Its pacing, its structure and its internally consistent motifs (Earthliness, light vs dark and the culmination of events at an equinox, the different “roles” a woman plays e. Among many things, probably one of my favourite aspects of the story was the main character; Lux’s evolution throughout the story.

She needs her help to seek revenge against the man who wronged her, and together they pursue him north. The reason for a reading slump or a more serious writing block is the inner blockage that I can’t pump out of my system. It was equal parts haunting, whimsical and lyrical prose as it was dark, sensual and full of feminine rage. We join her story when her mother dies suddenly and she almost ends with the same fate as the angry mob-like villagers forcing her out of her home by committing the only thing which is imaginable in the cruelty of that era; arson.The emphasis here is on storytelling, not just in Logan’s approach to her material but through an intricate exploration of roles on offer to women like Lux accused of witchcraft and devoid of social or economic clout - the parts she’s forced to play, and who gets to tell her story. This is a book where you sit down to review it and end up having to ask yourself, how do I even start to describe it? The chapters were perfect length-wise for me; someone who always checks where the end is when I start to read a new chapter. This duality and internal conflict between the two women show how women during this age of witches and witch trials, could be convinced that women were the problem and men were the saviours. Irgendwo zwischen magischem Realismus, historischem Roman, literary fiction und ein klitzekleines bisschen Fantasy.

It’s the perfect image – life atop icy precarity; festive warmth upon unforgiving cold – to set the stage for a tale whose protagonist will be confronted by many perilous contrasts. Logan’s novel is often brutal and visceral with graphic scenes that recreate the simmering violence of a time marked by its elaborate forms of discipline and punishment: the mortification of the flesh through flagellation; scolds’ bridals used on “outspoken” women; hunted animals; and plague victims boarded up and left to die. But the one that I felt in my bones every time when she said; ‘If the owl is screeching under your window it means somebody is going to die. A stunning, sharing and beautiful read with its own world and takes you into its own unique medieval world adjacent to our own but full of depth, wonder and danger. This book has no defined setting, or defined period, and yet it feels so incredibly atmospheric, steeped in folklore and hand-me-down stories.

It's a very stylish and competent read -- I've read a few things by Kirsty Logan before and never really enjoyed them, but I've always appreciated their ability to string together words in a compelling way. The soft, silky, slippery gift of the Earth, which is being twisted, bent and broken, dried out, cracked so many times. Now She is Witch has me sleeping easy again in the knowledge that I can keep my self-appointed position as chair of the unofficial Kirsty Logan fanclub.

I HATE the myth of the female herbalist/midwife/abortionist who only tried to help the poor villagers and then gets murdered because men hate women with agency.Kirsty Logan is the author of three novels, three story collections, a memoir, two chapbooks, a 10-hour audio play for Audible, and several collaborative projects with musicians and visual artists.

Scottish author Kirsty Logan blends historical fact with folklore and fairy tale to construct an unusual variation on a ghost story and queer, coming-of-age narrative. What I enjoyed the most is how each chapter had a different title (the first part at least) and the title defined Lux (Maiden, Poisoner, Wolf etc) and showed the different roles and labels women can be categorised into. It’s a moment of grace and vindication, one that Logan lets the long-suffering Lux experience utterly, triumphantly alone.What follows is her life’s travels, making her way from a group of vagrant theatre plays, to a final position as the kings food taster, all the while accompanied by a mysterious woman named Else, who she grows closely connected to. But when I say every cell in my body was shivering, shrieking and went into a max frenzy just like Sandra Bullock in Practical Magic when I heard the owl, That Owl, under my window I’m not even exaggerating.