Cunning Women: When Women are Cast Out, They Must Find Their Own Power

*I received a free ARC of this book, with thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*A typical tragic tale of narrow-minded or grudge-bearing rustic locals vs. a small family of outcasts, Cunning Women follows Sarah as she tries to protect her family from the suspicion of witchcraft and from the grinding poverty they endure.The love story feels almost incidental, as the real focus is on issues of intolerance and disgust towards women, the poor, the different, and the way in which a woman’s natural anger and sorrow is labelled unnatural and devilish to suit these old-fashioned biases. There are some stronger scenes here, involving mental illnesses (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia), rape, paedophilia and child-murder, so care should be taken if those subjects are triggering to you, as the author does not shy away from the bleak picture she is painting of Sarah’s lot.While this is a well-written story, it felt that something was missing from the heart of it and I struggled to connect emotionally with the characters. As it was clear to me from the beginning where the story was inevitably leading, I found myself skimming in places, which was a shame as the subject matter of persecution and otherness is one that usually greatly interests me.This is a slow burner, driven by the characters and their suffering, and an interesting addition to the canon of ‘witchy’ feminist stories of female hardships and feminine strength, just not quite for me.Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

A book with magic, witchery, intrigue , love, cruelty, sadness, hope, betrayal, romance.I was all over the place reading this book.I know it’s good when I find myself not being able to read quick enough and almost skipping some to get to know what happens but not allowing myself to do so. With this book I certainly found like I felt this way.Autumn is here and reading this book at such a time was apt. I feel it added to my experience, as I felt it was atmospheric, with colder and darker nights drawing in and Halloween on the horizon and a book that had such description and all of above mentioned it was an experience.I would recommend.

**Contains Spoilers** I honestly can’t understand why so many people are raving about this book? I really don’t know what to make of it. The book itself is not very long, the story not at all complicated, the characters are pretty straight forward too. That being said, it took me a while to get into this read. Once I got my head around the accent and regional dialect, it was pretty easy to blast through. I read it cover to cover in about four days on holiday. Did I enjoy it? No. The next bit contains parts of the story, so don’t read on if you’ve not read the book…I found almost all of the characters extremely unlikeable. Granted, many of them are supposed to be unlikeable. Usually, however, I root for the heroes. Not in this book. The romance between Daniel and Sarah is cliche at best. The doubt building between the two of them can be read from the day they meet and gets more and more predictable. It’s a doomed romance and it makes it almost pointless turning the pages. I felt like I knew exactly how the story was panning out at every turn. Their families are hysterically stereotypical. Too little detail is given, but not in a good way. Tales and rumours of the Haworth family are drip fed throughout but never elaborated on. Comments made in arguments between Sarah and her mother never really mentioned again. Sarah’s conjuring of her familiar and then it never really going anywhere or anything happening with that part of her story?! I found it so infuriating! The only thing keeping me investigated was waiting for the promised twist of the tale. The biggest and most disappointing thing for me… the so called twist. What twist?? Seriously, where was the twist?! Gabriel turns out to be a wrong ‘un, demon boy gets blamed…could have seen that coming a mile off. Oh, now Sarah and Daniel can’t be together - no way?! (Mock shock.) If I’m being completely honest, this book felt very amateur, like I was reading an essay from a creative writing course that needed a bit more ‘oomph’. (Having said that; it would probably make a half decent film if it was shot appropriately.) The cover is pretty and it will look nice next to my other tales of wise women and cunning folk, but that’s about it. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I hated it, but I can confidently say I won’t be picking it up ever again.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this or not, but once I'd gotten a little way in I was totally hooked into it. Well worth reading - such an atmosphere of inevitability, so much beautifully drawn with so few words. Just a beautiful piece of writing.

Set not long after the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612, this tells the love story of Sarah Haworth, who is marked as a witch, Daniel, a farmer’s son, and their hope for a better future together.Cunning Women is quite a slow burner of a read. It gets off to a leisurely start and then the action begins to pick up from the middle of the book. It’s beautifully written and quite dark in its composition. It’s very atmospheric and occasionally put a shiver down my spine. It’s written in alternating voices, that of Sarah in the first person and Daniel in the third person. Sarah’s voice is so very believable and I felt for her and her family. It really brings to the fore the ignorance of people in this era. I can thoroughly recommend this engrossing and eerie story to those who enjoy their books on the darker side!

This book was enthralling and so very sad! I felt so much sympathy for the heroine and also the boy who loved her and she him. Unfortunately, because of the attitude towards "cunning women" at the time the ending was so very sad. Cunning women were usually women HEALERS who knew a lot about herbs - the town where the heroine and her family lived often used their services for cures of one sort or another - but when a new Magistrate who has an obsession with witchcraft arrives everything changes - for the worse.

I absolutely loved this story, and was utterly captivated by the author's writing style and the imagery it conjured. It seems apt to quote a line from the book; "whispered words spool out of her, fine and silver as a spider's web, and surround me until I am caught in their gossamer threads".