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A review by annettenis
The Famine Witch by Stephen Black
dark
mysterious
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
The Famine Witch by Stephen Black is a chilling historical fantasy set against one of the darkest periods of Irish history, the Great Hunger , a time when famine swept the country and millions either died of hunger and disease or were forced to emigrate, fleeing the country in so called coffin ships, though thousands of them would never see their final destination.
Against this desolate background Stephen Black has intricately woven together strands of Irish mythology with creations of his own imagining to create a story that held me spellbound from beginning to end. With incredibly vivid description Black quickly evokes the bleakness and poverty faced by many of his characters and establishes the struggles faced not just by the individual characters but by the city of Belfast, and indeed the country as a whole. We meet the determined and independent Maggie Malone who is raising her younger brother Jinks while mourning the recent death of their mother while their father tries to drown his sorrows by spending every last penny in the local pubs. What Maggie does not know is that she is about to become a pawn in a deadly game between a crazy killer known only as "Bloody Hands", once considered a local myth but now slaughtering young women in the city once again , and The Black Lady, a malevolent force determined to seek revenge for her death having been hanged as a witch in the city centuries before , in part because of the actions of Bloody Hands. So blinded is she by her need for vengeance that she is willing to destroy the city in pursuit of it, but Maggie is more powerful than the Black Lady ever imagined, and is not going to be anyone's pawn. She will do whatever it takes to save her brother and her city, even if it means becoming the Famine Witch.
This is a strong story well told, though if I am honest I think the ending was a little rushed, which is a shame given how much I enjoyed the building of the story all along. The writing is descriptive but not overly so, enough to transport the reader to another time and place without distracting from the story being told. The main characters are strong and easy to care about and root for while the secondary characters are very effectively used to help with setting the scene and making the world of the story more believable. I do wish we could have had a little more of the friendship between Maggie and clergyman's daughter Annabelle, I thought the contrasts in their upbringings made for an interesting dynamic and I enjoyed the pairing, so can't help wanting more , though I understand the need to focus more on elements of the story that moved the main plot along more.
Overall a strong historical fantasy with a unique real world setting that should appeal to many readers, I read an ARC courtesy of NetGalley, the author and Quill and Crow Publishing, all opinions are my own.
Against this desolate background Stephen Black has intricately woven together strands of Irish mythology with creations of his own imagining to create a story that held me spellbound from beginning to end. With incredibly vivid description Black quickly evokes the bleakness and poverty faced by many of his characters and establishes the struggles faced not just by the individual characters but by the city of Belfast, and indeed the country as a whole. We meet the determined and independent Maggie Malone who is raising her younger brother Jinks while mourning the recent death of their mother while their father tries to drown his sorrows by spending every last penny in the local pubs. What Maggie does not know is that she is about to become a pawn in a deadly game between a crazy killer known only as "Bloody Hands", once considered a local myth but now slaughtering young women in the city once again , and The Black Lady, a malevolent force determined to seek revenge for her death having been hanged as a witch in the city centuries before , in part because of the actions of Bloody Hands. So blinded is she by her need for vengeance that she is willing to destroy the city in pursuit of it, but Maggie is more powerful than the Black Lady ever imagined, and is not going to be anyone's pawn. She will do whatever it takes to save her brother and her city, even if it means becoming the Famine Witch.
This is a strong story well told, though if I am honest I think the ending was a little rushed, which is a shame given how much I enjoyed the building of the story all along. The writing is descriptive but not overly so, enough to transport the reader to another time and place without distracting from the story being told. The main characters are strong and easy to care about and root for while the secondary characters are very effectively used to help with setting the scene and making the world of the story more believable. I do wish we could have had a little more of the friendship between Maggie and clergyman's daughter Annabelle, I thought the contrasts in their upbringings made for an interesting dynamic and I enjoyed the pairing, so can't help wanting more , though I understand the need to focus more on elements of the story that moved the main plot along more.
Overall a strong historical fantasy with a unique real world setting that should appeal to many readers, I read an ARC courtesy of NetGalley, the author and Quill and Crow Publishing, all opinions are my own.