Welcome to Litsy!

This is definitely much darker than I had expected based on the cover. Set in 1600 Norway, and based on real events this is about grief and love. I felt like I was on the island with Maren and Ursa, willing them to survive. Intimately and powerfully written.

My secret teacher pal knows the way to my heart! This beauty was in my mailbox waiting for me to give it a home on my shelf.

For most of this book I thought it would be a pick—and maybe it still should be—but I found the last couple chapters disappointing. The first 11 trials are real, riveting historical witchcraft trials, chosen to both be representative of other trials of their time and to illustrate turning points in the history of witch trials. But trial 12 is a fictional trial that represents the horrible treatment of “witches” in southern Africa—couldn‘t she…

Another irritating error. The Wiccan symbol is a pentacle, not a “pentangle”—seriously, how do you study witchcraft and get that wrong? Also, the symbol isn‘t approved for current service members (I don‘t even know whether that‘s a thing). It‘s approved for placement on grave markers of service members, after years of work, which hardly supports her assertion that the US government theoretically allows freedom of religion including witchcraft.

I‘ve been trying to process this one for ages now. The first part is a good conversation starter. The second half is such a patchwork of pre-fab prayers it‘s hard to take them as genuine. Maybe if this had been done as a collaboration between the author and other people on the paths for these prayers it might seem more genuine and therefore be more helpful. By the end, my eyes were sort of crossed and I was just happy it was over.

Hmm… no, it didn‘t. That wasn‘t added to the dollar bill until the 1950s. 🤔

I hate finding errors like this in books. It makes me suspicious of all the research. 🤨

Just started and it saddens me though does NOT surprise me (which is even sadder) that at 5'8“ and 160lbs Alexandra is considered “plump“ with multiple references to this. This bothers me for many reasons one of which is the fact that many don't even have a conception of what that looks like. I'm pretty sure anything about 120 for a woman is considered plump, not considering any other factor. Stupid.
(Pic. Marsh marigold)

🎆

📗 https://witchcraftedlife.com/25-pagan-and-non-pagan-books-for-beltane/

🫖

My favorite this time of year https://a.co/d/8JCcZNM