The Witch's Kind

I picked up The Witch's Kind because I loved A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan. But this book is a perfect example of how one style of writing can come very naturally to an author, but they struggle with others. A Secret History of Witches is written in third person. The atmosphere and characters are so well developed; the story almost lives in its own time. The Witch's Kind is written in first person, and it feels like it's written by a totally different author. It struggles to create a sense of place and time. Instead of setting the scene, the author drops words that date it like “party line”, and they are so out of place that it's jarring. It's just disjointed and doesn't flow well at all. Overall the writing feels forced and extremely distracting.

I loved this book. It's more like literary fiction than fantasy, but don't let that dissuade you.

I could see myself in the protagonist, Barrie Anne Blythe, which I usually don't find to be the case.

The book opens mid-story (as it should). Barrie has a small farm and survives by selling produce and eggs at the market. Her competence and the joy she takes in farming reminded me a bit of Andie McDowell's character in Green Card. If you like gardener protagonists, this is gonna be your jam.

Anyways, the farming is interrupted when Barrie's dog brings her something, something so unusual that it will change her life forever. So Barrie calls in support, in the form of her Aunt Charlotte, a artist (with her own strong backstory) who raised Barrie. (I loved the Aunt Charlotte character and I thought her interaction with Barrie rang true.)

As Barrie deals with the fallout, we learn more about her life through a series of well-situated flashbacks set during her high school and college years during World War II. We find out how she met her now-missing husband, Will. The backstory is woven expertly until it and the current day meet in an exciting climax.

I usually don't really like literary fiction, because it seems to be depressing on purpose, and who wants to read that. But the characters were so true in this book, and the writing so good, that I didn't feel like it was a meaningless suffer-fest for the critics. It felt like a study of what it means to be a woman, and what it means to forge your own path, regardless of the evitable hardships. Highly recommend.

Edit: saw that other reviewers thought that Will, the husband, was an unrealistic character. All I can say is, lucky you. If I had married my first boyfriend, I'm not sure it would have been that different.