The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

 

I rated The Year of the Witching 3 out of 5 pages. I was excited to receive this book from a friend as a gift, however, as the story started I found myself on the edge of giving up on the book or plugging along. I obviously chose to follow through and finish the book.

The reader is introduced to Immanuelle, a girl living in Bethel, devout, hardworking and an outsider due to disgrace brought upon her family by her mother. Bethel is a land where women are submissive, God’s word is law and the Prophet is set to interpret all for the followers as he takes on as many young wives as he can. As Immanuelle navigates caring for her family and following the word of the Lord, she starts to come to the realization that not all is what it seems.

When her friend is chosen to serve as the Prophet’s next bride, Immanuelle begans to see just how submissive the females in Bethel are required to be. As Immanuelle’s curiosity and disdain for those around her blossoms, Immanuelle finds herself reaching puberty and uncovering the secrets Bethel holds, secrets that brought disgrace to her family and caused the town of Bethel many moons ago to burn four very powerful witches. Through Immanuelle’s curiosity, we learn just what all this means for Immanuelle as she is lured into forbidden woods filled with secrets of the unknown. What comes from Immanuelle walking into those woods one fateful night, is a shock to all those in Bethel but more so to Immanuelle herself.

As I said in the beginning, there was a lot of hype surrounding this book and the premise of it was quite interesting, however, I felt as thought it got off to a very slow start and dragged on far too much. I found myself wanting more depth to the characters and the plot as well. It felt a little too elementary for me, more YA, less witchy feminist novel. I felt more could’ve been done in the way of giving Immanuelle more personality, making her a bit stronger from the start and a bit more memorable.

There was also a romantic element to this story that I felt was very disjointed, predictable and lacking of any substance. Further, the story felt a bit jumpy with certain elements. At times, I found myself wondering if the focus was on the Dark Woods and the witches or the cult like town of Bethel. I wish there was more focus on one or the other not both and that the witches didn’t seem so Hocus Pocus like. They were very generic and I think the author could’ve really made them evolve into something more grotesque.

That being said, some things I did like about the novel were the scenes that Alexis Henderson developed. They were more memorable than her characters. She offered vivid descriptions of Immanuelle’s life and the settings she was experiencing. Alexis Henderson also had a beautiful way with words and the further into the story, the more the writing flowed and picked up steam. Additionally, there was a lot of horrific elements in the novel. While this may be off putting to some, I think Henderson did a fantastic job of bringing out those details.

While I didn’t hate this book, I didn’t really for care for. It wasn’t one of those books a few years down the road I find myself re-reading or buying to pass on to a friend. However, if you’re into mystery, YA, religion and witches, give it a try- you may feel differently than I do.