The Once and Future Witches

Witches and women's suffrage. At first it sounds like a strange mix, but one reflection the persecution of women as witches and the initial rejection of suffrage have a lot in common. Alix does a very good job of putting forward the inequalities of society in a novel way, as we follow three sisters and their quest for both suffrage and acceptance as witches. A fascinating alt history with witchcraft as its basis until it was overthrown by a ‘dark' witch and repressed provides the backbone of the story. The concepts and prose are beautiful, haunting and important feeling.

My main problem is I failed to fall in love with the characters. I just found myself not really caring enough about them, the ideas they were portraying became more important than their likeability. I also find these period settings tend to encourage authors to use a more flowery prose, which whilst often pretty can be somewhat distracting. This novel falls into that trap on occasion.

Ultimately the theme and the message are very well executed, but I am not sure I enjoyed the stylings of the book. Enjoyable enough but not in the end quite living up to its promise