The Once and Future Witches
The spellbinding bestseller
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The Once and Future Witches
Buy Now for £16.99
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Narrated by:
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Gabra Zackman
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By:
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Alix E. Harrow
About this listen
In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.
But when the three Eastwood sisters join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote - and perhaps not even to live - the sisters must delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.
There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.
©2020 Alix E. Harrow (P)2020 Hachette Audio UKListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A brilliant dazzle of a book...I devoured it in enormous gulps, and utterly loved it." (Kat Howard, author of The Unkindness of Ghosts)
"This is a delightful, satisfying novel, a tale of women's battle for equality, of fairy tales twisted into wonderfully witchy spells, of magics both large and small, and history re-imagined." (Louisa Morgan, author of A Secret History of Witches)
"The Once and Future Witches is a gorgeous and thrilling paean to the ferocious power of women." (Laini Taylor, New York Times best-selling author)
Featured article: Witches in fiction: 12 historical fiction books to listen to this Halloween
Throughout history, women have been branded as witches by people scared of their power, confidence and independence. In days past, accusations of being a witch – thrown at women for everything from being talented at working with herbs to being in the vicinity of a death – could result in banishment or even death. These 12 audiobooks, perfect for the longer nights, colder weather and the Halloween season, tell the stories of women through history, from goddesses to regular women, through a mix of horror, fantasy and historical fiction.
excellent narration for an excellent book!
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I am always drawn to stories about witches and this is a beautifully written feminist adventure about suffragettes and witches, and tells the story of the three Eastwood sisters. I couldn't stop listening, and I didn't want it to end. It is set in 1893 in New Salem, built after the original Salem was burned to the ground along with the witches who lived there. Starting as a tale of Suffragettes and women's rights it soon becomes much darker.
The writing is clever and magical and draws you into the lives of the women. I loved the way that each chapter starts with a spell and the ingredients needed, and reads like a twisted nursery rhyme. The story is filled with folklore and re-written fairy tales. There is a wonderfully diverse cast of mainly female characters and themes of LGBTQ and race were sensitively handled. Oh, and the cover is gorgeous!
The narration by Gabra Zackman is outstanding.
Beautiful and magical
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Amazing
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Cute modern take on a fairytail, easy to listen to/Read if you want something that isn't too long or heavy.
too American, a bit cliche and feminist in a victimised way thats not everyone's cup of coffee, but for those who need a very Woman's Story it's ideal.
The rules of the Fantasy setting are unclear, for those who are bothered by it.
Reads well as a modern fairy tail, with all the right elements - numbers, symbols, metaphors, ending.
It's not realistic, and the rules of the world are unclear and muddy, which always bothers me in Fantasy books.
Some parts annoyed me in their hate for men (there was no need to make every writer into a woman, ans even less so to disrespect Kazshej The Deathless by making him into a her, its disrespectful towards Slavic folktales in general) or their blatant victim-adoration (no, the library of Alexandria wasn't burnt specifically to destroy witches. Destroying pillars of culture and knowledge is just another tool used in war, and the reason we have nothing left of Cartage).
It's also 110% American, and its very hard to relate to it if you're not - it's nor your history, the values are not your values, the talk of Sin is alien, the rhymes and tales as well.
Usually those points are enough to make me give up on a Fantasy book. If a story can't have coherent and clear rules, and the heroes just go doing neily weily whatever they need to do to please the Story, what's the point?
If the story demands prior knowledge and a certain understanding/sympathy of a culture I'm not a part of, without making up for it, what's the point of me, an outsider, reading it?
But there are redeeming qualities that do more than enough to save to story and that tugged at me to continue - the Characters go through what feels like a very natural and streamlined character growth (so streamlined, it was probably very difficult to write), harsh and complex interpersonal conflicts get solved instead of glossed over, the villains are complex and have coherent and very understandable reasons, and the overarching vibe tha story gives, especially in an audio book form and in this wonderful performance accompanied by music and rhymes, is of a modern fairytale.
Marvelous production & performance, decent story
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Loved it
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