A review by veeples
The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I’ve read a couple of books that use a theme of fear of witches and the associated religious persecution, and unfortunately, this one is not one of my favorites.
While Immanuel does well to understand that the religion that Bethel operates her forces its black population to the outskirts, allows men of religious standing to take advantage of young girls, and cultivates a culture of fear and distrust, I kept expecting there to be more empathy for the witches of persecuted past or for Immanuel to come to see magic isn’t just something violent. There was potential for it too since her grandmother is a witch, but her magic is never spoke of, so there’s lost potential in letting Immanuel see the misinformation of the understanding of magic perpetuated by the church. Instead, magic and its witches are… just as bad as Bethel has always taught her. There’s no sympathy for the fact that a young girl and two queer women died, and no chance for Immanuel to even understand them more as people instead of purely monsters.
What I do enjoy about this book is the strong relationship and respect Immanuel and Ezra have together, how even if their ideas of what should be done clashes somewhat, their care for each means they wanna see each other live and thrive. I think Henderson does very well to show how even in someone as well meaning as Ezra, he still has ideas that he needs to rethink and challenge but he never puts Immanuel down for her own ideals.

Some other issues I have is I felt this book was quite a bit slower than I would have liked, and I wish Immanuel had more time to understand other things in the book namely: the outskirts and its culture and the history of magic, but maybe this will be touched upon in the sequel.
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