The Book of Witching by C. J. Cooke is a 384 standalone novel published by Berkley in 2024.
Genre:
Horror, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Supernatural, Witchy
Opening Line:
It’s almost sunrise.
My Thoughts:
In sixteenth century Scotland, wife and mother Alison Balfour is a spaewife whose charms have helped her remote community with various ills and injuries many a time. But she must be careful, as it’s a time when the king has a mind for hunting out so-called witches and eradicating them. This part of the book is written in first person present tense.
In 2024, Clem’s daughter has been horrifically injured in a fire, a blaze that killed the young woman’s boyfriend, who was found with his hand’s bound. The third person who had been present at the time is missing. What were the three of them doing on such an isolated beach? How did the fire start? This part is in third person present tense.
This book answers these questions, and explains how these events 400 years apart are connected to one another via a black book of dark mysteries.
The historical fiction aspect of this book is based off of a true story, but that doesn’t change the fact that the book world has been flooded with stories of women who dabble in natural remedies getting accused of witchcraft, and that portion alone does not do much of anything that these others haven’t done already (although the writing is certainly a step or two up from Weyward). But it was the current day part of the tale that I found myself most invested in. Learning along with Clem how exactly Erin and her friends wound up in that fire in Orkney, and how it related back to the events in the other part of the story, was what kept me turning pages.
This is a witchy mystery story that is part historical fiction, with an element of horror introduced by the black book that is definitely supernatural and won’t let itself be easily disposed of. There is some violence on the page (executions sixteenth century-style), and some descriptions of serious burn injuries. Any sex occurs off page, except for one scene in which it is glossed over quickly as you are told it happened without being subjected to any descriptors.
Jessica Crawford 