A review by mitskacir
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

1.0

Oh God did I dislike this book. I powered through it because I have trouble quitting books mid-read, and I was optimistic that it would improve. It did not. I felt no connection to any of the characters, the writing was extremely boring and repetitive, and I was disappointed by the premise. This had very little to do with the suffrage movement (suffragists are introduced early in the book but then are quickly dismissed as being useless), and the world building felt too disconnected from reality. There were some references to the role race, sexuality, class, etc. operated in the world, but its exploration was shallow and it didn't feel anchored in history enough. The three main characters were characterized by the Crone, Mother, and Maiden tropes, and were referred to as such in the text so much I wanted to throw my book. Nearly every time a character's name is mentioned, we get "Bella, the wise bookish Crone" or "Juniper, the wild Maiden" etc. I only knew that characters were attracted to/in love with each other because during every encounter we were told that they would blush or throw sultry looks at each other, without any underlying chemistry. I have no idea where the multitude of high reviews came from.