Year of the Witching: Discussion #1

This week we are discussing Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson the Prologue- Chapter 11.

Spoiler Warning!!! This post contains spoilers for Year of the Witching.

Discussion #1

Michaela: This month’s pick is definitely a 180 from last month’s romance novella! A dark fantasy about religion, witches, and magical realism. Makes me get into the mood for autumn. Year of the Witching is slightly different from my normal go-to genre but I am really getting into it.

This book has a biracial main character in a very strict religious land and we find out that this place, Bethel, actually does separate people based on race and religion while also isolating itself from all outside cities and visitors. The opening to the book was a little startling to me, I was not expecting to just walk right into a pretty gruesome birth scene.

Jacilyn: Oh, yeah. The tone was set right off the bat…. Definitely creepy. I had to re-read the scene a couple of times to fully grasp what was happening, because there wasn’t any lead up to this really intense scene of Miriam dying while giving birth to a baby girl who is pronounced Immanuelle by Miriam’s mother, Martha. At first I thought that the midwives just chose each child’s name, but we find out later that Martha has the gift of Naming, which is seen as a special blessing from the Father. As Miriam dies, she tells Martha that the woman in the woods, the Beast, told her that Immanuelle was a curse. The Beast, the Dark Mother, who reigns over the forbidden Darkwoods, is already portrayed as a mysterious, terrifying, evil figure. This is really interesting to me, because Miriam smiled as she said this to Martha as she died. I didn’t read that as her being afraid, or angry, or disappointed. She almost seemed content.

Michaela: Oh yeah I was super confused at first, I had to give it a reread too just to understand what I was reading fully. I definitely think the witches might not be as evil as the Prophet and the Church make them out to be, even with the events towards the end of this section of the book, I’m not convinced that the witches are the most evil thing happening here. The Gift of Naming was a really interesting element of this religion, especially since the narrator describes Martha as feeling like she has to spit it out and hating the feeling of the name as it comes up. I’m curious to know what the curse on Immanuelle’s name really means. There can be relatively good curses as well as bad ones. Miriam’s connection to the Darkwood is fascinating and only getting snippets of information about her and the woods is sucking me into the book along with so many other things.

The whole concept of the religion in this book seems to be a mash up of a lot of religions in our world so it makes everything uncannily familiar and puts me on edge a little bit. It for sure makes you pay attention and also understand why some people are so drawn to this religion and why other’s doubt it. Even in our world many people struggle with their religion for similar reasons to those represented in the book so far.

Jacilyn: I hope we get to learn more about the different Gifts of the “flock,” as they’re called (which I hate, by the way). I agree about the witches being less evil than it seems. They are described as being rather ugly and creepy and disturbing looking, which certainly adds to the evil idea, but my gut is telling me that that has something to do with being burned at the stake after the Holy War. I am thinking that since they didn’t die, that they may be the victims of some sort of curse from the Prophet of the time. Miriam’s journal entries about the Darkwood felt really ambiguous to me, even within the same sentence. “I have seen the evils of this world, and I have loved them.” With what we’ve seen of the witches and their behavior so far, I’m so curious about Miriam and her connection to them and the Darkwoods.

Henderson, the author, definitely made the connection to real-world religions very clear. The elements of the religion of Bethel are obviously based on various forms of Christianity. As someone who is interested in cults, this is ticking all of the boxes of typical cult characteristics. We have the cult leader, the Prophet, who is both feared and revered, and is believed to have a special connection to the Father, who has gifted him with powers in return. Of course, he practices polyamory, but in a predatory and, based on the power imbalances here, non-consensual way. Then there’s the apostles, a group of men who have also been granted gifts from the Father and also practice polygamy and have power over the rest of the “flock.” Cult leaders maintain control by separating followers from the outside world, which is evident in Bethel by the fact that foreigners are no longer welcomed and no one below the apostles are allowed to go elsewhere. They also maintain control by considering any sort of dissent as blasphemy and worthy of great punishment. Bethel almost seems like the result of a cult that has been able to completely isolate themselves and establish themselves over generations, creating a whole new religion and history as time goes on. I think the author intends for readers to be uncomfortable with the obvious similarities between the religion of Bethel and religions that many of us are familiar with now.

Michaela: I totally agree with you about the witches appearance being product of their so called deaths. I think most people think they are evil because that is what they have been told but I wonder if David Ford, the first witch killer, was actually in a relationship with one of them or maybe was rejected and that is what turned him against them and the Dark Mother. Also, the people who live in the Outskirts seem to pray to the Dark Mother and make offerings to the Darkwood. Immanuelle even described their representation of the Dark Mother as something more comforting and motherly than the evil image the Church forces on it’s ‘flock’. It’s all very sexist, that’s for sure. I’m interested to learn more about the history of all of it.

The Prophet is very very creepy and predatory. Though the fact that the appointing of being the Prophet is passed from father to son is not what I expected from this kind of religion, I’m not sure why I wasn’t expecting it. It was refreshing that Ezra, the Prophet’s son, does not follow all the beliefs and is not full of himself, I feel like in many stories that would be the case. Everything about this religion makes me so uncomfortable but in a kind of way that makes me want to keep reading about it. Everything about the Church, the Prophet, the apostles, etc screams cult red flags to me. The term ‘flock’ is disgusting and I hate it. Also the ‘cutting’ of women’s foreheads to symbolize marriage, so basically branding, super creepy and horrible. Everything these people know is taught to them by the church so they have no chance to think for themselves and it is so sad. Leah is a perfect example of someone who has tried her whole life to be ‘sin’ free, to repent any ‘sins’ she may have committed, and wants to serve. Then after she is married to the Prophet she learns it is not all it seemed it would be with unconsentual sex with the Prophet to his other wives be mean to her.

Speaking of Leah, she is truly the nicest person in the entire book right now. Her love for Immanuelle is beautiful and never seems to falter no matter if Immanuelle is poor, sad, biracial, cursed, or even after she went into the Darkwood. She must be protected! I really hope nothing happens to her and that she doesn’t become a bad person later on. I think Immanuelle and Leah truly love each other in a way that neither of them love their families.

Also it seems like everything is a ‘sin’ in this religion. At one point Immanuelle even says that swimming is a sin! Swimming! Because Delilah, one of the Unholy Four, is the Witch of the Water. Utter ridiculousness. Girls aren’t allowed in school past age 12 (disgusting), you’re not considered a woman until you have your first period (fight me), everyone is expected to pay tithes to the church (of course), and even just being not light skinned is a sin (absolutely abhorrent). This whole place gives me the heebie jeebies.

Jacilyn: The way the citizens of the Outskirts are depicted is really interesting to me, actually. The Outskirt citizens in Immanuelle’s time are thought to be the descendents of refugees, and although the Prophet of that time invited them into Bethel, he believed that they were cast out of their land by the Father as retribution, and therefore they are treated as less-than, as automatic heathens, and their offerings to the Darkwood and the Dark Mother definitely add to that assumption. Which, I mean, the parallels between the way refugees are treated in Bethel and the way they are treated in the U.S. is pretty apparent here. Non-white refugees fleeing violence, looking for safety, treated as the lowest of the low. I thought it was interesting that Immanuelle says that some of the more extreme members of the flock say that the dark skin of those in the Outskirts is evidence of their connection to the Dark Mother, and another sign of their inherent connection to evil. It seems that although the flock treats those in the Outskirts as less-than and unclean as a whole, their skin color is only explicitly tied to this part of them by some people, although it is obviously an inherent part of the discrimination against them by everyone. Another connection to current times, honestly.

I’m really intrigued by Ezra. First of all, I called right off the bat that him and Judith were too close. It is obvious that he is really interested and drawn to Immanuelle, which Martha is not a fan of, at all. Martha, to whom faith is so important, doesn’t see Ezra’s interest in Immanuelle as good fortune as you would expect. She basically tells him to back off, which, considering he’s the Prophet’s heir, seems to border on being outright disrespectful. I think this probably comes from Miriam’s experience with the current Prophet. It’s obvious that the Prophet was probably trying to hurt Miriam in some way, and she fought back by nearly killing him and running into the Darkwoods. As strict as Martha is, and as much as she tries to distance herself from the soil that Miriam brought onto the Moore family, I think she still loves the daughter she lost very much.

I have a feeling, though, that Ezra may not be as good of an ally as Immanuelle hopes. He has seen her mother’s diary, albeit briefly, and has to know that something is fishy there. Although he’s hoping that Immanuelle keeps his secret about him and Judith, trusting him to help her access the library for information on the witches seems to be pushing it. I like him so far, and I want to believe the best, but I have my doubts…. I also have a feeling that Ezra may become the Prophet sooner than he thinks. The Prophet is obviously showing signs of sickness (all that coughing!), so I don’t think he’ll be around much longer.

Michaela: The author makes some really good parallels to our world right now in the United States, it makes the book really familiar and interesting to read. I honestly wondered if Martha might think that Ezra can’t be with Immanuelle because of what Miriam did, obviously Martha loves Immanuelle but I can see her still having doubt about her. I think Martha struggles with her relationship with the Prophet and the Church, I don’t think her faith has wavered but I do think her perception of the Church has changed.

I really hope Ezra doesn’t turn out to be a bad person but I’m really afraid that he will betray Immanuelle in some way. I thought it was possible that Ezra has already had some visions, like when Immanuelle caught him looking off into the distance a few times, but he doesn’t want to say anything. I can see the Prophet being abusive towards Ezra because he is gaining visions while the Prophet is becoming more and more unhealthy. Immanuelle said at one point she thought Ezra “saw the truth of her”, I wonder if that means he has the Gift of Truth as well as the Gift of Vision. A small part of me thinks the Prophet might be dying because of a secret sin or something and the Father or the Dark Mother is slowly punishing him, maybe not but I could see that being the reasoning for his declining health.

Jacilyn: I can see Martha thinking that Immanuelle isn’t worthy of marrying the future Prophet, but she definitely acted hostile towards Ezra, and I don’t think she would do that if she didn’t feel negatively about him in some way. I’m conflicted in how I feel about Martha. She has obviously experienced a lot of trauma in her life, but she straight up burned Immanuelle after Immanuelle confessed to going into the Darkwoods. I’m sure she doesn’t want to lose Immanuelle the same way that she lost Miriam, and she doesn’t want any more shame to fall onto the family. They can barely afford to eat or get Abram his medicine as it is at this point.

It’s interesting that Immanuelle is so drawn to the Darkwoods, but that she also sees the Unholy Four as evil still, and fears them. I’m really so anxious to see Immanuelle interact with the witches more so we can learn more about them. I think that maybe Immanuelle was pronounced a curse by Lilith because Immanuelle is a curse to Bethel. She seems to believe that her bleeding in the presence of Lilith was what started the blood plague. Perhaps the curse is aimed at the Prophet and the Father, who are obviously the source of much fear and respect in Bethel. I think the way that Henderson writes is just perfect for setting the tone of the book. She writes so descriptively that there were times that I felt like I was experiencing the same things as Immanuelle, like the feeling of being on a beach when Immanuelle read that poetry book, and the disgust and horror of witnessing the blood plague and the death and rot it has caused. The book is definitely creepy and gives me the heebie jeebies and I love it.

Michaela: I’m also conflicted about Martha, I realize that punishment is part of this religious culture but it is just horrible. I can’t imagine doing that to anyone. I think Immanuelle still sees the witches as evil because that is what she has been taught her entire life, when she is taken off guard she doesn’t feel fear towards them at all, usually once she has a chance to think about it is when she feels that they are evil. Or when she is not in the Darkwood, she sees it as evil but when she is in it she doesn’t always see it that way. I think it's possible that Immanuelle was the trigger the witches were waiting for to start the curse, like Immanuelle is the sign of hope for them to get their world back. So Immanuelle isn’t the curse she is just the thing the witches were waiting for to curse Bethel. I really think the curse is directed at the Father and the Prophet because of how they turn everyone against the Dark Mother.

I do love how this book is written, it really draws you in and shows you exactly what is happening. She writes everything in a very realistic way no matter how creepy or gruesome or magical things are, she writes it so that it is all right there in front of your face with no filter.

Jacilyn: As I read it, I really do feel like I’m seeing everything with my own eyes. Everything is written in such a real, stark way, that it’s hard to keep yourself separated from the story. And honestly, I’m okay with that. I’m really enjoying this book so far, and I’m already excited to keep reading. How did you feel about the beginning of The Year of the Witching? Are you feeling the spooky, creepy vibes? What entry in Miriam’s diary intrigued you most? Join us next week to discuss chapters 12-22, and until then, happy reading!

What did you think of the opening scene of the book? What are your first impressions of Bethel and its religious practices? Do you trust Ezra yet? Let us know in the comments below!