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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
Ehh... It tried but it was not what I expected.
I think I had this on my radar because of a recommendation for a book about Scottish witches, but that ended up being a smaller part of the story than I had hoped. Even the attempt of mirroring witch persecution to women in the modern day fell flat.
I felt disconnected about the book being set in Scotland given the main subject matter of "revenge porn" and the legality of that here. At the end of the book you find out at the end it's set April/May 2017 (published in 2019). Legislation making sharing intimate photos of someone without their consent came into force July 2017, however since late March 2017 posters highlighting the new law were everywhere. I saw these posters every day for months and you're telling me that it never came up in response to any of it?
There was also a weird choice from the narrator to have a Scottish accent for Maggie in the past but not change it from her English one for any other character...
I think I had this on my radar because of a recommendation for a book about Scottish witches, but that ended up being a smaller part of the story than I had hoped. Even the attempt of mirroring witch persecution to women in the modern day fell flat.
I felt disconnected about the book being set in Scotland given the main subject matter of "revenge porn" and the legality of that here. At the end of the book you find out at the end it's set April/May 2017 (published in 2019). Legislation making sharing intimate photos of someone without their consent came into force July 2017, however since late March 2017 posters highlighting the new law were everywhere. I saw these posters every day for months and you're telling me that it never came up in response to any of it?
There was also a weird choice from the narrator to have a Scottish accent for Maggie in the past but not change it from her English one for any other character...
This is a story that needs to be told. Anna Clark was so bullied that she had to move to a new country, a new school, even change her name. And it followed her. It haunted her. It all came back and almost ruined her life. While going through this torture, she discovers a young woman who was burned at the stake for witchcraft for the sin of being raped and bearing a child. The Burning explores the punishment meted out upon women for being women, and it’s a story that needs to be told.
*I received an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review
*I received an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Abortion
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual harassment
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Some aspects of this book were phenomenal; others fell flat. Overall, it was a pretty good YA feminism novel. But it wasn’t amazing, and definitely could have done with some extra work.
There were several things that I notice that made me slightly confused about the feminism within this book.
There were several things that I notice that made me slightly confused about the feminism within this book.
- at the end, the three girls made a point of Anna being a person and not just a sexual body. but her body and how it affected her was the main focus of the book, and we didn’t actually get to know her character much because of it until that list of her personal qualities at the end. it didn’t make sense.
- why did the mother have to solve all the problems with her perfectly worded arguments? this is a common trope in a lot of feminist fiction and i find it very difficult. not all women have the resources or ability to stand up for themselves in the face of systemic abuse and injustice like that (and not all women will be on your side), but somehow magically a stressed, busy, grieving woman could amaze the headteacher and make her obey him with a punchy, apparently-memorised speech. the Perfect Girl Saviour™️ thing isn’t helpful and doesn’t further the cause; it just puts the onus on the survivor to “solve” all of her own abuse, and if she doesn’t, she’s not “strong” or “independent” enough. it would have been more useful to have Anna reach out to one of the available support services mentioned at the end of the novel, and find help that way.
- something I felt was really airbrushed over was the illegality of the abuse; yes, it violates the Equality Act, like Anna’s mum said, but also distributing explicit images without the person’s consent. not to mention the original pressuring and taking of the images is breaking child pornography law. why wasn’t there a discussion of reporting the abuse to the police? or even why many women wouldn’t go to the police because they don’t trust them to carry out a respectful and successful investigation? also, things like the illegality of the underage sex and drinking (they are 15?) were skipped over, which i felt shouldn’t have been.
- also, the broad-stroke characterisation of the attitudes of the historical aspect of the novel as Every Woman Is Evil. there were a lot more nuances and reasons and much more depth in the beliefs about witches held during the 17th century than were given due attention. the revisionist chronological snobbery of “we are better than our women-hating ancestors apart from the fact that we have Facebook” mindset pains me.
It’s not quite from the same feminist lens, but if you're looking for a good fiction book about real-life witches, I would read A Kind Of Spark by Elle McNicoll instead. the allegory of the treatment of minorities as witches is done much more successfully. nevertheless, this book wasn’t bad. i would just be wary while reading it, and consider what you’re taking in and how you think about it.
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No