The artwork in this history of Biddy Early and witchcraft in general is incredible. Squire is a whimsical artist with an eye for color! It is also clearly well researched and packed with a lot of great information. Unfortunately, I found the writing to be rather clunky and it kept taking me out of the story and made it difficult to stay connected to the story. That said I think many will enjoy it for what it is!

Whilst I was intrigued to read a graphic novel about a key figure in the history of witches and witchcraft, I did not end up enjoying this read.

My main positives are the gorgeous colour scheme and the arrangements of the text on the page. I had also never heard of Biddy Early so the information I learnt through the novel was definitely appreciated.

However, the story itself fell flat for me. The choice to insert the author herself into the story as a young apprentice, while interesting in concept, did not actually aid the storyline. The dialogue between the two felt unnatural and awkward at times – I would have preferred to follow Biddy’s story without the interruption of questions. I also felt that the chapters did not blend smoothly together but jump to different moments and topics. Near the end of the novel, tensions start to rise yet when the last chapter starts all this seems to have been put to bed without the readers’ knowledge.

Ultimately, I think that Biddy’s tale could have been told in a simpler way in order to understand the full picture of her life and have greater historical accuracy.

e-ARC received from NetGalley – thank you!

This graphic novel came out earlier this month, and its about a girl, Lindsay, (young author self-insert) who befriends Biddy Early- one of the most famous witches in the history of Ireland.

Lindsay has a spark of magic in her and with some persistence, becomes Biddy’s apprentice. Through Lindsay’s curiosity, we learn about the different types of witches and the magic that they historically practiced, and especially the importance of their relationship with nature. Even as Lindsay learns nature and magic from Biddy, the community is stirring, disturbed by the presence of the witch in their midst despite the fact that she mostly stays out of town unless she’s helping treat an illness or something.

The graphic novel feels more like a quick crash course in the history or witches. The art is beautiful throughout, but especially the author takes time to explain different types of witchcraft and the cross over with mythology. The author also briefly mentions many witch hunts across history.

Despite the suspicion and prejudice starting to affect Biddy’s life in the story, we don’t really get to see how things get resolved. We see the villagers’ hypocrisy and the way that the church is spreading discontent in the community, but the end of the graphic novel just skips ahead a couple years to when everything is better. It seems as though the author was drawing heavily from historical record, and the details on how she eluded conviction might be a bit sparse.

Overall, this was a really interesting graphic novel. I don’t know a whole lot about historical witches, so it was nice to learn more about them and their important but turbulent roles in their communities

This was not what I expected and I didn’t enjoy it. It is a fictionalised story of biddy early and how she meets young Lindsay and trains her in the ways of witchcraft. It therefore alternates between a graphic novel story, of which I felt the plot was very weak, and basically illustrated fact sheets about witches, witchcraft and even strays into other Irish folklore. The fact sheets were interesting but not very detailed and I think this strength comes from the other works by this author as she has published many non fiction books about witchcraft. The story didn’t hold up for me, the dialogue between biddy and Lindsay didn’t feel genuine, it felt more like a tool for the author to impart information to the reader, and not in a very natural way. I didn’t feel it was well done at all and I found myself skimming it as I got closer to the end

This graphic novel was an informative read that blended beautiful illustrations with snippets of information about the history of witchcraft.

The strength of this book lay in the information pages interspersed within the main story. They provided a great introduction to the topic. I did feel that the overarching plotline could have been a bit punchier. There were also some formatting issues with text alignment. However, I would definitely recommend this book to people interested in learning more about the history of witchcraft.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group –Leaping Hare for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This was super interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. Obviously a very heavy topic, but being told via beautiful art and the formatting really helped make it more digestible.

Witchcraft:A Graphic History. It felt like a mix of fiction and nonfiction. It's a story of a 19th century witch biddy. The illustrations are beautiful, the story itself is a simple one and touching the themes of feminism, self love and self-discovery.
But I felt like it was so short and ended too quickly. Also I would have wanted a little more detailed story.

The book jumped in different time period without any links and the end was abrupt and too sudden. Overall the illustrations are beautiful and pleasing. But I guess author could have work little hard on the storyline.

Rating: 3.5 stars the book is good but if only a little work done on the story side it would have been a 4.5 star read.

This graphic novel was stunning and it drew me into the story! The story line was interesting and very informative. The additional information along the story was educational and absorbing. Overall I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it.
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

*Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!*

I have to say, I kind of got whiplash from this graphic novel. My first impression of it was that it would be a general broad-stroke view of the history of witchcraft (probably with some elements of what witchcraft looks like today). After reading the description, I realized that it was actually about the history of a specific witch. However, after getting into it, it turned out that it was actually both, which was a little bit disorienting.

There were a couple of things that I don't think worked for this graphic novel. For one, the history of Biddy Early feels incomplete. If the description is telling the reader that the graphic novel is supposed to be about her, then I would expect it to have a more complete account of her life. But the narrative completely skips her trial, which seems pretty important in the context of the time.

The second thing that put me off of this novel was the fact that the secondary main character is very literally a self-insert of the author - a young girl who wants to learn witchcraft from a famous and powerful witch. From one angle, I can see why this was done. Squire wanted to blur the lines between old and new witchcraft and show how we are always learning from the past. But I think that could have been done in a different way that didn't pull away so much from the historical narrative. Half the time, I felt like I was reading a self-insert fanfiction in art form.

The last thing I wanted to mention was that the drastic switches between historical narrative and the broad strokes of witchcraft were so jarring that I lost interest about halfway through. After a certain point, it felt like Biddy Early's story was a vehicle for telling us about the details of practicing witchcraft, which minimized her life and story.

I know this all makes it sound like I hated the book. I liked it fine, but I felt like two graphic novel ideas that got smushed together and ended up not meshing the way the author hoped they would. Although the art style is beautiful, captivating, and magical, the disjointed feeling of the narrative; and the flip-flopping between historical narrative and nonfiction reference were just too much.

This graphic novel perfectly blends fiction with the history of an Irish witch living in the 1700s. We follow Lindsay who convinces Biddy Early to teach her witchcraft. Through her we lärm the fundamental building blocks for becoming a witch and living attuned to nature.
It’s a visually stunning and lovingly written story about the beauty and dangers of pursuing the craft. I loved how it interwove the story of these two women with information and history about witchcraft. It’s the perfect book for anyone looking for an entry into the world of witches.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advanced copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Lately, I've been in a mood for graphic novels, so when I saw a graphic novel exploring the theme of witchcraft and witch trials, I was really excited.
We follow the main lead, Biddy Early, one of the first known witches of Ireland who has been fictionalized in this book to explore witchcraft as a subject. We get to know about different kinds of witches, their tools, their beliefs, their past and the fate they all met in witch hunts and trials, but I later found out that they call Biddy as a herbalist and bean-feasa. While I do not have much knowledge about witchcraft in general or the Irish culture, I'm a little doubtful as to what I should make out of that information. Apart from that the book was super informative with lots of historical facts packed into it. The illustrations were so gorgeous and eye catching.
I was a bit disappointed to see that we did not delve deeper into the part where the priest turns the villagers against Biddy or the trial of Biddy. I would have loved to know more on that part.

a fictionalized story of one of Ireland's famous "witch" herbalists, Biddy Early. the plot was very mild, showing Biddy's life with her young apprentice, Lindsay, and the struggle she faced in the society as a witch. the major portion of the book contains witchy trivias that are narrated directly by the author, not explained by Biddy. i love the illustration style that's pretty and have a classic look. but the overall contents were just okay.

Nice story about a historical person, but what I take away with me the most are the absolutely beautiful illustrations.

Also a good introduction to history and aspects of witchcraft.

So many men have been terrified of women and their natural strength and power for millennia.

Imagine just being yourself - you enjoy helping others from the bounty Mother Earth provides, with tinctures and remedies. You have opinions, and express them. Someone whispers to someone else and then men come. Imposing, stern men who accuse you of witchcraft, because you live your life as freely as possible. They take you from your family, your home, from everything. Then you’re put on trial…

Witchcraft: A Graphic History has captivating art that showcases the historical figure of Bridget Eileen ‘Biddy’ Early in this fictionalized account of her life and experiences of the time.

Keep in mind however, that despite the overall aesthetic appeal of this, much of the information presented is not historically accurate. If you’re going to share this, or read it, be sure to have some factual information accessible.



Thank you to Leaping Hare Press and NetGalley for the temporary PDF

The true beauty of this graphic novel is definitely the art. The drawings were absolutely beautiful and I loved the artists style. Definitely had some formatting issues unfortunately with text boxes and although I love the premise of the story and the story as a whole, some of it felt a tad disjointed. Like it was trying to cover too much through the media. Super interesting and fun way though and overall enjoyed it

I'm a Lindsay Squire fan (of both her books and her IG), so it pains me to give a three-star rating. This book felt like it was really two different books crammed together. While I liked it, I wish it had been either a book about the history of witchcraft, or a book about Biddy. I love graphic novels, and I would definitely read both of those books. I just don't think it really worked to put the two concepts together. The illustrations were beautiful. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

It was a fantastic novel to read.
The drawings are really beautiful, whoever drew them is a real talented artist, I loved all the drawings.
Unfortunately, every now and then the boxes of descriptions or dialogue are out of place and not centered in relation to the text.
There are a couple of pages that were not turned the right way.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of the types of magic and the various famous sorceresses from the past and from mythology. It was also very interesting to learn about the various types of magic practiced in the past and how they were practiced by women.
The story touches deep to the heart, unfortunately, however, I felt that some things happened a little too quickly and casually. It would be a good idea to expand some passages in the chapters, it would be better to go deeper into some scenaries of the story.
All in all it was enjoyable to read, a very touching story with perfect drawings. I also found the story very educational, there are many things to discover and learn.
I thank the author for the ARC and compliment everyone who made all the narration and the drawings. This novel is so artistic.

The art of this graphic novel is stunning! The storyline was interesting and I really liked the additional information on different topics that was provided. As a whole, I really enjoyed it.

I did not expect the book to go into the trials throughout history. Overall, the story was good. The art was immersive and I liked the artists style. Although there were a few pages where the word format was a bit strange. It didn’t align with the text etc.

I really enjoyed this book. Going from storytelling to different "fun facts" was great. Even just labeling the different types of witches was informative. And the facts about how many people lost their lives due to accusations was beyond sad.