The Once and Future Witches
In her new novel, set in the 1890s, author Harrow gathers witchcraft and suffrage into the same sentence, and the authentic historical fight for women’s rights and equality becomes a natural backdrop. Following the death of their abusive father, sisters Bella, Agnes and Juniper are reunited in an imagined New Salem after a seven-year separation, whilst accidentally conjuring a mysterious tower in the middle of town. Each believes themselves abandoned by the others, and their grievances are deep and contentious, even as their blood ties draw them into a world of magic and mayhem. As tensions rise, the small coven grows, and their opposition to oppression stretches beyond demonstrations in the streets to the highest echelons of town politics, where malice lurks behind every shadow, and the flames of hysteria are being deliberately and furiously fanned.
Harrow populates her wryly humorous, ultra-feminist fantasy with mildly distorted nursery rhymes (“Little Girl Blue”) and fairy tales (“The Sisters Grimm”). She gives the three sisters beautifully wrought, distinctive characteristics, strong yet fallible: James Juniper is antagonistic and recklessly brave, Beatrice Belladonna studious and thoughtful, Agnes Amaranth fearful and uneasy, with good reason.
Many of the coven suffer abuse and imprisonment by Inquisition-like henchmen as events come to an explosive conclusion, after which comes a deeply satisfying epilogue. To say more would be to give away spoilers, of which there are many. Most interesting is the idea that it isn’t witch blood which offers a potential for women’s power, but rather the “will, the way and the words” passed down through the generations. This adds intriguing speculation to the idea that there’s no such thing as witches. “That’s all magic is really: the space between what you have and what you need.” Eagerly recommended to readers of Louisa Morgan, Katherine Howe and Paula Brackston.
