The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Publisher – Bantam Press

Published – Out Now

Price - £12.99 hardback £7.99 Kindle Ebook

Born on the fringes of Bethel, Immanuelle does her best to obey the Church and follow Holy Protocol. For it was in Bethel that the first Prophet pursued and killed four powerful witches, and so cleansed the land.

And then a chance encounter lures her into the Darkwood that surrounds Bethel.

It is a forbidden place, haunted by the spirits of the witches who bestow an extraordinary gift on Immanuelle. The diary of her dead mother . . .

Fascinated by and fearful of the secrets the diary reveals, Immanuelle begins to understand why her mother once consorted with witches. And as the truth about the Prophets, the Church and their history is revealed, so Immanuelle understands what must be done. For the real threat to Bethel is its own darkness.

Bethel must change. And that change will begin with her . . .

Our view of witchcraft has swung like a pendulum for centuries. Witches have been considered representatives of deities, healers and of course consorts of the devil. In more recent years we see them as a group that Christianity and in particular powerful men within it used to create persecution and hysteria against those society didn’t want in it. In The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson we geta strange atmospheric dark fantasy tale where a societies’ secrets get revealed and a battle for a young woman’s identity get interwoven to quite a surprising effect.

The land of Bethel worships the Father but is also aware of another force known as the Dark Mother. Many years ago, Bethel was ruled by four dark witches, but the Prophet raged war against them and cast them down. Now the Church resigns supreme and the remaining forces of evil are said to reside in an area known as the Darkwood. Immanuelle is a young teenager focused on being a shepherdess in a world where literacy for women is frowned upon and the greatest gift for any teenager is being chosen as one of the many lives of the current Prophet; one of her best friends has just been chosen for this honour. For Immanuelle keeping her head down is more important. Her dead mother Miriam was known to consort with a witch Daniel Ford; he was burnt to the stake for threatening Bethel; while Miriam ran to the Darkwood and came back with child only returning and dying in childbirth while Immanuel was born. Immanuelle has avoided investigating her parents and their secrets until a a trip to the market cut short by a storm sends her to the woods and an eerie confrontation with witches appears to create the first plague for Bethel in many many years with rivers and wells now containing only blood. Has Immanuelle brought about a final doom for everyone?

What jumps out in this story is the atmosphere of a fantasy world that feels almost like ours but is not. Bethel and its surrounding lands superficially resemble say 17-18th century settlements in the US and the language and naming conventions resemble Christianity, but this is not our world. It feels like its own religion and a world with a very different history leading to a god and goddess system where different factions have tried to take charge over centuries. Henderson has created a world and people who all seem to carry secrets and fr many a capacity for cruelty or hiding it. The Darkwood and the forces inside are wonderfully alien and at times horrific but Bethel itself with its harsh prophet and so many many rules on compliance by women hardly suggest a shining light of civilisation. The novel feels constantly oppressive and carries a quite unusual air of doom.

Immanuelle appears to sit between two worlds and Henderson adds a further dimension by making her of mixed race. Bethel and its leaders are white from which her mother’s family has come from; her father though was black and most of his community are forces to live in an area known as the Outskirts. Immanuelle has the benefit of being related to the ruling faction of Bethel – limited education but her family see her as offering very little else to the society bar eventual womanhood and child rearing and her family very much work to avoid mentioning her parentage. But Immanuelle feeling like an outsider means there is a level of curiosity about what else to life is there and though the Darkside offers terror it also opens her eyes to being in a society that controls women; where those in power abuse it and everything taught her about her family isn’t true. This story has some exploration of sexual abuse which some readers may need to be aware of but for me was done both sensitively and not for gratuitous effect

Immanuelle tries to unravel Bethel’s history and also find to her own place in the world. A highlight was how this patriarchal township was examined and very much seen as a mechanism for control – in particular, the current ruler known as the Prophet a cruel and greedy man who puts his needs above all else. Henderson mines a theme of abuse, corruption, and an effort to control the role of women wonderfully well and takes this a level beyond a simple fantasy tale of magic and ignorant townspeople. This story has something to say about our own world’s past. What I really liked though was Immanuel finds both sides in this holy war have made some very questionable decisions and the morality of these itself gets questioned as we see innocents harmed. The story is not a binary choice as to who is right and wrong – Bethel is a land out of control and needs to find a new way or faces a final doom.

I think there is just one area I found limiting as it very much is Immanuelle’s tale. I wanted a bit more to understand Bethel and also the mysterious Ezra the prophet’s own rebellious son who could be an ally to Immanuelle in her quest for both the truth and away to stop the new outbreak of Plagues. There felt a bigger mystery as to how this world developed or what Ezra himself was trying to do but as very much told from Immanuelle’s worldview no opportunity to find out more arose. Just a few times especially in the final act some final meetings felt rushed and a little too conveniently placed for an ending to explain the final actions required to resolve things. Despite this the core tale was for me very compelling.

This was an extremely satisfying and powerful debut. Henderson has created a world where dark woods and magic can be terrifyingly creepy but also one where true evil can hide in plain sight with a crown of righteousness on it. It raises question of control, morality and a need for change but delivered with touches of horror and fantasy in a way that felt quite refreshing. A great tale to unsettle you as the autumn evenings draw in and a new author that I will be keeping a close eye on for future tales.