“It’s always three, isn’t it? Three furies, three fates, three graces. Science still has no explanation for the number three, but women instinctively feel its power. We don’t know why three works, but we know it does. Three is the number that gets the job done.”
This is the story of three estranged women, two sisters and a daughter pulled back to their ancestral home, Wild Hill, a place that gives magic powers to the women born there. Forced to face old family drama, they reconnect and learn to use their magic together to protect themselves, each other, and the land. So what did our Book Group think of The Women of Wild Hill?
Our copies of this month’s book were a kind donation from the publisher in return for an unbiased review. Only some of the group managed to read it, mainly because they were working through their to be read piles!
With the members of the group who had read it, and feedback sent by members who couldn’t make the meeting, we discovered that all our readers had enjoyed the story. One said how witches weren’t really their thing, but that they had become hooked on the story. We agreed that it was a quick read – which is quite an achievement for a hardback. The only thing that was a shame was how quickly we found we had forgotten parts of the plot – possibly due to our reading it so fast?
While we have read a previous book by this author (Lula Dean’s Library of Banned Books) we felt that this was a completely different style of book – so much so that we wouldn’t have realised that it was the same writer.
One reader liked the way the story switched time periods, and the strong female leads had quite a few fans. A member said that the story reminded them of a book called Weyward by Emilia Hart.
We found that the modern take on witchcraft, and the strong moral story was an interesting approach to current real life events. The idea of this family of witches as a feminist power for good versus the misogynistic, climate denying billionaires and politicians (no names, but some are definitely guessable) proved a surprisingly timely twist to the generic evil witch scenario. While we felt that the build up took a while, having backstories for the generations of previous witches in the family really fleshed out the story, and added to our understanding of the characters of Sybil, Brigid, and Phoebe.
The score for The Women of Wild Hill was 4/5 and a definite recommend
Next month’s read is Peaky Blinders: the real story by Carl Chinn.
You may have watched the TV series, but who were the real Peaky Blinders? Come with us and find out about the true history of Birmingham’s underworld and the fact behind the fiction.
Pick up your copy from the Library in GETEC now.
Come and join our next meeting on Teams at 12.30-1.00pm, on Tuesday 3rd March.
Find out more about our reading groups here or take a look at some of our previous book reviews.
We look forward to seeing you!