The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow has been in my TBR pile for a while, and in honor of Spooky Season, I decided to read it this month. Harrow’s second novel took inspiration from various fairytales and blended those stories into a new tale of three witches in 1893 during the Suffrage movement.

The Once and Future Witches tells the story of the Eastwood sisters who grew up with “the words and ways” once spoken by witches and now handed down through generations of women in secret. These words and ways are spells and charms meant to help women get through their days in the patriarchal societies designed to keep women from wanting what they shouldn’t and keep them from fighting for what’s fair.

The story started slowly. I wasn’t particularly attached to the characters at first. I think I felt unattached because I am an only child, so the bond of having siblings is lost on me. I read a sociology study after Disney’s Frozen which stated Frozen’s success was primarily due to the relationship of the sisters, Elsa and Anna. The Once and Future Witches felt the same way to me. It’s hard to fully appreciate the sisterly relationships never having had a sibling (which, for the record, I love being an only child and wouldn’t change it at all). While it took some time to get through the first 40% of the novel, I kept at it. I felt like I was slowly unraveling a thread, and I really wanted to see what would happen if I kept pulling.

I enjoyed the witchiness of this book immensely. Harrow shows the magic in all women and offers how that magic comes through individual will, no matter your background. Each culture displays its magic differently – through song, rhymes, dances, herbs, etc. – but it all comes back to intention. I appreciate the theme that lifting women and disenfranchised groups lifts all people, and Harrow does a great job showing how fear-based decisions get in the way of progress. There’s also a theme of emotional maturity in these pages. Our characters experience trauma, and Harrow looks at what the healing process looks and feels like. How does anyone come out of a terrible experience as a better person?

These questions are timeless, as is the theme of love. The Once and Future Witches is dark and tense and simultaneously funny and inspiring. Throughout the twists, turns, and uncertain paths in front of our Eastwood sisters, this book is about love: self-love, familial love, and the love that keeps all of us striving for a better future.