A Secret History of Witches Review

An ancient and dangerous power is being handed down from mother to daughter through some of the most consequential historic events of the last two centuries. After Grandmére Ursule gives her life to save her tribe, her magic seems to die with her. Even so, her family keeps the Old Faith, practicing the spells and rites that have been handed from mother to daughter for generations. Until one day, Ursule’s young granddaughter steps into the circle, and magic flows anew. From early 19th century Brittany to London during the Second World War, five generations of witches fight the battles of their time, deciding how far they are willing to go to protect their family, their heritage, and ultimately, all of our futures.

I enjoyed this book. I was excited by the mere thought of it since I first discovered it on a trip to Barnes and Noble and I’m quite pleased with this unexpectedly subtle story of witchcraft. 

I’m not sure if I had expected something darker or more dramatic but I was surprised by how real this story felt. It wasn’t the story of incredibly powerful witches working their magic at all times that I’d expected. It handled “the craft” in a quieter, more realistic way which I appreciated. I was also surprised by the progression of generations of the witches and the changing POVs but I absolutely loved it. The book covered the Orchiére women and their commitment to passing along the craft to their daughters. There are five protagonists in this book and we spend a fair amount of time with each, getting to know them and seeing how their power manifests and the changing attitudes of the bloodline and the societies around them. I really loved the subtlety of the magic. The women had varying amounts of power that showed itself in different ways for each and I enjoyed that some of the magic was as basic as making “simples” (little things like soaps and remedies) while others could scry and make powerful potions. I loved the tradition of it all. While I liked the progression of the story and constantly felt invested in the women’s lives and the continuation of the Orchiére bloodline, I did think the general set up of each POV was too formulaic. We left each woman at a certain point and then picked up with her daughter somewhere between 13-16 years old and saw her learn of the craft or saw her powers come in and how she’d choose to handle them. Then we moved on from her around the same basic point in her life that we left her mother. Despite this, each woman’s story was enthralling. I thoroughly enjoyed the dynamics between mothers and daughters and the importance of those relationships. They were all unique and realistic, showing struggles between the women instead of just an easy understanding between witches of the same family. Their lives were mostly quiet and simple but the book demonstrated the power (the non-magic variety) and strength of the women who had to live those lives. The most unrealistic story was Veronica’s but it actually was one of my favorites. One of the major things she did was very far fetched but I really enjoyed the idea.

The book was slow at times and never reached a terribly exciting point but it had its moments. It couldn’t build up to a climax the way a normal novel does because it was broken up into five sections for five different women’s lives. It was vast, but it worked. My favorite part of this novel was that the lives weren’t so remarkable and the women weren’t so powerful that it felt like this story was something that couldn’t have really happened to a line of gypsy women through the decades. 

Five main characters with unique voices can be a difficult feat, but I think it was executed very well. Each woman had an identifiable voice and personality that came through in her section. The writing was very well done. Each woman’s timeline showed a different period of the world and the general attitude toward witches realistically. The women were fantastically written and even when I disliked some of their actions (or when I disliked a character altogether), I loved the commitment to keeping the craft alive, even in little ways. Secondary characters were written just as well, fleshed out and dynamic. 

Overall, I liked this book a lot. It was a slower, sprawling story and it felt so real. I’ve never read a book that covered so many generations before and I think it was done fantastically. It held my interest the whole time. These witches were normal and unassuming but strong, confident, powerful and proud. They kept their heads down but were far from meek and practiced their craft with most people around them none the wiser. I greatly enjoyed following the Orchiére line of witches. 

4/5

Are you interested in A Secret History of Witches? Have you read it already? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Thanks for reading, 

Madison