The Year of the Witching

I first read a sample from Kindle and once I was quickly done with the free snippet, I went back to my other book but I couldn’t get this one out of my mind. I ended up purchasing the Kindle version and read it in a day and a half. It’s one of those stories where you feel the burn of the fires and looks up from reading to see if the characters are sitting beside you because it’s SO real.Alexis writes magic and her words not only flow easily but are sewn together with an invisible string that leads your eyes from chapter to chapter, not wanting to ever put it down too soon.I felt a kinship with Immanuelle as I imagine many women and girls do. Her strength as a character is something we all want to see within ourselves or at least believe it possible!I give this one 5 stars and can’t wait for more from Alexis Henderson!

3.5 starsThe Year of the Witching is set in a fictional puritanical society similar to that of Salem, where women and the POC from the Outskirts are persecuted for witchcraft and other crimes that the men of cloth get away with scot-free. Bethel is a society based in hypocrisy and its history is riddled with untruths. I appreciated how Alexis Anderson told a feminist story in which the main character, Immanuelle, is a strong female who is dedicated to changing Bethel for the better by protecting the vulnerable and punishing those who abuse their power behind the Church.There were some positively spooky scenes set in the Darkwood and the witches were both frightening and captivating. Yet, towards the middle of the book, the story began to drag for me a bit. For one, I wanted more interactions with the witches and more magic. I felt the story stalled a bit until we reached the climax. I also felt the relationship between Ezra and Immanuelle was more of a friendship and I could never buy their romance. Their relationship needed to be more developed and I would have loved to delve more into the relationship between Vera and Immanuelle as well.Overall, this was a good debut, there were just certain elements I wanted more of.

I just finished what I can only say is one of the worse debut novels I’ve read in a long time. I thought the book held some real promise when I read the digital sample. However, after purchasing the book I came to the realization that I had been suckered.The Year of the Witching is a well paced, well plotted story. Period. Everything else is derivative. Throughout the novel I kept getting the feeling that the author was trying too hard to be original or creative without succeeding. For example, her practice of using alternative words for common nouns such as steed for horse or snuff for tobacco (or weed). Neither really works. Especially since I’ve never heard of someone smoking snuff, you snort snuff not smoke it.Her world building was poorly thought out. She states that Bethel had been in existence for a thousand years, yet none of their technology seemed to have advanced past the simple western frontier horse and buggy stage. I could see that if the church had forbidden the use of advanced, “foreign” technology, but I saw no evidence for that.My overall impression is that the author needs to spend more time writing about the world she knows before she ventures out to invent a new one.

Descriptions, common. Male villains, typical. Female villian, what? why? But mostly, sadly, I felt this author was not writing from her authentic voice.

I don't think I've read a book this fast since the Harry Potter books when I was a teenager. I think I was hungry to get to the meat of the story but it never got there. I did like the feeling of being transported to another time but by the end nothing really added up.First, the story up to the end is basically just a retelling of the storyline of most religions; religious leaders - all men - promise salvation and prosperity by following the laws of the religion, the women obey but still are stripped of all their rights and violated on many levels, and then some women try to rise up against it but are ultimately unsupported by the other women who are either "true believers" or cannot risk the repercussions of opposition. And then the ending was just a weird mash up of events where suddenly all the women of the parish, over the course of only maybe an hour go from jeering at the protagonist and hungrily calling for her to be burned alive, to inexplicably supporting her (is that what we are calling feminism in this story?). It actually felt a little anti-feminist to me, depicting the townswomen as sheep.Second, the aspect of witchcraft was entirely pointless to the story. This book could have been written and then the witchcraft parts thrown in later because it really had no bearing on the story or outcome. It seems like this was just added to try and make it more original and add interest, since the storyline is so aimless. You expect to learn something about how witchcraft pertains to the story by the end but then you don't.Lastly, the editing was terrible. There is actually a mistake early in the book where the protagonist's name is switched with her mother's in a passage talking about the behavior of the protagonist's father. The result is that it seemed like the story was actually going to be about incest and her father coming back from the dead until I read on and realized the mistake. Also, the author gets stuck on certain words or phrases and then uses them with obsessive repetition for a few pages or chapters - I don't necessarily blame the author for this - an editor should have ironed these out.

What a sensational debut! Henderson wove the most deliciously dark tale and I wanted to savor it as long as I could. Haunting, horrifying, and so, so human. I could not put this story down!

This is the sort of book I hate having to review/rate as I LOVED it but I just wish there was a little more to the story! ⁣⁣First off I really enjoyed the characters, I loved Immanuelle and Ezra and all the characters who you are ment to love in-between. ⁣⁣I didn't find it that creepy, I can see where people would but it was lacking for me. Although, it still didn't take much away from the book for me, I just wish it was creepier. But then if you've been around long enough, you may realise by now this is definitely an issue that is my own and I am hard to creep out. ⁣⁣The ending was a little rushed compared to the rest of the book which was disappointing but again, not the end of the world for me. It seems to be set up that a sequel may follow, and if that's the case I will definitely be picking it up. ⁣⁣And this is where I struggle with a rating because although there where flaws I was fully immersed in Immanuelle, Ezra and the fate of Bethal and couldn't put the book down. ⁣

Found this book to be really disappointing. The first couple of chapters were good, setting the narrative well I thought, but very quickly it descended into mediocre writing and poor plotting.The characters were largely one dimensional and you could spot a "wrong 'un" a mile off. There was no proper development of them, nor the world in which they inhabited. The back story was explained in tidbits but in what felt like an almost semi-detached way, as if the author wasn't sure herself about that to write. The plot was basic and the ending was laughable. Without giving anything away, the big conclusion reminded me in part of the scene from the original Toy Story when Sid's mangled toys come to life to scare him.What really grated on me was that the author felt the need to basically step out of the story to explain to the reader what was going on, as if we might have missed something. This happened a lot of times, especially when the main character was having an epiphany. It very much like were being given direction as if the author didn't trust us to *get it*.Wholly disappointing. I finished it but only through sheer stubbornness. Paying 99p for a Kindle copy was the saving grace of the whole experience.

Absolutely stunning read. I can see this as something Netflix could make and scare the pants of all of us.A bloody tale of betrayal on a group of women whose only crime was all held the lineage. Recorded by the "church" as witches the current prophet holds dominium and his word is final.The fact that he has hidden what he is doing is what drives these women to make a change. The last living of them is Immanuel, whose father was burned on a pyre and her mother driven to madness, she is the last hope, the strongest and the best equipped. With Ezra, the prophets son at her back they can face anything .... can't they?.

- 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣, 𝙍𝙖𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮, 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨!It travels long past comprehension that The Year of the Witching is a debut novel. Henderson’s voice is steady, sure and adept at conjuring forth realism, stability, believability and passion. The latter invoked in parallel to the reader, who once immersed in this tangible, captivating world, will swell and sway with the events and emotions.Bethel, on the face of it, seems like an idyllic, utopian community; thriving in the favour of the father. The descriptive language paints this landscape with such a clarity that the experience of which is incredibly visual. You know the simplicity, the wholesomeness of self sufficient existence. You expect the slightly negative, if not malicious, undertone.(If you are a fantasy fan, this world and timescape will call to your heart for all the familiar gifts it has to offer).The contrast of the pure being represented by pale skinned, fair haired folk to that of the “outskirters” being renowned for their darker pigmentation and coiling raven locks is very important. It demonstrates the inbuilt ideation that good and evil is represented by light and dark; that dark is threatening— impure even. History has captured Black people as the enemy throughout it’s entirety and this has been reflected, for human consumption, via various different mediums. Sometimes from a racist viewpoint and sometimes in a satirical way that exposes these narratives, causing us to pause and (hopefully) question the foundations of these beliefs and seemingly in-built cultural norms.Henderson has created characters that are exceptionally raw, relatable and often flawed; characters who highlight the discrepancies between race and status, and the microaggressions faced by those deemed as lesser. I think it’s highly commendable that this theme has been so seamlessly incorporated into a horror fiction about some of THE creepiest witches I’ve faced to date.And I think it is especially important RIGHT NOW whilst the BLM movement has somewhat quietened on the white front. 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐬. 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬. 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬.If this book tells you anything, let it be that there is a better way forward. One that combines the minds of all peoples and cultures. Also— this is hecking scary and tense, it gave me goosebumps more than once!

I only stumbled across this little gem by chance, and I'm so glad I got it. This book has a more traditional, early colonial view of witches, and I really enjoyed it!There was a handful of things that I didn't get, like how witches were feared, but many of the general population had a little bit of magic, and that was okay? But, regardless, this was a good wee read, and my only regret is not leaving this read until closer to Halloween!