The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.īut when the Eastwood sisters - James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna - join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women’s movement into the witch’s movement. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. In 1893, there’s no such thing as witches. Harrow’s powerful novel of magic and the suffragette movement. In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in Alix E.

This past has strong echoes of our own history, but witchcraft or “witch-ways” of spell-crafting is real, some historical names have changed, and rather than the Brothers Grimm, many of the old morality tales were written by the “Sisters Grimm.” Of course, the women’s movement to vote is a real thing, but Harrow does a nice job paralleling that with witchcraft and women’s reclamation of spell making and magic. Harrow posits fantastical past (1893) where three sisters come together in New Salem and witchcraft has been essentially erased and criminalized. Alix Harrow’s second novel, The Once and Future Witches, is a lyrical fantasy novel that shines the lens on the suffragette movement that feels as relevant today as it is compared to the times about which Harrow is writing.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow