The Once and Future Witches | Arc Review

Thank you to Little Brown Book Group UK and Orbit for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

 Book: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Release Date:  October 13th 2020
Tags:  Adult | Historical | Fantasy | Witches  | New Salem | Diversity |  POC minor character | LGBTQ+ | Sapphic Romance |  Minor Trans Character
Trigger/Content Warnings:  Mentioned Abortion | Considered Abortion | Torture  | Microagressions 
Other books by this author I reviewed
Ten Thousand Doors of January 

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.
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But 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. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.
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There’s no such thing as witches. But there will be.

 I enjoyed Alix E. Harrow’s first book so I was excited to read this next book by her. However I didn’t quite enjoy this book as much as I hoped. I mean, its about witches, where did it go wrong? 

For me I think it went wrong with the characters. We follow three sisters who had a hard life and who were separated 7 years previous. They all gravitate towards New Salem and in 1893 find each other once more. I though there the excitement would start but I never found it. I couldn’t quite get myself to care about the 3 main characters. I still feel like I only scratched the surface on them. Maybe I would have liked it better if we had followed just the one character’s point of view. There ended up being an awful lot of switches between the three. I just didn’t care if any of them lived or died. 

And I felt no excitement about the story. The start tried to create almost a fairy tale like feeling with the rhymes and such, but throughout the story there was no such thing. It was honestly boring in places, especially nearing the mid of the book. Like I said before, there was no excitement to be had. I don’t need to be surprised by twists. But I do need to care. And I never did.