I think it’s probably customary when reading an anthology to expect that they’re going to be a bit hit or miss.
The Book of Witches has a huge number of stories for an anthology - 29 in total.
So was this more hit than miss overall?

My favourite stories: What I remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata by P. Djeli Clark; The Luck Thief by Tade Thompson; Good Spells by Ken Liu (I’m surprised Netflix hasn’t picked this up!); In a Cabin, In a Wood by Kelly Robson; What dreams may come by C.L Clark; As Wayward Sisters Hand in Hand by Indrapramit Das; Just a Nudge by Maureen McHugh; Through the woods, Due West by Angela Slatter; Night Riding by Usman T Malik; Witchfires by E. Lily Yu; and the last two stories in the book - The Cost of Doing Business by Emily Y Teng and John Hollowback and the Witch by Amal El-Mohtar were my favourites.

I’d say this was definitely a ‘hit’ rather than a miss. There are definitely authors I’d like to read more of. And also authors I’d already heard of, but won’t necessarily be in a rush to seek out more of their work.

I realised that I much preferred the more contemporary stories rather than the more fantasy-heavy ones.
I admit to skipping the poetry - they just weren’t my cup of tea.

The absolute best thing about this book though was the diversity of the authors and styles. There’s definitely a story here for every taste.
One of the better anthologies I’ve read in recent years.

This is an incredibly diverse collection of 29 short stories that focus on witches.

The stories represent a multitude of genres from horror, speculative fiction, science fiction, and beyond. They also represent a multitude of cultures and include themes and story structures that are not always traditional to the West.

It's worth reading the introduction, which breaks down the definition of a witch before detailing how this story collection came together.

I enjoyed the collection and feel that there's something inside for everyone, even if it's an introduction to the wonderful multicultural/BIPOC representation within.

Warning: If you've picked this up, expecting stories of Witches with their pointy black hats, warts, cauldrons, and familiars... then you probably won't enjoy this content.

This is not something I would normally read, but I’m glad I did, as there were some interesting stories.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I sometimes find anthologies can drag with author styles that I do not vibe with. I decided to give each story 5 minutes to enthrall me before skipping to the next story.

However, out of all the stories I only skipped 3 or 4.

Some stories were a little to sci-fi for my liking but overall the stories did keep me interested.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Harper Voyager for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

Unfortunately I only really liked two or three of the stories in this collection and I felt like some of them weren't long enough or developed.

A great book to pick up and peruse. There's something for everyone here.

My favourite stories are:
- The Luck Thief, Tade Thompson
- Met Swallow, Cassandra Khaw
- What Dreams May Come, C.L. Clark
- So Spake the Mirrorwitch, Premee Mohamed
- Just a Nudge, Maureen McHugh
- Through the Woods, Due West, Angela Slatter
- Nameless Here for Evermore, Fonda Lee
- Night Riding, Usman T. Malik

I think I will definitely come back to this for Halloweens to come.

Thanks: Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An anthology titled The Book of Witches, of course, caught my attention, and with such a showcase of writing talent on offer I had to check this one out. There are twenty-five stories and four poems in The Book of Witches, and I enjoyed the wide variety of subjects covered under the umbrella term of “witches”. It is always interesting to see how each writer interprets the theme of an anthology, and The Book of Witches is a splendid example of creativity. The range of settings and genres means that this is an anthology that truly does offer something for everything. From the traditional urban fantasy and paranormal themed stories, to tales of necromancers, vengeful spirits, techno-witches and dream magic.

My favourites from the anthology are ‘What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata’ by P. Djèlí Clark, ‘The Luck Thief’ by Tade Thompson, ‘The Witch Is Not the Monster’ by Alaya Dawn Johnson, ‘Met Swallow’ by Cassandra Khaw, ‘The Nine Jars of Nukulu’ by Tobi Ogundiran, ‘What Dreams May Come’ by C. L. Clark, ‘The Unexpected Excursion of the Murder Mystery Writing Witches’ by Garth Nix, ‘So Spake the Mirrorwitch’ by Premee Mohamed’, ‘Her Ravenous Waters’ by Andrea Stewart, ‘Through the Woods, Due West’ by Angela Slatter, ‘Witchfires’ by E. Lily Yu and ‘The Cost of Doing Business’ by Emily Y. Teng.

Some of these are by authors that I’ve read multiple times and know to deliver sensational short stories, such as Cassandra Khaw and Angela Slatter. While others are on my reading list (C. L. Clark and Andrea Stewart) and confirmed everything that I’ve heard about their writing. The other authors I’ve not read before, but will certainly be checking out now!

The Book of Witches begins with a well researched introduction by editor Jonathan Strahan. It’s an interesting read, however as a disabled reader I was extremely disappointed to see only BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ writers named when he mentioned diversity. This is such an ignorant perspective, and having it printed in an anthology published by a major publisher is rather upsetting. Despite this comment in the introduction, there is disability representation in The Book of Witches, most notably the excellent ‘Just a Nudge’ by Maureen McHugh and the brilliant ‘Night Riding’ by Usman T. Malik (please do check the content warnings for this one though as it is a very dark tale).

On a final note, I was disappointed by the illustrations. I didn’t feel that they were of particularly good quality nor did they add anything to the stories they accompanied.

Full list of stories and poems:

‘Seed of Power’ by Linda D. Addison (Poem)

‘What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata’ by P. Djèlí Clark

‘Catechism for Those Who Would Find Witches’ by Kathleen Jennings

‘The Luck Thief’ by Tade Thompson

‘Good Spells’ by Ken Liu

‘The Liar’ by Darcie Little Badger

‘Escape Artists’ by Andrea Hairston (Poem)

‘The Witch Is Not the Monster’ by Alaya Dawn Johnson

‘Met Swallow’ by Cassandra Khaw

‘The Nine Jars of Nukulu’ by Tobi Ogundiran

‘In a Cabin’ by In a Wood by Kelly Robson

‘What Dreams May Come’ by C. L. Clark

‘She Who Makes the Rain’ by Millie Ho (Poem)

‘As Wayward Sisters’ by Hand in Hand, Indrapramit Das

‘Orphanage of the Last Breath’ by Saad Z. Hossain

‘The Unexpected Excursion of the Murder Mystery Writing Witches’ by Garth Nix

‘So Spake the Mirrorwitch’ by Premee Mohamed

‘Just a Nudge’ by Maureen McHugh

‘Her Ravenous Waters’ by Andrea Stewart

‘Déjà Vue’ by Tochi Onyebuchi

‘BOTANICA: A Song in Four Movements’ by Sheree Renée Thomas (Poem)

‘Through the Woods, Due West’ by Angela Slatter

‘Nameless Here for Evermore’ by Fonda Lee

‘Mask of the Nautilus’ by Sheree Renée Thomas

‘Night Riding’ by Usman T. Malik

‘Witchfires’ by E. Lily Yu

‘The Academy of Oracular Magic’ by Miyuki Jane Pinckard

‘The Cost of Doing Business’ by Emily Y. Teng

‘John Hollowback and the Witch’ by Amal El-Mohtar

This was a fascinating and thoroughly entertaining collection of short fiction and poetry about witches in all of their guises. The stories were diverse in scope and tone, with some light hearted takes and others far more dark and sinister. My particular favourites were;
'The Luck Thief' by Tade Thompson
'The Liar' by Darcie Little Badger
'The Nine Jars of Nukulu' by Tobi Ogundiran
'Orphanage of the Last Breath' by Saad Z. Hossain
'The Unexpected Excursion of the Murder Mystery Writing Witches' by Garth Nix
'Just a Nudge' by Maureen McHugh
'Night Riding' by Usman T. Malik
'Witchfires' by E. Lily Yu
'The Cost of Doing Business' by Emily Y. Teng
Overall, a really excellent collection.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I picked this up for review from NetGalley because I thought it would go well with my October TBR, and what better way to end the month with some witchy stories! Unfortunately, this review is coming in late because I overestimated my personal capacity for reading multiple stories about witches in one sitting and had to pace myself lol.

Two overarching themes stand out in this anthology: the disempowered woman snatching back power for herself and ignoring the wise woman at your own risk. It may even seem a little sexist from a certain lens: there are few men with magical power here, and the antagonist(s) - while sometimes other women or various sections of society - feel mostly of the male persuasion. It's no surprise, really, given the idea of witches and what they usually stand for.

Speaking to that gender point, "What Dreams May Come" by C. L. Clark is a thoughtful exploration of what it means to be transgender. If the Dreamscape is only meant for women, what happens when Pol transitions to be a man? What then happens to his magic - and why does he still have access to the Dreamscape after his transition?

Yet despite the similarity in themes, these are all very different stories (and poems; I will admit upfront that I kinda skimmed the poems). I normally associate witches to a more rural, old-school context, but a surprising number of stories playing around with the question of how magic would interact with tech - "Good Spells" by Ken Liu was an entertaining example. And if you're looking for something in the mystery vein, "The Liar" by Darcie Little Badger would fill that (various members of the "Coven" group chat are going missing and turning up dead - who's the one killing them?)

Apparently, there's a trope in this anthology that I enjoyed more than the others, which I'll call "BUT WHO ARE THE REAL MONSTERS?" This has a predictable answer: Not The Witch. The ones that stood out to me were "The Witch is Not The Monster" by Alaya Dawn Johnson, "The Nine Jars of Nukulu" by Tobi Ogundiran, and "Orphanage of The Last Breath" by Saad Z. Hossain.

To round up this review, I'll just throw in some of the other stories that I really liked:
"Through the Woods, Due West" by Angela Slatter
"The Cost of Doing Business" by Emily Y. Teng
"John Hollowback and The Witch" by Amal El-Mohtar

“The witches you’ll find in these pages are diverse and different from one another. There are one or two older ladies in black with broomsticks … but you’ll also find ones that are young students, old teachers, dark spirits, fey spirits, and beyond. They’re male, female, and nonbinary; good, evil, and undecided; powerful, weak, or somewhere in between, and more.”

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. Harper Voyager for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Book of Witches’. It was edited by Jonathan Strahan and illustrated by Alyssa Winans.

This anthology of original short stories certainly was an ambitious project as it brought together a diverse group of fantasy and science fiction writers to create twenty-nine stories and poems on the subject of witches from around the world. Jonathan Strahan introduces the collection with his essay, ‘What is a Witch?’

At around 500 pages, this was the kind of book that I read over the course of a week, accessing a few stories each day. I purchased its unabridged audiobook edition and did a combined read/listen.

As with any short story collection there were ones that I enjoyed a great deal and others that didn’t quite hit the mark. My favourite was Gareth Nix’s playful ‘The Unexpected Excursion of the Murder Mystery Writing Witches’, a 1940s tale. I could happily read an entire novel based on the witchy adventures of the cheekily named Agatha, Dorothy, and Josephine.

I also found Fonda Lee’s ‘Nameless Here for Evermore’ about a grieving mother who discovers her deceased daughter’s secret life a very effective tale.

I felt that most of the stories in the collection were in the 3-4 stars range. Some seemed to end very abruptly, which tends to happen with short stories. While many were dark tales some were clearly in the category of comic horror, such as ‘The Cost of Doing Business’ by Emily Y. Teng.

I was pleased that the ‘About the Authors’ section gave substantial information about each contributor, including their backgrounds, previous works, and websites. It encouraged me to look into adding a few more titles to my wish list.

Overall, while I found ‘The Book of Witches’ a mixed bag in terms of content, I felt that the intention behind the collection was admirable.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I received a free copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

I was very, very excited to read this one. There was a very diverse selection of author and formats and the theme is one that I absolutely love. I don’t know if it was the hype or that I went into it with very high expectations but I found myself struggling through it. I felt like most of the stories were slightly too long and the pace was off. I found myself trying to encourage myself to keep reading and overall just felt very irregular and sometimes like the “witches” were not even the main character of the story.

Usually, when I finish an anthology there is a general feeling and a couple of the stories that I would like to highlight or that I specially liked, however in this case I will have to confess that was not the case. I finished the book and there was not a long term impact of going back and keep thinking of a theme.

I started talking notes to review the stories individually but, most of the times, I did struggle to even do so, in the end I just stopped. I found myself very surprised because one of the big points for me was many of the names in this anthology. I have read most of them, and they are authors that I really love, so I don’t think it was an issue with their style or their specific idea.

Sadly, I did not click with this one. I would recommend this one to readers of anthologies or whoever is very interested on the topic in a very wide and sometimes vague perspective.

Regarding the rating in GR and its divergence with the Netgalley system: the goodreads star system it is used because it has text allocated to it. In that consideration, this book for me was an "it was ok", but in a 5 star rating I feel that would be more accurate to a 3/5 rather than 2/5. In addition, since the half stars are not a thing, I rather round up than down.

I requested this partly because I wanted to read the Garth Nix story, and partly because I really enjoyed The Book of Dragons. Unfortunately, the only story I enjoyed was the Garth Nix! The tone of the anthology as a whole is very dark, prickly, and angry, without much lighter relief - while I could see that many of the stories were well-written, it simply wasn’t a style or tone I clicked with at all.

I received a gifted copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

The Book of Witches is a collection of witchy stories from around the world from numerous authors. I've not read any of these authors' work before, and I love anything witchy, so I jumped at the chance to review. The book had a bit of a mixed bag of stories as some I really enjoyed, but others were a bit flat, and I felt let the book down. The book is much bigger than I thought it would be, and I enjoyed reading one or two stories and digesting them at a time. I found myself drawn to the creepier stories in the collection, especially the one by Darcie Little Badger (what a cool name!).

The Book of Witches, edited by Jonathan Strahan
Publication date: 26 October 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.25 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
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An array of original stories from around the world bring a new and exciting twist to one of the most beloved figures in fiction: witches.
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This is a book perfectly suited to the season; I really appreciated Jonathan Strahan's introduction looking at witches through time and the prism of different cultures and there were quite a few authors I was aware of or familiar with in this anthology.
I think it's normal when reading a short story collection for some of the stories to not fully land for the reader, but there were much more of those than usual for me on this occasion. For instance, any story written in verse is very unlikely to work for me as I do not like poetry, but this is a me problem rather than a book problem. This being said, quite a few of the stories left me a bit "meh," a bit disengaged or confused as to the point they were trying to make.
However, as with any anthology, there were some outstanding stories. The most fun with a clever premise (and probably my very favourite) is "The Unexpected Excursion of the Murder Mystery Writing Witches" by Garth Nix where three murder mystery writing witches have to deal with a supernatural danger. One of those witches is called Agatha (wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) I had to do a bit of Google sleuthing myself to identify the other two murder mystery writing witches, which was a lot of fun and I loved the traditional aspects of the story (those witches ride broomsticks, they use wands and cast spells.)
"What Dreams May Come" by C. L. Clark also had an amazing premise that explored complicated family dynamics, rejection and acceptance. "So Spake The Mirrorwitch" by Premee Mohamed focused on prejudice and the othering of those whom Society would consider "different" while "John Hollowback and The Witch" by Amal El-Mohtar was a quieter, more contemplative and melancholy story.
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The Book of Witches, edited by Jonathan Strahan, offers an array of witchy stories from around the world. I was drawn in by both the subject matter and by the names of the contributing authors, which include some great science fiction and fantasy authors.

Being a mood reader, I very much treated it as a pick-and-mix buffet. As of now, I haven't yet read the anthology cover to cover, but I have sampled over half of the 29 short stories and poems. As with any anthology, some stories will appeal more than others. Authors I've read previously, such as Garth Nix, Ken Liu and Fonda Lee absolutely delivered. Among the stories that have stood out for me were What Dreams May Come by C.L. Clark, Through The Woods, Due West by Angela Slatter, So Spake The Mirrorwitch by Premee Mohamed and The Luck Thief by Tade Thompson. I'm not a huge reader of poetry, but I was enchanted by Linda D. Addison's Seed of Power.

Definitely an anthology to pick up if you're interested in witches. And I 'd recommend not to skip over Strahan's introduction What Is A Witch? as it's a great introduction to the subject matter.

A superb collection of short stories, some in verse, some set out as ancient documents and others in the normal prose, all portraying different types of witch and witchcraft . They are all different, set in the past and the present. I really enjoyed the mix, and some really made me think. As a fan of reading about witches, real and fictitious, this book really hit the bullseye.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an earc in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited about this book when I read the blurb. I love witches and witchy things!

The concept of this series of short stories is just so fun! I love how broad the theming can be with so many potential interpretations of the word "witch" and so many of the ideas in these short stories are just wonderful!

Easily my favourite of the short stories was What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata! It was such a fun read.

Sadly, I didn't vibe with this book as a whole. There were a few short stories I absolutely loved, but there were others I found myself skimming over.

Overall, it is a decent read, but sadly not entirely to my taste!

There were two things that first drew me to this book - one was the gorgeous cover art (honestly if I could get this cover as a print, I probably would!) and another was, of course, the focus on witches. I always get excited about anything to do with magic and witchcraft, and both are a pretty common feature in my writing too! What I particularly enjoyed about this collection was the variety of witches in the story - witchcraft from across different traditions, cultures, and moral alignments were all included.

One of the risks with anthologies is that some stories will always be more popular than others, and I have to admit, there were a couple of stories that felt a little harder to follow - maybe because the worldbuilding required for fantasy or supernatural fiction is difficult to condense into a short story format.

There were a few stories, however, that particularly stuck out to me, including:
John Hollowback and the Witch by Amal EL-Mohtar
What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Deveshrata by P. Djèlí Clark
The Luck Thief by Tade Thompson
Her Ravenous Waters by Andrea Stewart
The Academy of Oracular Magic by smiyuki Jane Pinckard

Overall, this collection was well-edited, and the distinctive writing styles of each author blended really smoothly together. I did find my attention waning in some sections more than others, but the sheer range of stories means there's something in it for everyone.

Like typical anthologies you get some stories you like others your not a fan of. I found The book of Witches the same. I actually enjoyed the poetry the most, some stories were enthralling others I scan read because they were so contrasting. I didn't found the book flowed but I really enjoyed some of the content.

This is a CHUNKY anthology. A good mix of tales and interesting takes on being a witch. Not all were hits for me but enough that I definitely enjoyed the read.