The Year of the Witching is Alexis Henderson’s debut novel, but you’d never know it. It’s so well crafted and her point of view so well honed it feels like it should be her third or fourth book. The story is enchanting, enticing, enthralling, enigmatic ... Locations make manifest the existential horrors the characters experience. It’s a good thing, then, that Alexis Henderson is so damn good at it ... It’s impressive work that reels you in ... Unfortunately, the book’s ending doesn’t quite live up to everything that precedes it. Henderson lets certain characters off the hook and doesn’t demand as much from others as she needed to ... With a keen eye and a sharp tongue, Henderson breathes new life into an old trope. Alexis Henderson is a fresh new voice in dark fantasy, and I look forward to hearing more from her.
Horror meets fantasy in this witchy story that will appeal to readers of The Handmaid’s Tale ... Older readers will enjoy Immanuelle’s passion for knowledge about herself and her world as well as admire her fight against what is wrong about her society.
Alexis Henderson’s novel is heavy, and not because of its page count. The Year of the Witching explores issues of identity, patriarchy and life under a totalitarian theocracy, all of which would be terrifying in their own right ... This is not the book for you if you even border on squeamish. The Year of the Witching revels in a sort of rich macabre tone, describing scenes of blood and horror so vividly that you can almost smell the putrid flesh of the witches ... this book is a perfect read, certain to terrify, disturb and intrigue from beginning to end.
It’s been a while since I’ve read truly good paranormal fiction, and The Year of the Witching is exactly the kind of fast-paced, terrifying, and witchy story I needed ... Henderson blends the supernatural with the real, expertly and ingeniously using dark witchcraft, sigils, and magical plagues to weave in real world themes and issues like racism, the oppression and silencing of women, and religious abuse. Her prose is bewitching in itself, I just couldn’t get enough of her words ... The true horror of this story lies in the brutally honest way Henderson describes the atrocities committed in the name of religion ... The best thing about Henderson’s debut, however, is its iron-willed, multi-layered heroine ... In conclusion, if you’re on the lookout for a strong, dark, and unapologetically feminist witchy story, this is a book you definitely want on your bookshelf!
...a very, very good book. It’s unsettling and horrifying, beautiful and incisive, and ultimately, radiantly triumphant ... This book delivers big time on all of the hair-raising quasi-Christian supernatural horror that I need in my life ... There are many reasons why this book is amazing. In addition to its explicitly intersectional feminist lens, Imanuelle’s journey as a heroine is particularly satisfying, the world-building is exquisite, the horror elements are off-the-charts spooky, and the prose is gorgeous ... The Year of The Witching is a horror novel above all, and the way different kinds of horror are juxtaposed within the novel is masterful.
...betwitching ... a powerful portrait of patriarchal, racial, and religious abuses in Bethel society, conjuring a sense of creeping dread and maintaining the pacing throughout. This riveting work announces Henderson as an exciting new voice in dark fantasy.
