Reviews

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

freev's review

4.0

This book was long as hell!!!!! 100 less pages and a little less drawn out and it could’ve been 5 stars. I think I struggled with the idea of this book being set in 1893 when the word choice - even in the dialogue- was so modern. But all in all it was a good read. Very nice fantasy story and respectfully inclusive.

bskolaski's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

mickbates's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

pinxsol's review against another edition

2.0

This book is very on the nose. If your nose was Pinnochio's, that is. It has more cheap one liners than your average marvel movie, it's just that bad. It feels like 500 pages of cheap copout of female empowerment (when there are so many better and more profound ways to write that!).
I hated most of the book, if I'm gonna be honest. It's very showy about its themes, to the point that it feels crude and cheesy. It tells you: oh this girl is smart or this woman is strong and then makes these women do absolutely nothing to show how smart or strong they might be. It's all tell and no show.
Also, every line in this book is so dramatic that it's tiring to read. It all goes back to those annoying one-liners like fire in her hair, steel in her spine and other stuff like that which I find very cringe. It's so unsubtle I just can't take it seriously.
The characters are so hyperfocused on their one quirk or theme that they feel one-dimensional.

Spoiler

Also, you want to tell me that a girl who was tortured and beaten by a man would just go 'oh I understand him now so it's all good'? At first I thought it was a joke, it was so absurd. But i guess it was not.

taewright's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? No

3.5

thehutonfowlslegs's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

a fairly solid book aside from the anachronistic dialogue and occasional cliches 

suvata's review against another edition

4.0

From the Publisher:
In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in Alix E. Harrow's powerful novel of magic and the suffragette movement. Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR Books • Barnes and Noble • BookPage In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the Eastwood sisters―James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna―join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement.

jellievayas's review

4.0

I have had this behemoth of a book on my TBR since it first came out in bookstores, and have lugged it with me from Jersey to California and back to Jersey again. I've always had a want and will to read this book...it never was handed over to libraries or donation boxes or book sellers throughout this time, always with the knowing that I loved Alix's other books (Ten Thousand Doors to January and A Spindle Splintered, A Mirror Shattered, and yes even the most recent Starling House, respectively) before finally reading this one, and that the words would sing to me and fill me with the splendor and magic of narrative and storytelling and wonder like always.

Turns out, I just needed the way. The want, the will, and the way are usually what a witch needs to make her magic boil up to the surface and make the possible, impossible. This book boiled up my love for magic and wonder and storytelling and the unabashed power of that last one to encourage me to get back into it!

If you love historical fiction with a fantasy twist, of women taking back the power that was always there, of sisterly bonds of both blood and of the coven, then you'll find this book satisfactory at the very least.

I can't wait to read more from Alix, and go back and read her others time and time again.

justiceginger's review

challenging emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

ketutar's review

4.0

Another rather uneven book. It was partially great and partially really boring. All in all, it was good. I don't regret reading it.
It took me a little bit longer to read than it should have. I found it hard to get into it. About halfway I forced myself to read it.
I liked the feminist history and matriarchy in it. I don't like the witch burning and book burning.
Also, I have to commend Alix' ... er... what's it called now... dang it. How she follows the shape of the story. We get a small victory and then she rips it apart, we rise from the ashes, and she burns everything down again, again and again, the steps get higher and higher, the disappointment and loss bigger and bigger. When

Spoiler

she burned the tower

I almost stopped reading. It was a bit much. Obviously not too much, as I finished the book :-D