I was hopeful that I would enjoy this book, but dang, did it blow all of my expectations out of the water. First of all, the writing was so good. I loved Thompson’s writing style, her use of metaphor and descriptive language, it was all so beautiful and evocative. For someone who seems to only have one other published work, I was blown away at how well done the writing was here.

I loved her characterization of Nellie. I appreciated how Nellie is so scared and acts upon her fear throughout most of the book. I think we all would like to believe that in the face of oppression and violence, we would be brave and stand up, but it felt so much more real to see how Nellie reacts and lets her fear drive her. Often, our protagonist in books is just expected to be fearless and defiant, so it was refreshing to see this portrayal. It makes it all much more powerful in the end when she finds her courage.

I also love Scotland, so I was already inclined to enjoy the setting of this book. Nevertheless, I feel that Thompson brings Scotland, and in particular, Edinburgh, to life. It was so interesting to see how it would have been in 1824 versus in 2022.

Finally, the messaging of this book was so powerful. It is in no way subtle that this is a book about feminism, and about the dangers of the patriarchy and misogyny. These are outright mentioned and debated throughout the book. I loved the treatment of this topic in the book and how Thompson tied it to how women were persecuted as witches in the past and are still pressured to fulfill “ typical feminine roles” nowadays. I loved that the feminism here was intersectional, addressing how the patriarchy affects women of color, women of lower socioeconomic status, and transwomen even more. At first, I was afraid that all the men in the novel were going to be portrayed as a holding the patriarchy, reinforcing the negative imaging of feminism as being anti-men, however, it is addressed directly that men can be allies too, and are just as much victims of the patriarchy, and that the initial fear of all men was Nellie’s fear taken too far. I I thought it was interesting how we even got ties between all of this and climate change. And most of all, I appreciated the messaging that it is by coming together as a community that we fight these seemingly invincible forces. Again, the book is not subtle about this, but I still found this treatment on the topic to be well done.