The Year of the Witching

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The small country of Bethel lives by the Prophet’s law: submission, purity, piety and conformity are the rule, and Immanuelle’s mere existence is proof of her mother’s sin. She tries to live a pious life but the ominous Darkwood calls with its promises of another world. The witches that once plagued Bethel are said to reside there still, waiting for a chance to take their revenge on the Prophet that doomed them. When Immanuelle wanders in the Darkwood she discovers secrets that never should have been uncovered, and what follows is plague of plagues that will doom Bethel unless she can stop it. But as secrets come unraveled Immanuelle must decide: does Bethel deserve to be saved? There are a few other points where she was characterized unsatisfyingly – at one point towards the end the narration said that Immanuelle’s family had “always been her weakness” and I was like…”Okay, since when?” I don’t feel that Henderson did the work necessary to make me believe in Immanuelle’s emotions towards her family at all and that statement more or less came out of nowhere to me (as did a certain family member’s death). 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 . . . Handmaid’s Tale meets Salem: Born of rebellious feminist resistance by a girl who is branded as cursed because of her mother’s sins and facing the dark powers to make definite and concrete changes at the dystopian, puritanical, secluded society consisted of hypocrisy, ignorance, illogical and unfair laws. Dude who makes most of the plot happen in this feminist novel. LOTS of people complained about Ezra on my Goodreads updates for this book, and I think I’m going to disappoint some of you by saying that there’s nothing especially awful about him as a character personality-wise because, as with most characters in this book, I never got a really strong sense of his personality. I mostly just take issue with his role in the story instead.

immanuelle moore is a sixteen-year-old biracial girl who lives in bethel, where the religious teachings of the holy father rule the day. the leader of their farming community is a figure called the prophet, whose power extends to burning witches at the stake, upholding an inquisition-like prison system, and marrying as many women as he can. these women get marked as property with a carving of a star on their forehead once they’re wed. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Henderson, Alexis. The Year of the Witching. ACE, 2020. Kindle. Good people don’t bow their heads and bite their tongues while other good people suffer. Good people are not complicit.” decades ago, there was a holy war between the prophet and apostles of bethel and the witches of the nearby darkwood, and the prophet won. the inhabitants of bethel follow the teachings of the holy father, and the witches the teachings of the dark mother -- the latter of whom is, of course, demonized by the prophet. While these arguments are certainly necessary to the plot, it felt as though there were times when Henderson was unsure how to end them. This does not hurt the story, but it does feel as though it trips over its own feet here and there.

The Year of the Witching

I once read that the key to happiness is to lower one’s expectations in life. That the feeling of happiness is often more dependent upon whether life is better than originally hoped, rather than how well one’s life is flowing along overall. (Or something to that effect.) In a year of impressive debut novels from horror authors, Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching rises to the top in more ways than one. The breathtaking, and often terrifying, novel is one that deserves to be savored, though the urge to devour it in one sitting is strong once you’ve begun reading. But even after I adjusted my reading approach and shed my discontent, I still did not enjoy the beginning chunk of the novel. I came THISCLOSE to DNFing it – and here’s why: Sometimes I wonder if my secrets are better swallowed than spoken. Perhaps my truths have done enough harm. Perhaps I should take my memories to the grave and let the dead judge my sins." Adark, dramatic tale of oppression and rebellion, ideology and morality, with a complicated, appealing protagonist caught in a Handmaid's Talenightmare.”-Louisa Morgan, Author of The Age of Witches

immanuelle is also pretty much allowed to go everywhere, explore everything, and discover whatever she needs to as the plot demands. One of the things I fell in love the most with while reading this book was its absolutely attention-grabbing writing. Henderson’s writing is easily able to make her readers feel the bleakness of a woman’s existence in the cult-like environment of Bethel, as well as Immanuelle’s fear and helplessness. I felt every ounce of impotent rage that the disenfranchised of Bethel feel toward the Prophet and his Apostles. I could feel the mounting fury that Bethel’s marginalized felt, that Immanuelle herself felt. In fact, I could say that I went on the exact same journey that Immanuelle did, discovering why her mother did what she did and the truth of Bethel’s culpability. Good authors can take their readers along for the journey, but Henderson truly put me in her protagonist’s shoes. The initial build-up was strong and captivating. I liked meeting Immanuelle and learning a bit about her family history and the beliefs/traditions of Bethel.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. The Year of the Witching follows a patriarchal and religious society, where our main character is put in situations where she starts to overthrow it and change perceptions. There’s a bit of a mystery to unravel about exactly who the antagonist is and what they’re doing which is so wrong, and it kept me intrigued to find out more. A great deal of comparison has gone on since the novel’s announcement with reviewers relating the story to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Witch, and even Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. While those comparisons will no doubt help some readers decide whether they will settle in to read The Year of the Witching. I almost think that it does a disservice to the author’s vision.

And imagine this: Immanuelle and best friend are actually in love and it’s through their continued relationship after she is married to the Prophet that we come to learn even more about the truth of Bethel’s injustices. Immanuelle secretly comes to visit her and she’s able to play a similar role in the story as Ezra, providing Immanuelle access to the Prophet’s secret materials and the items that she needs over the course of the story. Also she doesn’t die and she doesn’t just exist to talk about being raped and she and Immanuelle live happily ever after!!!!!! The Year of the Witching is a gripping and powerful debut filled with horror and macabre recommended for fans of dark (feminist) fantasy, religious cults, and witches tearing down the patriarchy. Forget my poor attempt at a review and go read the book!!!! Has a classic setup but updates the olde puritanical tale to deal with issues of racism and sexism.”– The Washington Post

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Bone-chilling and breathtakingly beautiful…storytelling at its finest." – Rena Barron, author of Kingdom of Souls Henderson’s writing is a thing of beauty. It is, at once, harrowing and seductive in ways that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, for example, has never quite attained. Where that show chose to broadly sexualize its characters almost by force, Henderson chose to give Immanuelle agency over her sexuality and ties an inherent power to her choices. Immanuelle is a character I struggled to get a grasp on, and perhaps that is because she is so...generic, almost as though, rather than an actual person, she's just a stand-in and mouthpiece for the various themes and ideas about gender and race that are heavy-handedly hammered through the narrative with zero subtlety. Similarly, the love interest, Ezra was milquetoast and bland; how convenient it is that despite his upbringing in this super patriarchal world he's magically a Good Guy and Rational Thinker. His romance with Immanuelle felt completely shoehorned into a narrative where it didn't belong. It's very readable. I liked the storyline and I actually liked the main characters. It's set in a secluded village that you are not allowed to leave.