Review: Witch by Finbar Hawkins

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Witch by Finbar Hawkins

Published: 1st October 2020 | Publisher: Head of Zeus | Cover Designer: Edward Bettison | Source: Publisher
Finbar Hawkins' on Twitter

Set in the 17th century, a breathtaking debut, and a potential prize-winner, about the power of women, witchcraft, fury, revenge and the ties that bind us.

After witnessing the brutal murder of her mother by witch-hunters, Evey vows to avenge her and track down the killers. Fury burns in her bright and strong. But she has promised her mother that she will keep Dill, her little sister, safe.

As the lust for blood and retribution rises to fever pitch, will Evey keep true to the bonds of sisterhood and to the magick that is her destiny? From Goodreads.

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I was sent this proof for free by Head of Zeus for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features vomiting, killing of an animal, hair catching alight, ableism, possible blackface, assault, abduction as arrest, a young woman being followed by a predatory man, sexual assault, violence against women, description of violently breaking bones, murder, a dead body being abused, a witch trial, and women and children hanged.

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Review: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

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The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Published: 6th February 2020 | Publisher: Picador | Cover Designer: Katie Tooke | Source: Publisher
Kiran Millwood Hargrave's Website

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Arctic town of Vardø must fend for themselves.

Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband's authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa sees something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God, and flooded with a mighty evil.

As Maren and Ursa are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them, with Absalom's iron rule threatening Vardø's very existence.

Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, The Mercies is a story of love, evil, and obsession, set at the edge of civilization. From Goodreads.

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I received this proof for free as a bookseller's reading copy from Picador for the purposes of recommending/handselling. I review all books I read honestly on my blog.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features dead animals, including discussion of slaughtering, skinning, and butchering reindeer; vomiting; breastfeeding, and the implication that it's shameful to breastfeed in public; fatphobia; use of the word g*psy, but approproate for the time; racism against the Sámi people; miscarriage; consensual f/f sex scene; numerous examples of unwanted, painful sex within marriage (not considered rape for the time); predatory looks and rape hinted at; mention of someone being burned as a child by another child throwing boiling water over them; mention of torture through branding; torture through forcing someone's head under water; ducking - binding an accused witch and throwing her into the water to see if she drowns of floats; suicide; manslaughter by blows to the head, murder by strangulation, and murder by burning at the stake.

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Review: The Golden Key by Marian Womack

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The Golden Key by Marian Womack

Published: 18th February 2020 | Publisher: Titan Books | Cover Designer: Julia Lloyd | Source: Publisher
Marian Womack's Website

An extraordinary, page-turning Gothic mystery set in the wilds of the Norfolk Fens from the BSFA-shortlisted author.

London, 1901. After the death of Queen Victoria the city heaves with the uncanny and the eerie. Séances are held and the dead are called upon from darker realms.

Samuel Moncrieff, recovering from a recent tragedy of his own, meets Helena Walton-Cisneros, one of London’s most reputed mediums. But Helena is not what she seems and she’s enlisted by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens.

But the Fens are a liminal land, where folk tales and dark magic still linger. With locals that speak of devilmen and catatonic children found on the Broads, Helena finds the answer to the mystery leads back to where it started: Samuel Moncrieff. From Goodreads.

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I was sent this review copy for free by Titan Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features the word g*psy, and prejudice against the traveller community, misogyny of the time, animal cruelty, animal death, people in a catatonic state, child death, mention of abusive marriages, child abuse, mention of death by suicide, and problematic language around suicide.

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Done With Rowling

Trigger Warning: Transphobia. 

Until the very recent past, Once Upon a Bookcase was only a book blog. A book blog that promoted diverse books. It was also a book blog where I was very vocal about my love of the Harry Potter books. Because of this, I feel it is important that I speak up regarding J.K. Rowling's recent transphobic tweets and essay on her website. I am absolutely disgusted. I am horrified at the pain and suffering trans and non-binary people are experiencing because of her transphobia. I am so damn angry.

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Review: Mythos by Stephen Fry

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Mythos by Stephen Fry

Published: 26th July 2018 | Publisher: Penguin | Source: Bought
Stephen Fry's Website

No one loves and quarrels, desires and deceives as boldly or brilliantly as Greek gods and goddesses.

In Stephen Fry's vivid retelling we gaze in wonder as wise Athena is born from the cracking open of the great head of Zeus and follow doomed Persephone into the dark and lonely realm of the Underworld. We shiver when Pandora opens her jar of evil torments and watch with joy as the legendary love affair between Eros and Psyche unfolds.

Mythos captures these extraodinary myths for our modern age - in all their dazzling and deeply human relevance. From Goodreads.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features abduction, rape, sacrifice, and murder.

Having had my interest in the Greek myths reignited by Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill, I dived right into Mythos by Stephen Fry straight after. However, while it was interesting, it wasn't what I expected, and I felt quite disappointed.

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Review: Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill

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Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill

Published: 5th September 2019 | Publisher: Ebury Press | Source: Bought
Nikita Gill on Instagram

Empowering life lessons from myths and monsters.

Wonder at Medusa's potent venom, Circe's fierce sorcery and Athena rising up over Olympus, as Nikita Gill majestically explores the untold stories of the life bringers, warriors, creators, survivors and destroyers that shook the world - the great Greek Goddesses.

Vividly re-imagined and beautifully illustrated, step into an ancient world transformed by modern feminist magic.

'I watch Girl become Goddess
and the metamorphosis is more
magnificent than anything
I have ever known.' From Goodreads.

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Review: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

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The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Published: 12th June 2008 | Publisher: Gollancz | Source: Gift
Patrick Rothfuss' Website

'I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

My name is Kvothe.
You may have heard of me.' From Goodreads.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features descriptions of ableist language, fire and burns, wounds and injuries, poverty and homelessness, beatings and violence against children, whipping, mention of suicide, a joke about suicide, mention of rape, assassination attempt, an attempt to set someone on fire, and massacres.

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