The Witch of Willow Sound
Vanessa F. Penney’s magical novel The Witch of Willow Sound is about rural prejudice, the wounds of the past, and forgiveness.
Pulled from her perambulatory routines by an emergency phone call from her mother, Phaedra travels to Willow Sound in search of her estranged Aunt Madeline. She finds her aunt’s seaside cottage in outward disrepair, though its insides are protected; she steps “in the door and travel[s] back twenty-four years in a second.” But the treasure-packed witch’s cabinet that fascinated her when she was a girl also holds clues to her aunt’s alienation from the locals: they considered her presence an ongoing curse, and would rather she not be found.
As Phaedra unravels the mystery of her aunt’s disappearance with limited help—an English researcher, Nish, is delighted to assist, and she receives kindnesses from the local shopkeep, Rita—she also uncovers dark family secrets and damning local sins. Indeed, under the shadow of a teetering, mountain-sized boulder and with the threat of a hurricane upon them, the intractable townspeople expose their inherited, vicious prejudices.
Even as it deals with tough topics, including the institutionalization and ostracization of mentally ill people and inconvenient women, the stains of residential schools, and other instances of systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism, the novel proves rich and involving. It is electric with earthy enchantments, from Madeline’s spells to the vibrant, dangerous landscape itself. Indeed, it thrills in uncovering the sorcery of nature, from falling buttercups greeting a newcomer to “cold rain [that] spits Cenezoic rock dust down.” References to gleaming apples, ghosts, wolves, and giants flesh out its gothic fairy tale atmosphere as it winds its way toward a devastating, revelatory conclusion.
Part mystery, part tragedy, and all feminine ferocity, The Witch of Willow Sound is a spellbinding debut novel.
Reviewed by
Michelle Anne Schingler
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