This lush, atmospheric novel blends witchcraft, queer love, a vibrant Edinburgh setting, and Scottish folklore for a propulsive and emotional story exploring what it means to resist the patriarchy and find your voice.
In an alternate Edinburgh of 1824, every woman lives in fear that she will be the next one hanged for witchcraft. All it takes is invoking the anger, or the desire, of the wrong person. Nellie Duncan, beautiful and unwed, keeps to herself until she encounters the Rae Womens Apothecary. There, fiery Jean Rae and the other women provide cures and teach others that they too can aid the winter deity, the Cailleach, embracing her characteristic independence, agency, and craft, in turn becoming witches themselves.
Nellie finds a place and a purpose at the shop, and a blossoming romance with Jean, as she learns about nature-based craft and a witchs ability to return to life after death. But the Cailleach has an ancient enemy intent on stripping the power of the deity and all her witches, leaving a wake of patriarchal violence and destruction.
When heart-breaking disaster strikes, Nellie flees and spends the next two centuries hiding from the worlduntil love gives her the courage and the motivation to come back. Nellies past is waiting for her there, and hanging witches is no longer the only means of oppression. But this time, Nellie refuses to runeither from her foes, or from her resolve to awaken others to the unimaginable power that can come with fighting the patriarchy in its many formsand finding ones own magical inner-strength.