Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Once and Future Witches

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

26 reviews

a_dara_ble's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It was so good I didn't even really notice how long of a book it was. If you want strong female characters that are all equally great and different, while also being extremely flawed, often wrong, and sometimes unbelievably (and rightly) angry, this is the book for you.
It's been weeks and I still think about this book.

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anniereads221's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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winx15's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved this book and the magic system and the way witches were tied into womrns rights movements. The charachters were whole people with flaws but were given the chance to form meaningful relationships. I only took half a star off cause i had moments where i thought it should be ending and i was only 1/2 or 3/4 of the way through, so pacing threw me off sometimes, but it was lovely and wrapped up very nicely and i highly recommend!

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ehmannky's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

I am always incredibly hesitant to start this book because it felt like "witches and the suffrage movement" was a kind of proposed plot that would go real fast into white girlboss feminism. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. There's way more witchcraft than suffrage, and even when we do dip into suffrage Harrow takes care to include women of color, poor women, and immigrants and how their lives are worse than the white, middle class characters of the book. Like, when a very minor Native character tells one of the white leads that their knowledge is not for them I was so delighted. I loved the story of three sisters mending their lives and struggling for a better world, and the two romance subplots are well-integrated. Each of the sisters has a great character arc and I loved the ending.

My main qualm came from Harrow changing a bunch of male authors to women (like, the Brothers Grimm become the Sisters Grimm or for some reason Dante's Inferno is about a witch who walks through hell). I don't know, it felt out of place in a world that is filled with the same misogyny as our own to have all of these women authors. I felt it would have been more thematically fitting to just have spent the time focusing on women writing in books or other marginalia than just being like "oh, it was Charlotte Perrault, not Charles Perrault who wrote these fairy tales!" I do have to admit that every single time Harrow did this I rolled my eyes because it just seemed silly and so out of place with the rest of her world. But other than this, I thought it was great and it surpassed my expectations.

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laisai's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring 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

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andromeda_1998's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.5

Once and future witches is the highly feminist witch novel everyone deserves to read. It has suffragettes, strong female characters and magic. I really enjoyed reading it but watch out the story starts a bit slow!

Characters
Juniper is the wild witch child everyone needs. She’s free, furious, stubborn and fearless. She’s the reason I read this book to the end. It’s interesting to read how she grew up and how she fought herself free of her fathers influence.

Beatrice is the mousy booknerd who is curious, kind and brave. O and gayyyyy. The gay icon we need. I enjoyed her as a character. She’s a character with a lot of flaws but that makes her human.

Agnes is the “strongest” sister is the line that is used many times and well I’m not really seeing it. It’s a lot of telling and the writer is often more intensely describing that she’s pregnant instead of giving her a real character. She’s always scared and running, throwing her sisters under the bus. Frankly she’s the coward of the story. And in my opinion she’s the weakest sister. Since she’s the one who’s scared to open her heart.

Worldbuilding
The world is inspired by 1800 Salem with a lot of American witchcraft. The magic system is beautiful and in some ways very real. Lullabies and nursery rimes have always been the things keeping mothers and children connected. It wouldn’t be weird if some magic can still be found in these story’s.

Storytelling
The book is hard to get into. It isn’t some easy read but it’s worth it. The writing is spectacular and the plot is amazing. The story is full of diverse characters and it’s a full on recommendation for anyone.

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