Reviews

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

swestlake's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

mariab3's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

3.75

The writing style wasn’t for me - too much effort trying to constantly sound profound. And some of the twists and symbolism were too obvious.

I’m here for the love interests, though.

cobaltbookshelf's review against another edition

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1.0

Shallow one dimensional characters and ultimately white feminist snooze fest.

laurolly's review against another edition

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5.0

5 stars. Harrow has absolutely beautiful and elegant writing which I adore. The Once and Future Witches had enchanting characters, whom I think anyone would be able to relate to in some facet. I was quite surprised that Agnes became my personal favourite, her need to isolate in order to protect her heart was so well portrayed. I thought that Harrow did amazingly in weaving together the magic system, the historical time period, and the feminist ideology. I particularly liked the small stories scattered in, because they connected to the fairytales I heard as a child. The sisterhood which is formed between all of the women in the book gives me warm fuzzy feelings, all showing utter acceptance of each other. Overall, this is just a big yes. I know I’ll be rereading it again and again in the future.

ssmariof's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jeremy_bearimy's review against another edition

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I had a hard time settling into this book, partly because of its frequent perspective jumps between the three sisters. I would be interested in revisiting down the road, especially if I have more brainpower to immerse myself in the characters. 

fionmwma's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

thepaperbackplanner's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Honesty time: I’ll admit I wasn’t in love with this novel at the start, but I’m happy to report that it did grow on me chapter by chapter. From the first page, I was intrigued by the story and the relationship between the three main characters, sisters separated by time and circumstances who are brought back together to fight for magic and women’s rights (and, like, kinda all civil rights a little bit). But — spoiler alert, seriously —
one of the sisters discovers she’s pregnant, and while it’s important to the story to have someone be a mother, it becomes nearly this character’s entire personality. Like, a “she opened the door pregnantly” kind of situation that I did not love.
Now, look. I recognize that my issue with this might be totally personal, but I wanted to call it out to basically say your mileage may vary here. Either way, eventually, either it toned down or I got used to it and was able to enjoy the book quite a bit more. Something I really loved about this book was how full it was, like, seriously, SO much happened. I came away with a feeling I think is rare in sci-fi or fantasy for me, which is that I read the whole story in one book and don’t need a sequel. In fact, it didn’t even occur to me to see if there was going to be a sequel until this moment I’m writing this. Per a tweet from 2020, it’s currently a standalone, which I think is neat! 

hannahnoelle531's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

schwiski's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5