Audiobook Review | Now She Is Witch

Switching genres a lot this month and loving it.

Now She Is Witch
Kirsty Logan

She dug her mother’s grave in the poison garden so it would stay hidden…

From the snowy winter woods to the bright midnight sun; from lost and powerless to finding your path, Now She is Witch conjures a world of violence and beauty – a world where women grasp at power through witchcraft, sexuality and performance, and most of all through throwing each other to the wolves.

Lux has lost everything when Else finds her, alone in the woods. Her family, her lover, her home – all burned. The world is suspicious of women like her. But Lux is cunning; she knows how to exploit people’s expectations, how to blend into the background. And she knows a lot about poisons.

Else has not found Lux by accident. She needs her help to seek revenge against the man who wronged her, and together they pursue him north. But on their hunt they will uncover dark secrets that entangle them with dangerous adversaries.

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I went into this with a little trepidation I wasn’t sure if I was in the mood for something dark and heavy and given some of the aspects of the description I assumed that this book might fall into this category, but I was keen to read it so thought I would give it a go. Now don’t get me wrong there is definitely a lot of dark in this story but it didn’t feel heavy instead it was captivating, each transgression bringing us closer to the characters.

Kirsty Logan definitely knows how to create just the right atmosphere with her writing and in this case, since she is also the narrator, with her reading as well. I really enjoyed her narration of the story, she speaks so eloquently and adds to the ethereal nature of the story. There is a foreboding feeling through a lot of the story as we get to see the various injustices brought upon Lux, Else and other characters, there are a few occasions of uncomfortable tension, the kind that keeps you gripped to what is happening, but for the most part there is a calm brought about by the love and understanding certain characters have for each other.

I love that for the reader, or at least what I experienced, is the question in the back of your mind present throughout the story: are they witches or are they just branded as such? The atmosphere and the setting feels magical but are Lux and Else just knowledgeable, fierce, smart women that don’t follow society’s rules and have managed to survive some torturous situations and that is what makes them other. I also love that whilst there is the storyline that the blurb sets out, a revenge plot, it’s the journey that Lux is taking that is the focus and it is how she is discovering different ways of life and how to survive in a world that is not at all kind to women.

This is a story that gets you thinking and has a lot of layers. I enjoyed exploring it, especially with such an interesting story structure which builds the story in one direction and then pieces together other information that helps you to understand the motivations for some characters and furthers the understanding of other characters. There are sometimes tales within the story too which I found fascinating, almost like folklore but again allowing a deeper understanding of the roles that some of the characters have found themselves in.

I am finding that it is quite hard to do justice to this story in a review, it is entrancing but it is hard to talk about because saying too much would spoil it and I feel like it kind of transcends an obvious genre, it has some fantasy elements, it has a historical nature but it doesn’t fit neatly, that is part of its brilliance. What I will say is that it is very much worth reading and that I thoroughly enjoyed it.