Harrow’s prose, which bothered me when describing the little things in life, started being focused on the trials and tribulations of women.
But, as I stuck with the book a number of great things began to happen. Actions like opening windows are described as a flowery herculean task with a paragraph of text. Harrow, for better or worse, is an extremely dramatic writer.
I didn’t connect much with the characters, the protagonists felt little more than the tropes they aimed to represent, and the prose was overwhelming. When I initially began Witches I began to worry that I was in for a repeat experience. Each of the sisters gives a window into the different struggles of women of the time, and now, and helps categories the struggles of the feminine half for readers of any persuasion. The story follows the trio as they attempt to find the lost ways of Avalon, a repository of magic left by the great witches of the past, and as they try to use their magic in both subtle and unsubtle ways to further the rights of women. The three sisters were raised in a broken home and had an enormous falling out when they were younger, but time heals all wounds and magic has tied them together so they might as well try to get along. Women are marching to gain rights, witches seem to be making a comeback, and things are starting to get a bit chaotic. The city is undergoing a moment of upheaval. Each of them represents a different female archetype in fiction (the maiden, the mother, and the crone) and each of them finds themselves drawn to the city of New Salem by extraordinary circumstances. Witches tells the story of three sisters: James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna. It just wasn’t my cup of tea and it has been super awkward to have any number of readers mention that I should check it out only to have to respond, “Ah, well, I did, and not for me thank you.” Normally I wouldn’t mention this, but it seems relevant in this situation to point out that I wasn’t a fan of January and I very much am a fan of this book. Witches is Alix’s second book and she is coming in hot off of last years’ debut The Ten Thousand Doors of January… which I very much did not like. Additionally, I have a confession to make.
While there is enough room in the genre for any number of magic based women’s movements, The Once And Future Witches by Alix Harrow is our favorite for a variety of reasons I will go into. It seems we have had two “witches/women using magic in historical women’s movements” books this year, and one is far superior to the other.
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