"Once upon a time there were three witches."
Wow. This book was not what I was expecting in the slightest.
Alix Harrow has a very unique writing style- a mix between straightforward and lush. Her atmosphere was incredible within this book, so I just kept picturing scene after scene with such clarity.
Now my biggest complaint for this book is that it's a bit slow. I'm usually one for slow paced novels that set up the scene and character relationships, but this one bordered on too slow. It made me feel like I was dragging my feet every once and a while.
Now. My favorite part. I think the whole last two parts were beyond incredible. They not only gave us the answers we were seeking, but also the best parts of the relationship between Juniper, Agnes, and Bella. I was so satisfied.
Another favorite part was the little fairytale retellings sprinkled around the book. They not only gave more strength to the original female characters in said fairytale but they were just calming. I wish there were more, but I understand the fear of those stories taking away from the actual plot of the novel.
This book is very much a feminist outlook on witch huntings for this period, and it was interesting to read it alongside the suffrage movement. Suffrage via Black women is even a point of discussion within this novel, which I think was very important because white women obviously have more privilege and bias in the late 1800’s. White women tended to fight only for their specific rights and no other POC women's rights.
Overall, this novel takes place in the 1890's, and it was successful at adding in diverse voices. Do I wish there was a bit more at times? Yes, but I'm glad Alix didn't just think, "oh this takes place in the past and there was no diversity because it was run by white men." There's an f&f romance, Black female rep (through a main supporting character so take with that what you will- she was one of my favorite characters), and transgender rep (side character). While I understand Alix's decision to wait so long to inform the audience who this trans rep refers to in the book because the character does not know who to trust, I will say I was upset that it wasn't discussed sooner. It was a short little scene, and I would have definitely preferred more for this representation. It did fit the character's history, but it can feel a bit tokenized when there's such little discussion. Lastly, there is a main character in the story who talks about not feeling the need for romance/ sex ever, and I'm not going to label them but some could infer this as asexual and/or aromantic rep. Again, I'm not going to blatantly say that's the case because the author never explicitly says it, but I was led to infer that personally. I could also be wrong, and please let me know if I am.
There's trigger warnings for abandonment, childbirth, torture, jail violence, sexual assault (though not shown, implied), etc.
Thanks Orbit Books for an eARC of this lovely novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
P.S. I may come back to this and add more.