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The Year of the Witching

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The Year of the Witching

By: Alexis Henderson
Narrated by: Brianna Colette
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Village in this stunning feminist debut . . .

Born on the fringes of Bethel, Immanuelle does her best to obey the Church and follow Holy Protocol. For it was in Bethel that the first Prophet pursued and killed four powerful witches, and so cleansed the land.

And then a chance encounter lures her into the Darkwood that surrounds Bethel.

It is a forbidden place, haunted by the spirits of the witches who bestow an extraordinary gift on Immanuelle. The diary of her dead mother . . .

Fascinated by and fearful of the secrets the diary reveals, Immanuelle begins to understand why her mother once consorted with witches. And as the truth about the Prophets, the Church and their history is revealed, so Immanuelle understands what must be done. For the real threat to Bethel is its own darkness.

Bethel must change. And that change will begin with her . . .

©2020 Alexis Henderson (P)2020 Penguin Audio Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Paranormal Witchcraft Magic Magic Users

Critic Reviews

'A thrillingly brisk and bracing tale of magic and power . . . it takes the best tropes of horror and witchcraft and gives them a refreshingly feminist twist.' S.A. CHAKRABORTY, author of The City of Brass
All stars
Most relevant  
Good book to listen to. Sad hearing about the subjection woman were put through at the mercy of religion.

A glimpse back to the past

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This is truly an amazing story one of a kind, if you love witch story's and an coming of age for a young women this is the book for you.

Best Witch book

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Great story, great characters, beautifully written. It’s darker than your average YA, and a little more grounded, and I hung on every word!
Edit: I’ve just finished my second listen through, almost 2 years later than the original review. I loved it even more the second time!

Absolutely stunning

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"Isn't it strange how reading a book is a sin, but locking a girl in the stocks and leaving her to the dogs is another day of the Good Father's work?"

The Year of the Witching is a stand out social commentary book of 2020, wrapped in beautiful fantasy horror casing. It touches on many themes within its beautifully written pages, including, but not limited to: sexism, racism, classism and religious ostracism.

TW: Parent Death, Death during Childbirth, Animal Sacrifice, Body Horror, Mutilation, Self Harm, Rape, Paedophilia, Plagues, Religion

We're set in a secluded town called Bethel, where the ruling class are the devout believers of the Father, in particular the Prophet who is the spokesman of the Father. This is a dystopian nightmare for anyone who is not devout, white or male. Women are taught that they serve one purpose: to serve their husbands and their family. If they were lucky they were chosen to serve the Prophet amongst his numerous wives. Women are property and are marked as such, with the Prophet cutting his mark into their forehead so everyone knows that they belong to him.

Immanuelle Moore is the young, brave MC of this novel who is judged by her parents sins. She has never had the chance to truly be herself out of the shadows of her mother, who left Bethel and entered the Darkwood, rebuked the Prophet and fell in love with an outsider, emerged from the Darkwood pregnant with Immanuelle, her love was burned at the pyre for their 'sins' and then she died giving birth to Immanuelle. Due to events out of her control, Immanuelle's life was forever altered and no matter what she did, she was always prejudged and was starting off at a disadvantage. She tries not to let this get to her and lives an empathetic, compassionate life thinking of how events impacts others, often letting herself get in the way of trouble to help others.

The witches in the Darkwood gift her her mothers diary, when Immanuelle ends up in the Darkwood unwillingly, which then leads her down a path that she can never turn back from. Fighting for her life and for the people of Bethel's lives, even if they would love to see her burned at the pyre. I loved the way that the witches were depicted, they were vengeful, they were strong, they were filled with ancient power and mysticism. There are no cookie cutter witches here.

There is a surprising romance in this novel, which I found to be quite heartwarming and added soul into the novel. I don't want to say too much about it, other than I absolutely loved Ezra as a character, a friend, and a LI.

"... complacency and complicity that were responsible for the deaths of generations of girls. It was the sickness that placed the pride of men before the innocents they were sworn to protect. It was a structure that exploited the weakest among them for the benefit of those born to power"

The feminist writings within this novel were incredibly powerful. There are very strong points made about the way that men in power kneel on the necks of girls and women in order to keep their power. The strength of these messages come from the journey you go through whilst reading this novel, and so I don't want to delve too deeply into it as I feel it's something best experienced personally.

Powerfully written

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The Year of the Witching was an interesting and well written book, however, don’t go into this expecting something new and unique.

I knew when I started that this book would follow a similar story line to The Grace Year and obviously, The Handmaid’s Tale, so I wasn’t too phased by the similarities. I read a few reviews that were upset at the unoriginality of ‘women/bad’, ‘darker skin/bad’ but I think that rather then been unoriginal, that storyline just follows what we have witnessed as a typical racist and misogynistic mindset throughout history.

I liked Henderson’s views on this but thought that this book really would have been improved if it was written from an adults perspective rather than a teenagers. There was a few tropes and ideas that I thought would have impacted the reader more if they were written from an adults point of view. This book does follow some typical YA tropes, with the romance side of it and the underdeveloped side characters. I would have loved to delve into the characters more but then the book would have been far longer.

The horror aspect was great, I really loved reading Henderson’s explanations of the witches and the plagues and thought her monsters and gore scenes were great. I wish there had been more of the four witches as they were very interesting characters and I would have loved to explore their evil more. I also wish there had been more horror, I love my horror novels been filled with terrifying creatures and really revolting scenes and I felt that this book would have benefited from that.

Finally, the ending of the book was a bit of a letdown for me. I though it all concluded very easily and didn’t have any of the grittiness that was displayed in the rest of the book unfortunately.

All in all, it was a good book and an interesting read. The audiobook was great, really well narrated and easy to listen to.

The Year of The Witching

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Great story but the narrators impressions are terrible especially when she tries to impersonate the older characters.

Deserves a better Narrator

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I picked this up because it was being praised on Booktube, but it didn't live up to the hype for me. I did like the general world building but the characters and the storyline were boring. Also, I listened to this book a few months ago and I've already forgotten most of the details. It will probably be more meaningful to you if you care about American history and politics, though.

Overhyped and forgettable

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I have been so bored with this, I just stuck it out because I used my monthly credit on it. pretty dull, monotone narration, and the two main characters have very similar names which led to confusion for me the entire book.

Thank god that's over!

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I really thought I would love this but it's a little too messy, contrived and cultish for me.
The religious element is HEAVY, I get that that's part of the point but it smothered the plot instead of giving purpose to it.
There are minor characters who appear once or twice to help or hinder our MCs at convenient moments only to disappear again.
The witches and the church are at war with each other and everyone else is stuck in between, it's just a mess. I wanted to see a deeper dive into what lead to this cultural of abuse and blind faith, what set the supernatural against the town, a stronger development of world, history, character, but it's just not there. Some good horror elements and spooky forest vibes though.

Cultish Convenience

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