The Year of the Witching

This started out as a quiet, eerie story about a teenage girl who lives in a Puritan-esqe society that has strict and dark rules regarding women and witchcraft. I can't say when I began to become fully invested, since this quiet, eerie tone continues for quite a while, but by the end I found the plot, atmosphere, climax, and themes (this is pretty brilliantly feminist IMO), to be excellent. I think my biggest critiques are of the pacing and some character development, though Henderson did a great job with the MC. As with a lot of horror books, there are definitely content warnings to research if you pay attention, but I will say Goodreads has this tagged as young adult and that's tricky for me considering there is a lot of reference to off-page statutory rape and child abuse in this society. According to the author, “it occupies the gray space between upper YA and adult,” so I'd go by that. Overall I really enjoyed it and do recommend trying it out despite the mixed-reviews.