A review by carlyem16
A Lullaby for Witches by Hester Fox

2.0

There was such a big plot hole in this book that it took me out of the story completely.

SPOILER ALERT

The story shifts perspectives from a modern-day museum curator, Augusta, to a 19th century rich, witch named Margaret. I enjoyed the research storyline in which Augusta tries to learn about Margaret and the theme of everyday women from the past being lost in history. However, the rest of the story was extremely lacking.

Unless I completely misread the entire book, I found such a GLARINGLY obvious plot hole that absolutely ruined the story for me. The big "reveal" in the middle of the book is that Augusta is a direct descendant of Margaret. This was obvious because from the beginning Margaret reveals that she gets knocked up, and Augusta often mentions how mysterious her family history is. I wasn't even bothered by how predictable this plotline was.

HOWEVER, I was bothered by the fact that Margaret DIES before she has the baby, and the baby dies with her. HOW ON EARTH can Augusta be a DIRECT DESCENDANT if Margaret and her baby DIE?? I even kept reading in case it was revealed that Margaret, as a witch who practices dark magic, put a spell on the fetus to protect it from harm or something magical like that. But that doesn't happen. The two simply die.

Again, my question is how? How can Augusta be descended from Margaret, and how did none of the editors and publishers catch this huge plot hole?

Maybe I missed a detail that explained this, but I don't care enough to reread this book and find out.