A Lullaby for Witches: Review

A Lullaby for Witches Published by Graydon House by Hester Fox
on February 1, 2022
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Magic, Horror, Paranormal, Witches, Historical
Pages: 320
Source: Netgalley
Format: ARC, eBook
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram
Also by this author: The Witch of Willow Hall, The Orphan of Cemetery Hill
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

ISBN: 1525804693
Rating:

Two women. A history of witchcraft. And a deep-rooted female power that sings across the centuries.

Once there was a young woman from a well-to-do New England family who never quite fit with the drawing rooms and parlors of her kin.
Called instead to the tangled woods and wild cliffs surrounding her family’s estate, Margaret Harlowe grew both stranger and more beautiful as she cultivated her uncanny power. Soon, whispers of “witch” dogged her footsteps, and Margaret’s power began to wind itself with the tendrils of something darker.
One hundred and fifty years later, Augusta Podos takes a dream job at Harlowe House, the historic home of a wealthy New England family that has been turned into a small museum in Tynemouth, Massachusetts. When Augusta stumbles across an oblique reference to a daughter of the Harlowes who has nearly been expunged from the historical record, the mystery is too intriguing to ignore.
But as she digs deeper, something sinister unfurls from its sleep, a dark power that binds one woman to the other across lines of blood and time. If Augusta can’t resist its allure, everything she knows and loves—including her very life—could be lost forever.

Hester Fox is one of those authors who seems to be incredibly talented at writing witchy tales with disturbing and uncomfortable plotlines, yet include goodness and light at the end of the story.

This is my second read from Fox and I am so glad that I found her.

This story is told in alternating points-of-view. From first person perspective, we have Margaret Harlowe, a young witch in the late 1500s. She was slightly before her time, in that she challenged the conventions of her period with her witchcraft and her relationships with men.. Well, one man, to be exact. Yet, she had so much more to her, in that when faced with the worst of life, it brings out Margaret’s sensitive and vulnerable side.

The other point-of-view is told in third person, and it’s Augusta Podos. Augusta is not as strong a character as Margaret, but this just made her more of a relatable character, for me, personally. Augusta is a smart, sweet woman who finds herself needing and wanting a change in life. So, with a new job, her confidence grows. But, weird things start happening to her and she spends the book both growing more into herself and discovering more about her past–and Margaret Harlowe.

The story flows wonderfully in and out of both perspectives until reaching a point of intersection that is brilliant and exciting.

The dual love stories are perfect in their juxtapositions because these two different women have two very different ways of relating to others.

This story is one that I’ll probably come back to. And I can’t wait to read more from Fox.

 

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