CAN YOU IMAGINE? WOULDN’T YOU READ THE HELL OUT OF THAT? But no. No. Instead the story revolved around boring mansplainer Ezra and Immanuelle’s inexplicable feelings for him. It’s tragic, honestly, when I think about how incredibly mediocre it ended up being when it could have been so powerful instead. The Year of the Witching is a gripping and powerful debut filled with horror and macabre recommended for fans of dark (feminist) fantasy, religious cults, and witches tearing down the patriarchy. Forget my poor attempt at a review and go read the book!!!! There are some brief scenes and lines where the narrative starts to verge on horror, but these are few and far between, so the book as a whole never quite gets there, never reaches that apex of dread that The WWitch manages so easily. Oddly, the stakes never felt high enough, even though the stakes are literally death by plagues, but maybe this is just because I didn't care about any of the characters very much. Immanuelle is an outsider amongst the group. She is accepted for the most part, but no one is really warm and fuzzy towards her.

and the text even explicitly asks the question if ‘innocents’ are truly good people if they continually turn a blind eye. it’s wild! methinks false equivalence is at play, and that left a decidedly sour taste in my mouth. A masterfully eerie, feminist story that binds itself to the reader's mind and won't let go. Alexis Henderson is an author to watch. SHEA ERNSHAW, author of Winterwood I know, bold statement. I might be tempted to revoke my claim later, but for now can we talk about how bloody PHENOMENAL and REVOLUTIONARY this terrifying wtichy culty puritanical tale is???? Yes, this book is the sh*t I want everyone to rave about. Psst! Read Katherine Arden’s gorgeous Winternight Trilogy instead. Or better yet – just read The Handmaid’s Tale.) A thrillingly brisk and bracing tale of magic and power, I loved this book. It takes the best tropes of horror and witchcraft and gives them a refreshingly feminist twist.”– S.A. Chakraborty, National bestselling author of The Daevabad TrilogyBone-chilling and breathtakingly beautiful…storytelling at its finest." – Rena Barron, author of Kingdom of Souls a witchy fantasy-horror about a teenage girl trying to break a curse while living under the yoke of an oppressive patriarchal regime. After a mishap leads Immanuelle to the forbidden Darkwood that surrounds the settlement, she encounters the spirits of powerful witches killed years before. These spirits gift Immanuelle the journal of her dead mother. there are a lot of good things about this - the relevant themes, the relatable characters, and the easy-going writing. i like how this is set in a very distant and dated world, but so much of the story applies to reality. i love immanuelle as a character and i appreciate that she had a determined strength to her, but is also kind and thoughtful. i feel like i dont see enough of this combination in books. i also like her interactions with ezra and enjoy their narrative. If there is one way in which the novel falters, it comes in pacing toward the end. Immanuelle finds herself in several circular arguments with her grandmothers Martha and with Ezra, the handsome chosen heir of the Prophet with a rebellious streak.

The Year of the Witching is a dark wood ready to swallow you whole with its tense stakes and beguiling prose. Henderson takes witchcraft to its very depths, unraveling the horrific nightmares of bone-deep ideology and devastating oppression." - Dhonielle Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Belles series Full of blood and bigotry, The Year of the Witching is a chilling twist on stories about religious extremism and occultism. What’s not to love in a book where dangerous witches, cruel men, and oppressive religious zealotry collide, and the outcast girl who must sacrifice everything to stop them? With a keen eye and a sharp tongue, Henderson breathes new life into an old trope. Alexis Henderson is a fresh new voice in dark fantasy, and I look forward to hearing more from her. Coming from the mind of Christian Ward (Aquaman: Andromeda) is a new storyline for horror and Batman fans alike. He describes the series as his love letter to Arkham Asylum: Serious House on a Serious Earth. He then went on to say that this is a tribute to the classic comics titled Batman: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Batman: Gothic by Grant Morrison. Comic Covers for Batman: City of MadnessThe prophet….man I hated that man with every fiber of my being. When a society or a community perceives one as the leader, how far are they manipulated into thinking that he’s allowed to do wrong with no consequences? Abuse of power was a heavy theme in this one and it really did hurt to read. How does Bethel expose the hypocrisy of the prophet and all who stand by him? A thrillingly brisk and bracing tale of magic and power, I loved this book. It takes the best tropes of horror and witchcraft and gives them a refreshingly feminist twist. S.A. CHAKRABORTY, author of The City of Brass The Year of the Witching is set in the deeply patriarchal and puritanical land of Bethel, where the word of the Prophet is law. Our protagonist, Immanuelle Moore, lives on the fringes of acceptability. Her father was burned on a pyre as a heretic. Her mother is known throughout Bethel as a witch and a traitor. Immanuelle is determined to live as uneventful a life as possible. But then she discovers her mother’s journal, and accidentally unleashes a plague upon Bethel. She must use all the cleverness and magic at her disposal to stop the plague, but the question is – does she want to?

i feel like this is one of those books where you either really love it or it just isnt for you. and being that my fatal flaw is indecisiveness, im right down this middle with this one.Our main character Immanuelle is a strong realistic character here with her traits and development. She starts off vulnerable and flawed by her Mother's choices and lives in the shadows. She grows into a multi-layered strong character with conflicts of her own and ones she must overcome to save her family, community and home. Not only is Immanuelle a complex, fascinating character, the dynamics between her and the other characters are also. characters, worldbuilding, and plot all felt a little too flimsy. the book seems to lean very heavily on shorthand and convenience, and even thematically, i couldn’t fully connect with the message of the story by the time the main plot got wrapped up. The novel is broken up into five sections and is narrated in the third-person past with a focus on Immanuelle. In “Beast,” the midwife, Martha, delivered her daughter’s child. When the baby was born, Martha said that her name was to be Immanuelle. This pleased the dying mother, who said the curse the witch in the woods had told her about was nearly complete. The Year of the Witching is Alexis Henderson’s debut novel, but you’d never know it. It’s so well crafted and her point of view so well honed it feels like it should be her third or fourth book. The story is enchanting, enticing, enthralling, enigmatic.

This is more revolutionist, r

The Year of the Witching

women are married off by the dozens to men old enough to be their grandfathers as soon as they menstruate for the first time. such as leah, immanuelle’s best friend and one of the prophet’s many wives, who only ever seems to pop into the story to illustrate just how badly women are abused.