The Book of Witching

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A mother must fight for her daughter’s life in this fierce and haunting tale of witchcraft and revenge from the author of A Haunting in the Arctic/.

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.

Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the show more Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: The dual-timeline haters are duly warned: this novel uses that technique in an absolutely inescapable way. It's not a gimmick to improve pacing...it's integral to the story, and deployed in a way you invest in right away, or really dislike instantly. It does not change for the entire book so be advised of that if you do not like it on contact.

The initial horror set-up, a mother hearing that her daughter who was off on an adventure holiday is now in the hospital, scared me enough. "It can't get worse than this," thought innocent little me. Your kid's in a burn unit far away. You have to get there, worried out of your mind. Your beloved only child is, when you can finally speak to her, someone else...or so she says. "It can not get worse than this," I shuddered.

Had I but known....

I don't go in for supernatural stories, witches and devils and suchlike silliness. If something supernatural like that existed, I'd've seen it for myself in these past *cough*ty-*mumble* years. Ain't happened. Weird shit, yes; devils and gods and miracles, nope. None of that kind of horror is here, either. It's all the slimy rottenness of Humanity. It's all the horrible stench of misogyny. It's all greed and control at their ugliest and most personal.

Just in somehow linked points in past and present.

That's as far as suspension of disbelief will take me, so I'm glad that's as far as we went. There's nothing but a truly unnervingly described...talisman? power focus?...wisely left ambiguous. If one wants a supernatural explanation for these weirdly entwined events so distant from each other in time, there's a way to see that; there's also nothing that requires it to have that explanation, and the horror in the story told is of human origin.

That made it just right for me to read this #Deathtober, and is why I gave it four stars. I found Clem's anguish and confusion horrifying because they're totally relatable. Her child, a new mother herself, is wounded terribly in body and quite possibly irretrievably in psyche. That could not possibly be worse, except evil Author Cooke made it scarier by introducing elements that are outside normal parameters.

Parents of teens strongly cautioned. show less

I stopped reading once the text established that Alison and her mother were part of a Triskele / “old magic” lineage. At that point, the novel crossed from examining witchcraft as accusation, fear, and social control into validating supernatural power as real and inherited.

This directly contradicted the author’s stated framing that historical witch trials were about fear, suspicion, and control rather than actual magic. By granting Alison ontological power—even if she later swears it off—the narrative retroactively contaminates the injustice of her execution and turns persecution into something adjacent to destiny.

I was prepared to read a story about belief, inheritance of trauma, narrative reclamation, and modern show more meaning-making. I was not willing to read a story that resolves historical violence through supernatural validation. Once that line was crossed, the book no longer matched its own ethical or thematic claims, and I chose to stop. show less

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands.

Arriving at the hospital, Clem learns that not only is Erin in the hospital with burns all over her body, but Erin's boyfriend is dead, and her best friend is missing. It only gets worse when Erin awakens...she doesn’t know who Clem is...and even more disturbing, if that is even possible...she says her name is Nyx. Clem takes off to Orkney to try to learn what had actually happened to Erin. What she learns only deepens the mystery even more, when she finds in Erin's belongings an ancient, supposedly cursed book...the story of a woman wrongly show more convicted of witchcraft almost 500 years ago...and guess what her name was.

Some of the story is set in the present day, but there is also the story that follows Alison into the year, 1594 as she is accused of attempted murder by witchcraft. The story is mesmerizing in both timelines and the author does such a great job of blending the two lines together. The facts of both the time and witchcraft seems to have been well researched, and all the small details add up well, bringing Orkney "to life" for the reader. It could be called a creepy story with the cults, the murder and all the mystery that surrounds almost every event. C.J. Cooke is a "master" at building a strong sense of atmosphere and I ended up reading most of the book in one sitting. Overall, it's simply brilliant, and well deserving of the five-star rating. show less

Fun fact! I did not know, before starting this book, that Alison - or Alysoun - was such an old name (see also: The Wife of Bath). I was thinking Alison should be hitting the pub with Tracey and Sharon, not being accused of witchcraft in the late sixteenth century!

Alison Balfour, said witch in CJ Cooke's novel, is actually based on a real life woman who was burned at the stake - for defying men, let's face facts - in Orkney. Cooke divides the narrative between Alison in 1594 and Clem in 2024, whose daughter Erin has been found with severe burns alongside her dead boyfriend on Alison's island. What connects the two women is an ancient book bound in bark and filled with darkness.

The combination of modern crime fiction and the historical show more 'faction' really kept me engrossed in the story. I must admit to looking up Alison's history, so I knew of her inevitable demise at the hands of greedy and unscrupulous men, and was as ever incensed by the hunting of women who were more learned healers than demonic hags. Actually making Alison a 'witch', associated with an island conclave, sort of shoots that history in the foot, but she is never shown to handle the powerful book, so the misogyny still applies. Just about. (Witches being a forerunner to prostitutes, in that men have used both terms to excuse/justify murdering women.)

Erin's story was actually more interesting to start with - what happened on the island, where is her friend, why is she suddenly talking in voices - and the connection with Alison and her family was also effective. The modern day Triskele, lurking in the woods, were droll and likeable.

The first person narration made Alison seem a little holier than thou at times, even believing in the obviously bent holy man trying to extract a confession at any price, and the real history was a lot darker and the torture even more horrific, apparently, but well told and gripping (and educational!) show less

The Book of Witching is another well-plotted dual timeline story from C.J. Cooke. In the current day in Glasgow, Clem's daughter Erin is found badly burned on a beach on Orkney. When Erin comes round she doesn’t always seem to be herself, personality changes coming and going as her recovery begins. In the other strand of the story, Alison Balfour is imprisoned, awaiting trial for witchcraft at a time when women were pursued, tortured and killed if they were believed to be witches. Linking both timelines is the Book of Witching, a mysterious and magical book.

This book is gripping, alarming and moving. The plight and treatment of women like Alison, those who could heal and use concoctions and spells to do so, is well-documented and yet show more never fails to shock. I was appalled at the tactics used by cruel and powerful men to ensure a confession to witchcraft and I read with a hand over my mouth at times. The current day storyline is interwoven with Alison's narrative really well, as the reasons for Erin being on Orkney and why she has ended up in hospital gradually become clear.

The author has clearly done a lot of research to make this story authentic. The settings were full of atmosphere and the characters jumped off the page, particularly Alison and her family. I was fascinated by the Book of Witching and the author's notes on where her inspiration had come from. I loved the clever ending too, which brought the story full circle. An excellent read. show less

I always love reading anything that comes out of C.J. Cooke’s mind. This book is just brilliant: deeply researched, emotional, horrifying, heart wrenching, moody… It has it all.
Erin is discovered burnt almost to a crisp in Orkney, with her boyfriend dead and her friend missing. When she comes to, she claims she is Nyx and can’t remember anything.
We go to the 1500 in the same location, where Alison Balfour is accused of being a witch and we go through with her trial and horrifying torture. These bits are just heartbreaking, truly.
How are these two stories connected? And why does it seem that The Book of Witching is the one culpable?
Please do yourself a favour and read C.J. Cooke. She is fantastic.

A 3.5 rounded up to a 4. I enjoyed this story, but there were parts where it meandered or lost me. It was compelling, but also, easy to put down. It was a twisty tale of witchcraft told during two timelines, present day and in the 16th century. Clem experiences every parent's worst nightmare, a call from the police saying that they have discovered her daughter, near death and extremely burned. Erin has been placed in a medically induced coma and her diagnosis is not good. Clem has no idea what happened, a fire on an uninhabited island? When they discover that Erin's boyfriend is dead and there friend Senna is missing, Clem knows she has to get to to the bottom of it before the police start pointing fingers. In 1524, Alison is known for show more her healing arts although she refuses to consort with her mother's clan of witches anymore. When she is accused of a heinous act she will have to find the courage to survive and stay strong for her family. These two seemingly unconnected storylines will weave themselves together in nefarious ways. show less