Now She is Witch: ‘Myth-making at its best‘ Val McDermid

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What follows is her life’s travels, making her way from a group of vagrant theatre plays, to a final position as the kings food taster, all the while accompanied by a mysterious woman named Else, who she grows closely connected to. Honestly, what I wouldn't give for a sliver, a morsel, a grain of sand in the oyster of this woman's writing-capability. This novel clearly falls in that neo-subgenre of “feminist-witch-fiction” has become so oversaturated in the past few years that I thought I was done with it. Now She Is Witch feels like the making of a new one, while also fitting into the landscape of British Isles folklore more generally. This is outstanding: a world that runs parallel to our own, full of the graceless hypocrisies of men and the petty (and not-so-petty) cruelties of disempowered women.

Not even to mention the beautiful circularity of the story, and the way that shards from the first page fall into place and are mirrored once we reach the ending.Lux’s fate, though, lies elsewhere, up north where “blue glaciers cast up glassy and gleaming on a shore of black sand”. With her signature style, intricately woven storylines and simply stunning prose, Kirsty Logan did it again. Now She Is Witch meditates on these issues and Logan's stance is explicitly made clear, yet it never feels like it's too much. It was equal parts haunting, whimsical and lyrical prose as it was dark, sensual and full of feminine rage.

That’s where this book touched my aching burning forehead and brought me cool relief with its icy long fingers; the only thing I ever have to be; is myself.

Kirsty Logan is the author of three novels, three story collections, a memoir, two chapbooks, a 10-hour audio play for Audible, and several collaborative projects with musicians and visual artists. We join her story when her mother dies suddenly and she almost ends with the same fate as the angry mob-like villagers forcing her out of her home by committing the only thing which is imaginable in the cruelty of that era; arson. Else wants Lux’s help in getting some good old-fashioned revenge and Lux, who has her mind fixed on travelling north to a land where freedom reigns and witches thrive, teams up with her. to the right of their own function and the choice and forge of their own fate and future with their wisdom that comes from the biggest goddess of all; Mother Earth. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.