A review by litematcha
Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I heard Slewfoot being recommended as a good representation of how cunning women/folk magic practitioners blended Christianity and pagan practices. Also, the ways folk healers were subjected to abuse by Christian colonialists. While this book does have lots of subtle folk magic, Slewfoot is more so a historical, dark fantasy of the horror of living as an widowed, outsider, young woman in a Puritan village. The magical worldbuilding pulls from several different cultures which may not agree with readers who want a heavily realistic portrayal of the Puritan lifestyle and time period. I suggest prospective readers take the time to look at the content warnings to better understand the story they will be reading.

I was surprised by the StoryGraph community’s medium-paced description of Slewfoot. I find Brom’s writing style to be slow, sometimes even coming off as repetitive. I listened to the audiobook edition, and the performance was amazing! The audiobook narrator did an excellent job of creating distinctive voices for each character. The only thing I didn’t like about the audiobook was the length: an average of 14 hours. Most often, I listen to audiobooks around the 7-8 hour mark, so this title was a personal challenge. Even so, I couldn’t put this book down! 
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