strange and random happenstance: McCarthyism

The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Ava has grown up cloistered and unaware of who she is. Her first night away from home all of her mother's warnings come back to her: "Lock the door, call out if there is a stranger, stay away from girls who go out at midnight, beware those who wish to take you to the world underground, where there are no rules and no way to return to all that you've known." But what she learns that first night at Radcliffe is that everything she's ever known is a lie and the girl standing above her bed asking her to leap out a window at midnight is her other half. Ava and Lauren are opposites in every way, light and dark, the flower and the hazel branch. Even fire and ice to match their coloration. Ava didn't even know witches existed. She knew she was different, growing up in Maine in the 1940s she wasn't allowed to socialize with other children and occasionally had to be tethered in the family orchard so she wouldn't take to the skies, but a witch!?! That's the stuff of fairy tales. Until she meets Lauren. Lauren is from a tony Cambridge family of witches that trace their ancestry back to the 1600s. In other words, Lauren knows that witches exist because she's one of them. And she knows that Ava is a witch because why else would she be assigned as her roommate for the one night they have to stay in the dorms. Because witches don't live in dorms, they live in a special house run by the Lilith Society that began not long after the first witch of Cambridge came to settle in the marshlands in 1693. So while technically they are Radcliffe students, they are something else as well, not by choice, or by reason, but by legacy. And after they find their invitations and sneak out the window an act of salvation binds them together forever. An act that will save them time and time again as they battle with their own legacies. Because Ava doesn't know why or how she's in Cambridge but she starts to find letters hidden in books written by the First Witch. She starts to realize their is way more to her past than her mother has ever told her. And then she falls in love with the wrong person, Jamie Mather. He comes from a long line of dangerous men. Lauren's grandmother has always said that the Mathers did something that could never be forgiven. And here's Ava giving him her heart. Which is why Lauren has hardened hers. Ever since the death of her parents she has gravitated towards the dark. The Crooked Path calls to her. Which brings danger to Lilith House. McCarthyism is gripping the nation and when one of their number disappears before the graduation ceremony at the end of their first year they know they are being targeted. Can two friends overcome their differences to right the wrongs around them or will they selfishly care only for themselves?

I had an internal struggle as to whether I'd pick up this book right now because after reading all of her Practical Magic series I was kind of burned out on Alice Hoffman. There's only so far you can get on vibes alone. Sure, there's a comfort factor, but sometimes that just isn't enough. But then two things lured me in, McCarthyism and dark academia. Two things that actually have next to nothing to do with this book and seem to be just a veneer of time and place. As Tim Curry memorably says in Clue; "Communism was just a red herring." The "specter" of McCarthyism affects none of our characters in any way and seems to be more a "teachable moment" like the lack of contraception. Over and over again we hear about witch hunts and the danger from hunters but Lauren's brother is in far more danger from the Lavender Scare than she and Ava ever were from hunters. As for the aura of fear hanging over Lilith House? That was because Lauren was going down the left-handed path and her professor/lover killing her housemates. The fact that the police weren't able to figure out what happened to their fellow housemates still baffles me. All three women were connected to him and yet the police just couldn't figure it out. Probably because they were too busy trying to get laid by Lauren's brother. Yet this all pales in comparison to the real problem of this book, she is now outright plagiarizing herself. There is a similarity to all of Alice Hoffman's books which is comforting. But which, as I mentioned before, is sometimes not enough. Here though the similarities attained a new level. She is lifting her own material to make a new book. Cutting and pasting the legacy of the Owens family to begin a new witchy series. I wouldn't make this accusation without proof, so let me lay it on you. The Witches of Cambridge is two entwined stories. The first is ostensibly about a trio of witches, two "sisters" and their gay brother. The second is about the First Witch of Cambridge. The problem is, I've read these two stories before. The first is The Rules of Magic about Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens and their growing up starting in the late fifties. In fact Franny was supposed to attend Radcliffe so this reads almost as an alternative timeline. The second is Magic Lessons, a long slog of a read about Maria Owens and her life, but more importantly the curse she laid on her family. I hated reading Magic Lessons so much that reading a simulacrum of her story with the First Witch of Cambridge gave me PTSD. There are just constant reminders that this is just a Frankensteinian creation; insane asylums, secrets, homosexual persecution, unexpected pregnancies, banished loves, exile, wolf dogs, failing the Bechdel test, I could just keep listing them, but unless you've read all these books I don't think you'll believe me. I mean, what are the chances there are two different characters in two different books that were from the same area of Cornwall!?! Or that apparently every man involved in the Salem Witch Trials was in love with a witch? Or at least his descendant was. The déjà vu was just too strong for me with this book. Perhaps it will bring you comfort, for me it brought hives.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Alice Hoffman, Cambridge, Clue, Dark Academia, Déjà Vu, Lilith House, Magic Lessons, McCarthyism, Plagiarism, Radcliffe College, Season of the Witch, The Crooked Path, The Rules of Magic, The Witches of Cambridge, Tim Curry

Shadowstitch by Cari Thomas
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 6th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 658 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Anna Everdell's life has been turned upside down by the arrival of Effie Fawkes. Her sister. Her twin sister. Her twin sister whom she never knew about. They were separated after their parents' death in the hope of surviving the curse that killed them. Anna was raised by her unlamented Aunt while Effie was raised by their mother's best friend Selene. The curse is such that they are fated to love the same man with deadly consequences. That man in Attis Lockerby. He is Selene's true child, unlike Effie, born and raised to break the curse. But Anna and Effie could never live without Attis so they must find another way. All three of them living together under Selene's roof isn't ideal but after the death of her Aunt, Anna can't face that house of horrors she called home. She was tortured her entire life and for what? To learn to hide her true self? Which might be a valuable skill in the current atmosphere. Protective coloration is needed with what's coming. Her Aunt might not have been wrong about the Hunters. There is a new government agency, the WIPS, the Witchcraft Inquisitorial and Prevention Services. They are tasked with investigating the rising cases of hysteria. And Anna's school, St. Olave's, is the epicenter of the hysteria, thanks in no small part to their coven's manipulations of mean girl Darcey. The school year starts with investigations and inquisitions. Things that were whispered about are now spoken aloud, that Effie, Anna, Manda, and Rowan are witches. It just so happens that on this one occasion they are right. The terror gripping London intensifies when on the one year anniversary of the death of the faceless women in Big Ben the ravens at the Tower of London start to act up. Everyone knows the legend, if the ravens leave the Tower London will fall. The Coven of the Dark Moon must therefore keep their heads down. Which is exactly what Effie doesn't want to do. She will never kowtow to anyone no matter if it endangers herself or others. And the coven is having teething issues as the member try to discover their affinities. Their powers are starting to develop but Anna's are still unpredictable and that puts everyone in danger. Anna and Effie need to find out what their mother learned about their curse and trace it back to it's origins in the 1600s in an attempt to break it. But even those who talk to the dead, the Hel Witches, don't seem able to help. The only one actually helping Anna is her ex Peter Nowell. He wants to "save" Anna. But it looks like she and her coven might be beyond saving.

In the modern era a witch hunt is a term used politically. Think of McCarthyism. Now that was an actual political witch hunt. But in the current era there is a certain bombastic politician who likes to throw the phrase around. A lot. He might just be the most powerful person in the world to my dismay and the dismay of many others. I'm sure he probably doesn't even know what it means. He just says it as a way to get his followers to believe he is being wrongly persecuted. Because, sadly, most witch hunts were about punishing the innocent, usually clever women for being helpful to their communities, though there are also cases of mass delusions and well, plain old spite and revenge. This certain politician is all about the spite and revenge. He plays the victim for sympathy again and again. But just his intoning of the phrase "witch hunt" repeated ad infinitum has made it relevant again. Not because he is the victim of said witch hunts, but because he is carrying them out on innumerable people unjustly. It is the classic case of Republican projection, whatever they say the Democrats are doing to them they are doing themselves. It's reprehensible. But because of the omnipresence of witch hunts this lends a grounding in reality to Shadowstitch. Yes, they really are witches, yes, they might have done some questionable curses, but that doesn't make the witch hunt justified. It's just rounding up the "other" and punishing them for not falling into line. Just because a book is fantasy doesn't mean it's not reality. Some of the harshest truths and bleakest realities can be seen clearer when focused through the lens of fantasy. Just look to Andor. This is a show set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, and yet there isn't a more relevant show out there that speaks to this moment in history. The Ghorman Massacre, holy hell, it is so powerful and terrifying because I can see that happening at any moment to people I love and care for. Shadowstitch also speaks to this moment. But it speaks to it in the way Arthur's Miller's The Crucible did, which besides being about teenagers, please ignore the anachronistic use of that word for the Salem witch trials, was about McCarthyism. It all comes full circle. But with a dash of the Third Reich. Because where would a book about teenage witches be without some Nazis Youths.