Michelle Herbert reviews The Witches of New York by Ami McKay…
When I first heard the synopsis of this book I was really intrigued, witches in New York set in 1880! To be honest, I wasn’t disappointed as the book was well written, filled with interesting characters, and a villain who believes what they are doing is guided by god, not forgetting the magic that courses through the story. In a way growing up watching Charmed it was unlikely that I wasn’t going to find a book about three women learning to be themselves and learning to work in harmony with each other appealing.
The book centres on three women, Eleanor, Adelaide and Beatrice, who are all gifted in different types of magic. Eleanor, the oldest of the three comes from a long line of witches, she is the one that remembers the old ways. Adelaide is a natural seer, who doesn’t use her powers to their full potential. Then there is Beatrice who wants to shape her own destiny and finds that magic may be the key to helping her on her journey. Their stories are woven into a New York in the grips of Egyptomania, where everyone is awaiting the arrival of Cleopatra’s Needle. New York is on the cusp of the 20th Century and a time of change is sweeping through the city.
In the 1880’s women were expected to get married and live respectable lives. It was unseemly to be an unmarried woman in this period. Although this book has a foot in fantasy, this is also a story about the oppression of women. As three single women, Eleanor and Adelaide allow us to see how women have been vilified throughout the ages by men, who have been scared of women having their own minds and free will. There is menace emanating from all sides in this novel, from the basic sense of being unmarried women who run a tea shop mainly catering to women, to the more complicated, as a supposedly righteous man feels it is his duty to hunt witches and destroy them if he can’t save their souls.
The Witches of New York does a good job of giving all three women time for the reader to discover each of their histories as well as their motivations. How each has survived and thrived and how they will always be stronger together even if it is not from the offset. They are also surrounded by a good cast of characters from Dr Brody looking for messages beyond the grave, to Mrs Dashley who is one of their biggest supporters and more importantly a friend. The novel gives us a good intersection of society and the characters that make up the authors New York.
This is a nicely paced book which can be very intense in places and did have me worrying over the fate of the characters and how the book would end. The book also has many mysteries, some of which may lead you down surprising paths. Most importantly it has three engaging lead characters who are all individuals, and whose inner strength never leaves them feeling like archetypes. I would definitely recommend The Witches of New York.
Michelle Herbert
Originally published November 24, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
