“Witching and women’s rights. Suffrage and spells. They’re both . . .” She gestures in midair again. “They’re both a kind of power, aren’t they? The kind we aren’t allowed to have.”

Feminism through witchcraft, via the women's suffrage movement. There's a little of Neil Gaiman in Alex E. Harrow's witch tale, in the preoccupation with stories, their subversion and fulfilment. But mainly this is a book about how the Man keeps difference down (women, racial minorities, the working classes), how witchcraft is just how these differences are seen, and how anyone with the words, the ways, and the will can fight back and become their true selves.