Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Release Date: August 31, 2021
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Wizards & Witches
The Last Magician meets The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy
in this thrilling and atmospheric historical fantasy following a young
woman who discovers she has magical powers and is thrust into a battle
between witches and wizards.
In 1911 New York City,
seventeen-year-old Frances Hallowell spends her days as a seamstress,
mourning the mysterious death of her brother months prior. Everything
changes when she’s attacked and a man ends up dead at her feet—her
scissors in his neck, and she can’t explain how they got there.
Before
she can be condemned as a murderess, two cape-wearing nurses arrive to
inform her she is deathly ill and ordered to report to Haxahaven
Sanitarium. But Frances finds Haxahaven isn’t a sanitarium at all: it’s a
school for witches. Within Haxahaven’s glittering walls, Frances finds
the sisterhood she craves, but the headmistress warns Frances that magic
is dangerous. Frances has no interest in the small, safe magic of her
school, and is instead enchanted by Finn, a boy with magic himself who
appears in her dreams and tells her he can teach her all she’s been
craving to learn, lessons that may bring her closer to discovering what
truly happened to her brother.
Frances’s newfound power attracts
the attention of the leader of an ancient order who yearns for magical
control of Manhattan. And who will stop at nothing to have Frances by
his side. Frances must ultimately choose what matters more, justice for
her murdered brother and her growing feelings for Finn, or the safety of
her city and fellow witches. What price would she pay for power, and
what if the truth is more terrible than she ever imagined?
The Witch Haven is the debut novel by author Sasha Peyton Smith. This story takes place entirely in New York City. The year is 1911, 17-year-year-old Frances Hallowell spends her days as a seamstress, mourning the mysterious death of her brother months prior while her mother is sequestered in a sanatorium. When her boss gets overly aggressive with her, the next thing Frances knows is that the man is dead with her scissors sticking in his neck.
While the police are questioning her as the prime suspect in her bosses death, two cape-wearing nurses arrive to inform her that she has tuberculosis and must come with them immediately to Haxahaven Sanitarium. When Frances arrives at Haxahaven, she discovers that it's a school for witches, and yes, she's witch. Color me shocked! Within Haxahaven’s glittering walls, Frances finds the sisterhood she craves, but the headmistress warns Frances that magic is dangerous.
After finding notes left on her bunk, Frances finds herself enchanted by Finn, a boy who was friends with her brother, and someone who claims that he also has magic. He soon appears in her dreams and tells her he can teach her all she’s been craving to learn, lessons that may bring her closer to discovering what truly happened to her brother. Frances gathers other students at the school, and they soon learn how to use magic that is forbidden at the school. No way! How dare they!
Following Frances as she makes friends and the girls seek to learn how to use their power feels like the perfect story for the time period. The book was character driven, but it also had a compelling plot. The more she learns about the magical underworld of New York City, the more she begins to fear the strange, new world she inhabits may be related to her brother’s death four months earlier, the murder she’d do anything to solve.
To make matters more twisted is Oliver Callahan, the boy who is now attending Columbia and was also a friend of her brothers who now thinks he can be helpful to Frances. This is a strange twisted world with secret societies of both witches, and men who to belong to a society of male witches. The most frustrating and thus reason for my rating is Frances. She goes full throttle and then learns that everything is not what it seems.
Instead of taking things slowly, all her focus is on finding out who murdered her brother, and why the police have basically done nothing to find the killer. As Frances steps out of her comfort zone, she gets deeper, and deeper into things that will test her in every way possible. Fair warning, I don't see where the author has said this is part of a series which is too bad since she leaves a stunning cliffhanger ending for readers to deal with.
On a personal note, I am glad that we are now living in a better world where medical professionals know how to deal with patients with TB. In the early 20th century, at the time of this story, TB patients were shoved into sanatorium's and left there without being able to see their families. Some, like the authors grandmother, were lucky to survive until old age. I knew an elderly lady who had TB. She was afraid of having anyone kiss her on the lips for fear of spreading the virus. The condition is highly stigmatized, with considerable discrimination towards sufferers. Although there have been several studies assessing the extent of such discrimination, there is little published research explicitly investigating the causes of the stigma and discrimination associated with TB.
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