⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 Stars – Readable but miserable and message was muddy. It was not the story I thought it would be
Format: Kindle
Read: July 2024
One day I’ll learn that contemporary books that get a lot of hype and claim to be about witches are never what I want them to be.
This was disappointing. If you read my monthly reading roundups you’ll know it’s been on my TBR top 3 for ages! I finally got to it and it was at best ok.
The story is told from the POVs of three related women in different time periods – 1619, 1942 and 2019 – who end up in the same small cottage. They all shared a supernatural affinity for the natural word, particularly insects and birds.
All three stories are miserable! Trigger warning for domestic abuse, assault, rape, still births, and a rather grizzly abortion. This is all at the hands of Bad Men, who are little more than blurry villains. None of this was handled in a particularly nuanced way, and I always hate reading about rape (or seeing it in TV/movies). Often it feels like a lazy plot device when the write wants to demonstrate Bad Men or Traumatised Women.
I’m not sure what the takeaway for this novel is intended to be. The message isn’t sisterhood, because all three women are socially isolated. The one who has a living mother gets little support from her, and there is just one new friend for Kate, who is more a plot device than a character.
They deal with their situations through having these supernatural powers. So… What about all the women who suffer abuse and dangerous situations that haven’t inherited the ability to magically call insects or birds to defend them? I guess you just have to get murdered by your ex-boyfriend…
As far as I can tell the only clear message in this book is that it’s a woman’s duty to continue the family lineage. Pregnancy was central to all three plots. If I had known this I would never have read this book. I guess it’s not on the blurb because so it can be a “twist” but you’ll see it a mile off, like everything else that happens.
I’m not interested in reading about pregnancy, and I don’t need to read books that imply it’s my purpose to produce a child. It also implies that you can, even should per Alta’s story, do this without a supportive partner or community… Fuck that even more.
As for the characters, they’re pretty flat. Altha (1619) and Violet (1942) at least had some spark in them, but then there were clearer societal barriers for conflict. Kate (2019) is lacking in any discernable personality. I don’t know who she was before Simon or after him, or what her aspirations for the future are.
And the magic stuff was actually barely in it and very tame. I didn’t even get any cool witch action!
I gave it three stars because I did fly through it in 4 nights. It’s solidly written and paced, it didn’t feel like a chore to read but it was predictable and I got nothing out of it. And I’m annoyed that a book about independent witchy women turned out to be about fucking pregnancy.
REVIEW SUMMARY
I LIKED
- Solidly written and paced. It was easy to get through in 4 nights.
- The bits that focused on nature were cool, but too few and far between.
I DIDN’T LIKE
- Unclear what the point was. Only clear takeaway is that a woman’s duty is to produce a child!
- If I had known this would be about pregnancy I’d never have read it.
- Its just relentlessly miserable – rape, assault, domestic abuse, coercive & controlling behaviour, a grizzly abortion.
- Not enough witch action!
