The Year of the Witching

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The Year of the Witching tells a universal, timeless story about women's power. O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE

This is a 2.5 star rating at best. I feel terrible about that because I feel terrible about disliking any book that isn’t outright malicious in content but…here we are, gang. I did not really think this was very good. Positives first, though! I did love all the witchiness involved, as I do with any book where witchiness is involved. The ominous Darkwood was oozing with atmosphere and the four original witches (Lilith, Delilah, Jael and Mercy) were suitably creepy every time they showed up. Each of the plagues was horrible in its own way and all of the story’s atmosphere and imagery were oppressive and eerie. This is the story of a cursed child born and raised into a society ruled by (holy) men who abuse their power and hide under the protective blanket of law and religion to absolve them of any wrongdoings. The Year of the Witching is Alexis Henderson’s debut novel, but you’d never know it…. The story is enchanting, enticing, enthralling, enigmatic.”–Tor.com Immanuelle Moore kept her silence for years, trying to stay head above the water, living at the outskirts with her disgraced family because her mother’s disobedience ruined their family name, suffering from poverty, obeying the rules of their community. Prophet’s each word is the law because he’s holly man even though he is the pure definition of sexual predator seduces under aged girls and having a heavenly polygamous marriage life (Prophet reminds of a mean and ruthless cult leader but as the society keeps the silence and obeys the rules nothing can go wrong!?)Bethel is a secluded community where the Prophet’s power is absolute and polygamy is the norm. It’s surrounded by the Darkwood, home of Lilith and her coven of witches whose tragic history many years prior led to their condemnation. Until one day she is drawn into the Darkwood, the cursed forest that surrounds Bethel. There, she encounters the spirits of four dead witches who were killed inside the forest walls years ago by the very first Prophet. They present Immanuelle with the gift of her dead mother’s diary, who Immanuelle is surprised to learn once sheltered in the forest and bargained with the witches. I'm feeling all kinds of ways about this book. I'm just gonna high light the stuff I liked and hated. You can go read the blurb or another review if you want to know more of what the actual book is about. 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 . . . Bethel’s society is one with a massive sexual double standard where women are characterized as inherently sinful and scapegoated for every problem, especially if they don’t or can’t comply to rigid gendered expectations of purity and duty. There is an exploration of intersectionality in Immanuelle’s experience as a biracial woman in a racist and sexist society; I really enjoyed the sections of the story that focused on the people of color living in the Outskirts a lot.

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. A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power, in this dark and enthralling gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.This novel is a gripping work of fiction that deserves a place on every horror reader’s bookshelf. It isn’t only the writing, however, that sets it apart. It is the subject matter itself.

Grappling to make peace with the truths revealed by the diary, Immanuelle slowly begins to uncover the harsh reality of the history of the Church. The time for change has come – and for the sake of Bethel, Immanuelle will fight tooth and nail to ensure that the archaic, injurious rule of the Prophet and the Church is permanently transformed. Some of the insights into Immanuelle's Mom made me sad. I felt for Immanuelle. She definitely was not dealt an easy hand. Reading of her overcoming and finding her power within herself was definitely satisfying though. Bethel is a land governed by a strict, fundamentalist religion. The Prophet rules the people and his Apostles enforce his will. The citizens in this rigid, harsh society worship a brutal god, one of fire and punishments and retribution. Anyone who acts against the will of the state or in defiance of tradition are declared witches and blasphemers and burned at the stake. Before she was even born, a dark skinned man from the Outskirts of Bethel, was executed by the Prophet. Her mother, young, pregnant, and desperate for vengeance, fled into the Darkwood and made a deal that cost her everything. CAN YOU IMAGINE? WOULDN’T YOU READ THE HELL OUT OF THAT? But no. No. Instead the story revolved around boring mansplainer Ezra and Immanuelle’s inexplicable feelings for him. It’s tragic, honestly, when I think about how incredibly mediocre it ended up being when it could have been so powerful instead.Immanuelle is an outsider amongst the group. She is accepted for the most part, but no one is really warm and fuzzy towards her. Except for “ The Outsider” (2018) King has been releasing crime novels and adventure books instead of true horror in the past few years. Known mostly for his terrifying early supernatural novels such as “Pet Sematary,”“It,”“The Shining” and “Christine,” the 76-year-old author has diversified from what made him famous starting with “Carrie” in 1974.

The Year of the Witching is a dark wood ready to swallow you whole with its tense stakes and beguiling prose. Henderson takes witchcraft to its very depths, unraveling the horrific nightmares of bone-deep ideology and devastating oppression." - Dhonielle Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Belles series Pixieltd on Reading The Wheel of Time: Taim Tells Lies and Rand Shares His Plan in Winter’s Heart (Part 3) 4 hours ago Bewitching . . . Henderson offers a powerful portrait of patriarchal, racial, and religious abuses . . . conjuring a sense of creeping dread and maintaining the pacing throughout. This riveting work announces Henderson as an exciting new voice in dark fantasy. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY the gothic horror descriptions are definitely my favorite thing about the reading experience. the darkwood where the witches live comes to life in a deeply unsettling, intangible way, and the stained glass and heavy wood cathedrals almost loom over our characters like the oppressive regime that they represent. The imagery of this book was amazing!!! I could literally picture everything, as dark and disturbing as they were, in my head. As much as I loved it, it felt like Henderson focused more on this aspect than giving us more in the plot. The story was amazing, but I just needed MORE. I can’t explain it exactly, just know that I needed MORE.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. As those four phases start to occur, Immanuelle tries to find a way to save the society even though it may coast her own life but what if her sacrifice doesn’t change anything? What if the government system they accepted and the holly rules declared by their Prophet were corrupted, distorted and unhealthy for those women’s lives who have been massacred without fair judgment. Sometimes to build something new, you need to tear down everything apart!