, painful, and sad, though the novel does end with much welcome optimism. The Once and Future Witches has so many elements I love in stories (witches, suffragists, feminism, sisters, and it's a book about books and libraries) and therefore I find myself in an odd position of being not wholly satisfied with the novel. There was much to love in the idea of the book, such as the sisters' distinct personalities and their fierce and undying love for each other in spite of all they had been through together and apart. I also loved Cleo and her confident, loving manner, Jennie and Inez, all the women who fought in spite of being afraid, and August Lee, who turned out to be a marvelous man. The pacing of the novel felt uneven, however, and the culmination of the battle between the good witches of New Salem, and an old devil somehow felt oddly contrived. I may however, in all honesty, be suffering from reading Alice Hoffman's Magic Lessons, C. L. Polk's The Midnight Bargain, and this novel, all of which have very similar themes of feminism and witches or sorceresses, back to back to back. Overall, however, this is a solid fantasy novel that I can easily recommend as a seasonal read for Samhain/All Soul's celebrations. The audiobook, narrated by Gabra Zackman, is quite nicely done. CW: references to sexual assault, burnings, attempted burnings, torture I received a digital review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A story about family, love, loyalty, social injustice and women. I enjoyed reading this book tremendously. Definitely recommend it.

I adored this book. It thrummed with power and folklore, with magic and the word, the way and the will, and witching. Tangled within these pages, this story of three sisters, is a tale of women’s suffrage, of rights and gender inequality, of sisters and daughters and mothers and women, bound together by their shared experience of simply being women, of being victim to sexism, racism, classism, fear and patriarchal ignorance. The blending of history, folklore, mythology and fairy tale is splendidly done and the writing is sublime - there is surely magic in these pages, in these words. There is rebellion and revolt and the often unseen power of women’s work; this is a story of adventure and bravery and the force of storytelling to bind the past to present and the future. The narrators - the three Eastwood sisters (the direction of east is connected with the element of air, powers of inspiration, a fresh start, a new idea, a new future) - are wonderful! They have distinct voices and desires, ideals and reasons for walking their path, but they are connected through their witching and the bond of sisters. They are multidimensional characters with wit and charm and spite and fire and I loved them! The writing is engaging - it hooks you with that quality a great folktale, a legend, a myth, has, and the author is incredibly clever with her blending of those things that are familiar to us about witchcraft through popular culture and history (Salem witch trials, Eve, the inquisition, Avalon, the ‘sisters’ Grimm, herblore, Sarah Good and Tituba and Judge Hawthorn, the power of three and seven, mythical symbols and witches familiars and the objects of their craft) - she makes these things her own and cements them firmly into the world of New Salem.

Very interesting book about witches and feminism. The characters are very well written.

I love the story of the three sisters, searching for a meaning in their lives and their destiny.

I loveeeeed this book, is so empowering, there's a plot twist that you don't see coming at the end. If you have read "women that run with wolves" and you liked that one, you probably will find this just amazing, and easier to share with younger people or the ones that are not used to read more complex books - don't get me wrong in here, I'm not saying this one was an easy reading, there were moments in which I felt like nothing was going on, or I had to go back a few pages to read again some parts of it - been said that, this one is wonderfully written and if you are a fan of witchcraft, or just someone that is going through that moment in life in which you feel that sorority is kind of missing, this book will remind you that we are never alone, we are always there and we will always be as the once and future witches.