Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan

A wonderfully dark and foreboding feeling book . You can feel the creepy atmosphere wash over you.
Brilliantly enjoyable .

A dark, scary yet immersive story.

Having been thrown out of the monastery where she has lived since the death of her mother, Lux finds herself alone in a post-Plague world full of hunger and suspicion. She returns to the ramshackle house where she and her apothecary mother had dispensed medicines and charms to the locals, until they found themselves accused of witchcraft. After a particularly harrowing episode, where she is subjected to the hate and lust of local boys, Lux wanders the woods, until she is found by the mysterious Else.

And with that Lux is drawn into a series of events which she has little control over and even less understanding. We soon learn that Else, herself perhaps a kind of wise-woman, has not found Lux by accident and that she needs her help to avenge herself against the man who wronged her.

This is a dark story, often told by Lux in a diary-type dialogue which I found a little difficult. But that section of the book certainly fills in much of Lux' background and allows the reader to better understand her motives. Her journey literally and metaphorically allows her to learn much about the world, and the people in it. When they soon fall in with a troupe of Mummers, who enact short plays in return for payment. Lux wonders what life would be like amongst the carefree group. Later still both she and Else merge seamlessly into a household where her skills as cook and healer show her how warm and safe life could be there.

"Now She is Witch" is a wonderful tale of how we travel through life, learning and growing, while all the time questioning why things happen. In Lux's world of violence, hunger, fear and suspicion, we see how women might have carved out their lives through simple manipulation and deception. The prose can be dense in places, and the events harrowing, but the sense is never less than full-on, whether it's the dank, cold woods, or the warm, steamy kitchens, or the mass of Mummers all huddled together for warmth.

The author is known as a poet and writer of short stories, and it seems she's employed all her skills in this wonderful book. I can heartily recommend it for lovers of witch-y books, and scary stories.

This book is mostly dark, tense and somehow claustrophobic, absolutely crammed with atmosphere, and it's pretty much everything I'd like a book with witches in to be.
There some lovely tender moments too, so the whole thing doesn't feel too much.
The mummers added another layer, with stories within stories within stories.
I have to admit I'd not heard of the author before, so this came as a very pleasant discovery.

Anything that has witch in the title or description is my kind of book and this wonderfully witchy story did not disappoint. This book has some powerful female characters with feminist undertones, it felt poignant as I read it. This stayed with me and I cannot stop thinking about it, the sign of a truly great book!