Thoughts: The Book of Witches edited by Jonathon Strahan

Source: Netgalley! Many, many thanks!
TL;DR: One of the better collections I’ve read. The selection is diverse and unique. I recommend it!

Selection: A great selection here. It’s broad with voices from several age ranges and a few outside of the prose format
Editing: A great mix of tone and view, nothing felt too similar or close to another
Pacing: The stories were fantastic throughout. I’ve had some anthologies really fall apart in the second half, but this stayed very strong
Magic: As stated, a wide selection of writers and voices led to a fantastic variety of magic and styles. I loved a lot of these

Thoughts:

Anthologies are hard, sometimes they’re a hit in one half and just fall off and you loose interest in the second half. Sometimes they just don’t have that sparkle you want anywhere. Nothing is catching your eye or they all feel the same. The Book of Witches, I’m happy to report is definitely neither one of those things. Like When Spring Arrives, another anthology I read this year, this one was fantastic!

The collection on this one is the strength of it. It feels like Mr. Strahan and his team went out of their way to select unique and diverse voices, and did so with care. Nearly every story felt different, each had a unique take on the idea of a ‘witch’ and there was very little overlap in the setting or time period of the pieces. From a modern day-post COVID story, to the far flung future, they are varied and rich in scope and style.

If you’re looking for something witchy, or a fantastic way to sample new authors I can’t recommend this one enough. My favorite stories included The Unexpected Excursion of the Murder Mystery Writing Witches (which reminded me that I truly need to revisit Garth Nix), Just a Nudge (a dark story I will be turning over for some time), and Her Ravenous Waters (another author I have got to get to). What a fantastic collection, I highly recommend it.