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Ways, words, and will make the witch.  It’s true for the Sandersons, the Owenses, and the Eastwoods too.  Join us THIS Friday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m. CST to find out more about these pursuits that some label as wicked, but are they really?  We have our hats ready and are plotting our brewed beverages so don’t forget to sign up to get the link to discuss Alix E. Harrow’s Once and Future Witches and maybe your circle will grow a bit in the process, too.  

There’s something about going on a walk through the woods to bring me back to nature, and having done so (and stayed in a legit cabin a few days prior) while reading this book was great fun!  I was caught thinking of what it must have been like for Immanuelle to traipse through the Darkwood, and how Miriam found her way to Daniel Ward, perhaps through that same wood.  Although we have all the modern amenities (except for solid internet), it’s still nice to imagine what it was like without them, while overlooking the trees of the valley and nearby mountains.  All that said, I’ll still hard pass on a trip to a Bethel-like place, because it feels a bit too much like Gilead for my taste.  

However, a trip to Bethel via the pages of Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching I will gladly accept.  Henderson paints a vivid image that reminds me of the restrictive, puritanical pieces of The Scarlet Letter with all the underlying darkness of The Handmaid’s Tale and Mexican Gothic and I am SO here for it!  Henderson doesn’t stop with the purity culture seeking to “protect” women, she includes issues of race, organized religion, abuse, youth, stigma, and family.  While this makes the story seem complicated, it’s really not.  Our protagonist Immanuelle is raised by her grandparents.  Her father was burned as a witch before she was born and her mother died giving birth to her.  She lives on the outside of Bethel’s society, because, although her grandfather was one of the apostles before her mother lost her way, her family was cast from the inner circle, and is now left with no status and little else.  Immanuelle is thrust into the prophet’s sphere when her best friend becomes his latest wife, and she begins to see more of his heir, Ezra, too.  Immanuelle and Ezra both have secrets, but they help each other because they realize there is more going on than consequences of sin caused by wayward Bethelan women when the plagues begin.  While this is the first in a duology (or perhaps series, I’m not sure), I think it stands alone just fine (although I wouldn’t mind more epilogue).  

I want to say so many things about the characters and story in The Year of the Witching .  In her debut, Henderson takes two young people and gives them stubborn wills, clear eyes, powerful minds, and true hearts.  She uses them and the society she’s created to call out SO. MANY. things that are wrong with American society and with the capital “C” Church.  Willful ignorance of the past, blatant disregard for entire segments of society, closed minds and borders, white Biblical figures instead of Arabic, and “complacency and complicity” to name a few.  

The Year of the Witching is a fantastic fall read, particularly if you like something with a gothic feel and enjoy a push back at a dystopian society where they would most definitely have had a “harvest festival” instead of a trunk or treat.  I’m giving this debut 4.5 stars and rounding up to 5.  The details of the story are creative, with amazing social commentary, and the writing is so engaging.  I’m not sure I’ll reread this, but I’m very likely to pick up The Dawn of the Coven after it comes out later this year!

~Nikki

As Nikki mentioned above, The Year of the Witching is Alexis Henderson’s debut novel and the first in the Bethel series (duology?). All of Henderson’s biographies state she has a “penchant for dark fantasy, witchcraft, and cosmic horror.” As a native of Savannah, Georgia, one of the most haunted cities in America, she has an understandable love of ghost stories.  She has a feline familiar, Luna, and they currently live in Charleston, South Carolina. I don’t think the vibe in Charleston hinders Henderson’s ability to write a solid spooky story AT ALL. Please let’s keep her writing more deliciously witchy fiction.

First, Confession Time: I don’t know what the heck happened in the two weeks between mine and Nikki’s making sure our Witchy Titles were available from our respective digital libraries and setting our reading order in September, but come the first week of October and all of a sudden I WAS NOT ABLE TO GET THE YEAR OF THE WITCHING digitally. It was a harrowing experience and I’m not a fan of this situation. #enneagram1 So, I go to another digital library, still not available. And then I got on my local library’s waitlist, thank all sacred things I was the only one on the list and the previous borrower returned it on time. (I am terrible at paying fines for my dead tree books, but they only give me two weeks, and I’m not a fan of that!) I checked the book out last Friday. I read the dead tree book – by pushing a little – in three days. I’m not sad I did it. (FYI: we did have a backup post plan and maybe you’ll get to hear about that during our reading life review – or before! But I digress…)

Second: Is The Year of the Witching really a debut novel? It has to be, because it’s the only published work we can find by Henderson on the interwebs, but the world building is so rich and intoxicating that it reads as if Henderson has spent multiple novels honing her craft. And, chances are high that as a writer she has stacks on stacks of unpublished works in which she has been working her word-magic, but I am so GRATEFUL that this was the first one published. I loved every second I spent reading it, and it truly is the perfect tale to read during the spooky season and specifically for our #celebrationofwitches2021. Am I frustrated that we didn’t end up reading it last year for our Witchy Reads when the book was newly birthed into the world? Kinda a little, but that’s the only disappointment I feel surrounding this novel. (Ok, that’s a lie. You all know I’m disappointed I had to read it in dead tree from the library and not be able to highlight on my kindle as is my habit  – no lies the first few chapters I put my finger on the words like I could highlight it…digital reading has changed me and I’m not sad about it.)

Finally: Down with the Patriarchy. Henderson’s world of Bethel is a society run by a series of male Prophets and apostles with Gifts given by the Father to ‘protect’ people from the corrupting influence of the Dark Mother and her followers. Yes, some women receive Gifts, too, like Immanuelle’s grandmother Martha who has the gift of knowing the Father’s names of babies at their birth, but these Gifts don’t give women power in the church’s society and political structure. The Prophets have almost dictatorial power over their constituents and in the most recent decades they have abused their power. Women are groomed to be subservient to men and have no power in society or their households, even if they have Gifts. The followers of the Mother, especially the original witches who fought against the first Prophet, are known as witches. They would harness the powers of the Mother, which were considered as evil by the followers of the Father and the Prophets, as the Father’s voice on earth. And so women and women’s needs and desires are silenced by men, their experiences and truths made into something unimportant. Without spoiling something important you need to read about… Even the way women are made into brides is by literally cutting their foreheads with a mark of claiming and ownership by their husbands. There is no reciprocal mark given to the husband and men can have multiple wives. The current Prophet has almost ten wives of differing ages.

I can’t wait for the release of The Dawn of the Coven, but I don’t foresee it actually being published this December, as there’s not a cover posted on either Goodreads or Amazon and the final version of the book would have needed to be sent to the printer already. Doesn’t matter, it’s on my list for next year’s Celebration of Witches. 😀 I’m giving The Year of the Witching 4.5 stars, but I’m going to leave it there because even though I might re-read the title, it will only be because I’ll probably need a reminder on the plot before the next book comes out. (Do I feel a little like Nikki when I say that? Yes, yes I do.)

 ~Ashley

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