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A review by wafflepolly
Cunning Women by Elizabeth Lee
4.0
"When they treat us this way I become the very creature they fear me to be."
Forbidden love in a 1620s Lancashire fishing village, set amongst the moral panic of Puritanism and witch-hunts; Sarah Haworth and her family live in desolate poverty. A family of outcasts due to their witching ways, they are feared and hated by the same villagers who hypocritically turn to them for balms, salves, and occasional curses.
When Sarah meets Daniel, the gentle farmer's son, the pair quickly bond. However, Daniel wonders how much his feelings for her are genuine, or how much they are due to a bewitchment. Meanwhile, Sarah is dealing with the hold that her powers have over her, and how they can be unleashed by her fury. Fuelled by fear, the villagers soon turn on each other, with the Haworths a handy scapegoat for crimes that the harsh new magistrate seeks retribution for.
The clash of genres — low fantasy meets historical romance — made this an interesting read. The forbidden romance, the "wrong side of the tracks" romance, is such a well-worn trope but the witching element gave it a new life. Sarah and Daniel, although wildly different in most ways, share subtle similarities that made their push-pull relationship fascinating to read.
There are questions left throughout to keep the reader guessing. Some are answered explicitly, some more implied by the historical setting. I'm always a big fan of stories set in small towns where seeds of distrust and suspicion have been sown, and this story is full of that trope. The fear and isolation that the villagers cast upon the Haworth family is mirrored in the growing fear that they have for each other, and a growing willingness to throw each other under the bus to save themselves.
I found some of the paragraph structuring to be slightly disjointed. This may be due to the format of the ebook, but on several occasions I began a new paragraph and was taken out of the story slightly by the realisation that a passage of time had passed since the previous one, with no clear indication of that happening.
3.5 stars, rounded up.
Forbidden love in a 1620s Lancashire fishing village, set amongst the moral panic of Puritanism and witch-hunts; Sarah Haworth and her family live in desolate poverty. A family of outcasts due to their witching ways, they are feared and hated by the same villagers who hypocritically turn to them for balms, salves, and occasional curses.
When Sarah meets Daniel, the gentle farmer's son, the pair quickly bond. However, Daniel wonders how much his feelings for her are genuine, or how much they are due to a bewitchment. Meanwhile, Sarah is dealing with the hold that her powers have over her, and how they can be unleashed by her fury. Fuelled by fear, the villagers soon turn on each other, with the Haworths a handy scapegoat for crimes that the harsh new magistrate seeks retribution for.
The clash of genres — low fantasy meets historical romance — made this an interesting read. The forbidden romance, the "wrong side of the tracks" romance, is such a well-worn trope but the witching element gave it a new life. Sarah and Daniel, although wildly different in most ways, share subtle similarities that made their push-pull relationship fascinating to read.
There are questions left throughout to keep the reader guessing. Some are answered explicitly, some more implied by the historical setting. I'm always a big fan of stories set in small towns where seeds of distrust and suspicion have been sown, and this story is full of that trope. The fear and isolation that the villagers cast upon the Haworth family is mirrored in the growing fear that they have for each other, and a growing willingness to throw each other under the bus to save themselves.
I found some of the paragraph structuring to be slightly disjointed. This may be due to the format of the ebook, but on several occasions I began a new paragraph and was taken out of the story slightly by the realisation that a passage of time had passed since the previous one, with no clear indication of that happening.
3.5 stars, rounded up.