Somewhere to Begin
The Year of the Witching
By Alexis Henderson
3 Jul, 2020
Doing What the WFC Cannot Do
Alexis Henderson’s 2020 The Year of the Witching is a standalone fantasy novel.
The town of Bethel shuns the outside world, hewing to the narrow path of righteousness taught by their prophets. But one resident, Immanuelle Moore, proves that the shunning wasn’t complete: the colour of her skin makes it clear that her father was an Outsider. Her father is executed; her mother dies in childbirth; only Immanuelle is left as evidence of their crime.
Between her lover’s execution and her own death, Immanuelle’s mother vanished into the Darkwood, reappearing shortly before she died. What precisely the woman got up to in the Darkwood is a matter of superstitious conjecture. Immanuelle finds out … to her regret.