Cottagecore with a pinch of blood, blight, darkness and slaughter- The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson (Review)

 A/N: This review contains mild spoilers for The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson. This is your spoiler warning. 

This review was supposed to be up yesterday, but what can you do? Work does get in the way of living life so here I am- a whole day late and halfway through the process of developing a healthy distaste for capitalism.

First impressions are the most important ones according to every ‘success guru’ so let me pitch this book in a way that makes you want to read it.

Imagine if Midnight Mass, an A24 film (like Hereditary) and The Handmaid’s Tale had a baby, that is The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson. It follows a young woman called Immanuelle Moore as she navigates her life as an outcast in a rigid, puritanical society that sounds like a nightmare from the very beginning, not gonna lie. It’s a coming of age story as Immanuelle learns about the dark secrets of her dead mother and falls in love with the guy she’s absolutely not supposed to be in love with, while also discovering and embracing her dark powers.

The village of Bethel, the backdrop of our story, is run by the Church. The Church is run by the Prophet- the pastor who is at the head of this whole cult-like operation. The story starts with Immanuelle going to said Church and the Prophet making uncomfortable eye-contact with her followed by an animal slaughtered at the altar. It’s creepy right-off the bat with religious fanaticism and sexism, your trusty companions for the whole story. 

Immanuelle is a shepherdess for her family who own a farm at the edge of the village after having been stripped of title when their daughter, Miriam runs away and marries an outsider. The farm is at the edge of the Darkwood- a forbidden forest that is said to be the haven of four powerful witches who were shunned from Bethel and killed by the first Prophet. The author very quickly establishes an eerie environment of a quaint village with green pastures and homely cottages, run by a racist cult leader whose word is the law and is assumed to be the word of God and the witchy realm of Darkwood, that lures unsuspecting people who never return- the same woods that Immanuelle had lost her mother Miriam to.

And as all coming of age stories go, her best friend is to be branded like cattle and married off to the Prophet who “owns'' like fifty other wives and has aged like an apple left out on a park bench- rotten to the core and riddled with vermin. That is when she stumbles upon an unlikely friendship with the Prophet’s son, Ezra who is next in line for the cult leadership while also questioning the very faith he’s supposed to blindly believe in. After accidentally losing a ram to the forbidden forest, chasing it down and running into witches who want her to join their clique- Immanuelle soon finds herself in the possession of her mother’s diary and a terrible, blood curse. 

The book is divided into four parts- Blood, Blight, Darkness and Slaughter following the way in which the curse unravels upon Bethel. The utter panic amongst the people and the resulting witch hunt is terrifying. It draws parallels from a history of religious institutions spearheading oppression and retaliation onto innocents who are seen to not fit into the society. The society portrayed is patriarchal and archaic where the Prophet can claim any woman he likes and make her his wife by cutting onto her forehead with a knife, women are punished for adultery/ seducing rich men (read as a rich man using his power and abusing the maid in his house and blaming her for bewitching him with witchcraft) by public lashings and more such horror. 

Immanuelle soon discovers that her best friend who is to be wed to the Prophet is pregnant because she was abused by the Prophet since she was a child volunteering for the church. People of color live on the outskirts of society in dilapidated houses and are treated as outcasts because their dark skin and way of practicing religion obviously meant that they were doing voodoo. As I mentioned before, the parallels to colonialism and history are uncanny.

The main plot of the story is solving the mystery of the curse and saving her family and the rest of the village from the wrath of the witches with the help of Ezra- the unexpected guy she falls in love with, so I don’t want to accidentally spoil it for anyone who wants to read it. The author does a great job in character development and plot while exploring important themes like racism, misogyny, patriarchy and religious fanaticism that devolves into witch hunts. It’s an adventure that culminates with chaotic action which I really enjoyed.

My favourite character was Immanuelle’s grandfather. The dude was the most feminist, supportive old man I’ve ever read about. The witches were spooky as hell and I loved the way female sexuality was explored through them. This book is a fantastic piece of feminist fiction and I hope you enjoy it (and get freaked out) as much as I did.

I also enjoyed how the chapters started with quotes from the ‘Holy Scriptures’ and from Immanuelle’s parents' letters, it added to the world-building and set a tone for the chapter which I really appreciated- here's some that I liked:

Lilith with her crown of bone

Is mother of the beasts

Delilah with her tender smile

Swims in waters deep

Jael and Mercy sing their songs

to moon and stars above

Telling tales of mortal sin

And their unholy love

But those that venture to the wood

after the sun sinks low

Will never see the morning’s light

Or live to learn and grow

—BETHELAN NURSERY RHYME

We have broken ourselves to be together. The fragments of me fit with the fragments of you, and our remnants have become greater than the sum of who we used to be.

—FROM THE LETTERS OF DANIEL WARD

Sometimes, I think he loves me. Not selflessly, the way that you do, but with a kind of hunger. There is power in that love, but there is malice too. I often wonder what will become of me when that malice manifests.

—FROM THE LETTERS OF MIRIAM MOORE

If you enjoyed Midnight Mass and it’s chaotic, unhinged ending and want a feminist take on it- this book is for you my friend- you will thank me later.

A/N: Thank you for reading the second installment in my ‘Women of Words’ series where I read feminist literature by a new feminist author each month. Seeing misogynistic content on a daily basis all over social media and being mad about it made me realise that the world cannot be helped, but I can help myself. Hence, I’m taking the time to explore literature that embodies justified feminist rage, rebellion and absurdity (as in the case of The Pisces). This may be a thing I do for the rest of my life or a two-part series, I guess we’ll find out together.

To read the first installment- here’s my take on The Pisces by Melissa Broder.