Witchcraft
A Graphic Novel: Stories of Wise Women, Healers and Magic
A single witch’s story serves as the entry point for a history of the practice in Lindsay Squire’s graphic novel Witchcraft.
Biddy Early, called Ireland’s most famous witch, practices her craft during the nineteenth century, earning both respect and suspicion for her herbal knowledge. Then young Lindsay expresses interest in Biddy’s abilities and seeks to learn her secrets. Through their interactions and Biddy’s confrontations with a local priest and fearful neighbors, Lindsay sees what witches aspire to do and how those efforts are received.
The real Biddy Early was accused of witchcraft but freed when those called to testify against her changed their minds. The book balances its absorbing novelization of Biddy’s story with informational asides focusing on tools, familiars, and famous witches from history and mythology. Shaded green captions further explain concepts, meanings, and historical persecutions like the Bamberg Witch Trials, which burned 900 people at the stake over a six-year period.
The art flows with masterful coloring and realistic touches, like the light freckling on Biddy’s face. Discussions of herbs and plants, as well as settings indoors and out, are enhanced by detailed, accurate depictions. The book skirts some aspects of witchcraft, like the faith-based similarities between believers of fairy encounters and spells and those who conducted violent witch trials based on their own beliefs. But whether one interprets the book through a literal or figurative lens, its presentation is fascinating.
The graphic novel Witchcraft covers the history of witchcraft through the eyes of a witch and her apprentice.
Reviewed by
Peter Dabbene
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
