Witches Save the World – Covens, Cauldrons, and Curses Gone Right by Rebecca Buchanan (Editor)
Publisher: Gorgon’s Gaze Press
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Holiday, Poetry, Contemporary, Historical, LGBTQ
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeCovens. Cauldrons. And Curses.
The witch is a complex figure. Hero? Villain? Victim? Practitioner of a nearly-forgotten faith or just misunderstood? An elder who should be respected but is instead reviled? Or the member of an oppressed ethnic or sexual minority?
Witches of every sort appear in this anthology, and its companion volume, Witches Save the World: Hags, Harridans, and Hexes Gone Right. In some tales and poems, the witch embodies the primal forces of balance and karmic retribution, or they act in support of social justice, defending those who cannot protect themselves. Or they act in defense of Nature, calling to heel the corrupt governments and corporations that would strip the world in the name of power and profit. Or they are caretakers of their communities, mending minds and bodies, sometimes at the cost of their own freedom or even their own lives.
These are witches who do what must be done, because someone has to save the world.
Justice has many faces.
“The Blackened Grin of Justice” followed Agatha, the only healer in a town stricken with a terrible disease that was rapidly killing people. I enjoyed her character development in this piece, especially when it came to her devotion to her community and what she was willing to do to end the epidemic. Had this one been a full-length novel, I would have relished getting to know her even better than I already did.
I relish the challenge of reviewing anthologies given how many different authors and writing styles are typically included in them, although it can be tricky at times to choose a rating when I loved many of the stories but didn’t connect so well to other ones. That is something that happened to me again when I read this book, and “The Momentonomicon,” in which Sylvie took photos of roadkill and other deceased wild animals to commemorate their lives, was one such example. I struggled to understand why she thought this was a good way to remember them and would have found it helpful to explore her feelings on this topic on a much deeper level.
Sorrow was forced to become betrothed to a man she found repulsive in “The Witch’s Bridle” because her parents needed his money to keep the family farm running. This was one of my favorite stories due to how determined she was to find a way to evade this fate and how slim her odds were of getting out of this arrangement. She was an intelligent and resourceful young woman, and I never stopped hoping for a happy ending for her.
This is part of a duology that can be read in either order.
Witches Save the World – Covens, Cauldrons, and Curses Gone Right was an empowering and deliciously scary read.
