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. It’s a moment of grace and vindication, one that Logan lets the long-suffering Lux experience utterly, triumphantly alone. As they travel we get to know Lux’s past and we meet many different and colourful characters who to me felt almost like; ghosts. The arrival of a mysterious stranger named Else, just as a group of locals look set to attack Lux in her garden, starts the novel off with a bang.

That’s where this book touched my aching burning forehead and brought me cool relief with its icy long fingers; the only thing I ever have to be; is myself. This book has no defined setting, or defined period, and yet it feels so incredibly atmospheric, steeped in folklore and hand-me-down stories. I think one of the scariest points of the book was when one of the kitchen girls was not allowed to be around or tend the food because she was on her period and her unholiness would spoil the food. In the harsh world of Now She Is Witch, which would seem to be some version of medieval Europe, most girls and women are possessions for men either to harm or play with. Any who assume agency are swiftly denounced and brutally dealt with: those labelled witches are tied to poles in the sea and left to slowly drown; others guilty of lesser offences (talking too much, too loudly or indeed at all) are paraded around in scold’s bridles, torture devices deployed to humiliate.Evicted from a monastery, where she didn't want to be Lux has to find her way in the world, Accused of being a witch she travails the. It’s a kind of revenge plot, but being female in a male dominated time highlights the power and powerlessness of women at this time. The relationship between Lux and Else was very carefully done, and there was a real slice of humanity to be found in so many of the various characters Lux falls into step with along the way. 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. Normally, this might be a little frustrating, but Kirsty Logan manages it so deftly that what it does is hook you further and further into the story.

Some of the writing is beautiful, some is what I guess is 'stream of consciousness'; interesting, but too long and it gets a bit tiresome.Although Logan’s take on it strikes some of the same beats, she made it feel fresher, darker and yet more tender than any I’ve read before. 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. When the local village men come upon her house in the woods, claiming to be in need of tinctures, but clearly there to satisfy their other needs, a stranger named Else appears, alongside a wolf. Lux's description of her time with 'Him' at the sanctuary, and when the narrative shift's to Else for one part, her description of the 'large man on the large horse' was harrowing. I was looking forward to sinking into her newest novel, but I found myself distanced from it throughout.

The chapters were perfect length-wise for me; someone who always checks where the end is when I start to read a new chapter. 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. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. In rich and immersive prose Kirsty Logan conjures a world of violence and beauty in which women grasp at power through witchcraft and poisons, through sexuality and childbearing, through performance and pretence, and most of all through throwing other women to the wolves.

In this witch story unlike any other, Lux and Else join forces to take their revenge on a powerful man.