Juniper is a murderer not someone who killed once in self-defence. This oversight is frustrating but typical.ĭisability is the one minority that Harrow, like so many feminist writers before, portrays as asexual (p.358), evil, wicked, monstrous, and disposable. Notably, Jessica P Wick’s NPR review of the Once And Future Witches calls for more Black representation but does not even mention disability despite one of the central witching having a disability. She incorporates known ethnic cultures – religion, dance, song – into different types of magic respectfully and equitably. These people are different Harrow does not write Black “coats” but Black characters. People of color in the Once and Future Witches represent Native Americans and many other races including African Americans in a New Orleans-type community, in a suburb called New Cairo. Women hid witching away in children’s nursery rhymes, in places men overlook as inconsequential women’s places, like in embroidery and sewing boxes. Andrew Lang, the Brit who recorded so many fairy tales (find them on the Gutenberg Project for free) is, here, a woman, as are many, many others including the Sisters Grimm.

Harrow incorporates many historical figures by gender-flipping them. Yet another woman, once reviled, is redeemed because she knowingly helped and supported the trans woman (p. GendersĮarly on, Once and Future Witches appears to represent genders as binary. Witchcraft isn’t so gender-driven either: girl spells and boy spells aren’t so black and white. Some men are good, it’s a matter of determining who can be trusted. The Once and Future Witches seems to epitomise the battle of the sexes, depicting men as predators and abusers, grasping for power while crushing women under their boots.Īlthough the battle for equality is the reason women turn to witchcraft, and appears to be the very genesis of witchcraft, the story softens its initially gender-driven binary stance. Lucky, that, because as she walks away from him, he reveals his true colors by hurling abuse at her.īella reads words from a book, feels a pull… all three arrive in a town square at the solstice where a mysterious tower appears… Battle of the sexes She’s pregnant but has no intention of marrying the father. Since, she’s had no contact with her sisters.Īgnes works in a mill with other women, trying to evade the grasping hands and roving eye of the manager. Her abusive father sent her to an abusive “home” seven years ago. Little does she expect to become one of the Once and Future Witches.īella is an assistant librarian, keeping her head down and avoiding notice. Now she’s heading into the city to find a new place for herself.

Her sisters fled home seven years earlier, leaving her alone, stewing in her hatred and bitterness. Juniper limps towards New Salem, alone after murdering her father.

The once future witches