The Last Witch in Edinburgh

De: Marielle Thompson

Narrado por: Siobhan Waring

In an alternate Edinburgh of 1824, every woman lives in fear that she will be the next one hanged for witchcraft. All it takes is invoking the anger, or the desire, of the wrong person. Nellie Duncan, beautiful and unwed, keeps to herself until she encounters the Rae Women's Apothecary. There, fiery Jean Rae and the other women provide cures and teach others that they too can aid the winter deity, the Cailleach, embracing her characteristic independence, agency, and craft, in turn becoming witches themselves.

Nellie finds a place and a purpose at the shop, and a blossoming romance with Jean, as she learns about nature-based craft and a witch's ability to return to life after death. But the Cailleach has an ancient enemy intent on stripping the power of the deity and all her witches, leaving a wake of patriarchal violence and destruction. When heartbreaking disaster strikes, Nellie flees and spends the next two centuries hiding from the world-until love gives her the courage and the motivation to come back.

Nellie's past is waiting for her there, and hanging witches is no longer the only means of oppression. But this time, Nellie refuses to run—either from her foes, or from her resolve to awaken others to the unimaginable power that can come with fighting the patriarchy in its many forms—and finding one's own magical inner strength.

©2024 Marielle Thompson (P)2024 Tantor

Never went anywhere

I feel like there was a really good plot that could’ve been had here versus what happened just nothing really ever happened

Anticlimactic ending g

Loved the beginning and was surprised how much I liked it. I had hopes for a good outcome, but the end was pretty anticlimactic and disappointing.

It’s a great anti-patriarchy mythology

But also quite heavy-handed. It’s a sapphic witch tale spanning centuries that is quite pagan. It’s a refreshing take, but super explicit feminist battle against violence against women, connecting witch burnings in the 18th century to date rape in the 21st century through the actions of a greedy, patriarchal deity. One of the battling deities is a character, the other, feminine deity a named but inactive character. It is also about healing from trauma. Overall, I enjoyed the themes. Story/plot was not gripping.