REVIEW: The Book of Witches ed. by Jonathan Strahan
Depending on your tastes, the spooky season is in full swing or about to descend. Either way, if seasonal reading is your thing, it is the best time of the year to pick up The Book of Witches. The latest spellbinding anthology to be edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Book of Witches, has just under 30 short story and poetry contributions from a host of speculative fiction writers. Each piece also has its own illustration from Hugo-nominated artist Alyssa Winans, which was an additional touch that I really enjoyed in this collection.
Not every tale in The Book of Witches will appeal to the Grimdark Magazine crowd; it is a very varied anthology in terms of writing style. Although each story has fantastical elements and at least one witch, they range from dark and disturbing to funny and folksy. Overall, it was an excellent read for this time of year. Some of these authors were new to me, but many were ones I had already read or had been recommended to me by fellow members of team GdM, such as P. Djèlí Clark, Cassandra Khaw, Premee Mohamed, Angela Slatter, Andrea Stewart, C. L. Clark, and Fonda Lee.
In this review, I will not touch on all the stories in The Book of Witches, but I will highlight my personal favourite, which was Cassandra Khaw’s “Met Swallow.” It was the eighth entry in the collection, and by this point, I had given up trying to guess what each story would be about. Khaw has been an author on my radar for years since John Mauro described her The Salt Grows Heavy as a “darkly beautiful nightmare brought to life,” and every team member who has reviewed her work has had good things to say about it. I am just a bit of a scaredy cat; frankly, I find the covers terrifying.
“Met Swallow” was not as frightening as I thought a Khaw short story would be. It was not even the most unnerving story in the whole collection. But I was thoroughly impressed with how Khaw crafted a narrative that spanned years into only fifteen pages and still evoked an emotional response about Amaranth’s life and death. Khaw touched on love, life, family, and all that might mean, and finally ended “Met Swallow” in a way that was quite gruesome but also made me laugh out loud with the last line. Which is sometimes exactly what you want from a bed time story!
I only loved some stories in The Book of Witches. However, with such a varied collection, not all are expected to hit the sweet spot for me. I would say, though, that I enjoyed the vast majority of them. They are all well-written and good examples of short fiction. I found The Book of Witches a literary equivalent of liquorice all sorts. I like them enough to buy a pack, but while snacking, some are better than others, and some I only eat because they are there. One personal gripe I had is that I found the text in the paperback small. It’s not often that I need to search for reading glasses, but I did with this, and it was a slight annoyance. So, this might be worth noting if you consider picking up a physical copy of The Book of Witches.
I enjoyed being able to sample such a range of authors and I have found some new names to keep an eye out for. Also, I really enjoy short fiction and feeling like I have finished something without it taking me an age to read. I got that sense of satisfaction with this book, as even the longer pieces can be read in around half an hour. For my vote, The Book of Witches is worth the reading time and is a perfect choice for a witchy read. After all, as the dedication says, “There’s a little witch in all of us.’ Thank you to the team at Harper Voyager for sending us a review copy.
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