Book Details & Major Themes

The Once and Future Witches (2020) is American fantasy and science fiction author Alix E. Harrow’s second novel. A New York Times bestseller, the novel was named one of the best books of 2020 by NPR and claimed a British Fantasy Award for Best Novel. The book falls under the categories of alternative history science fiction and LBGTQ fantasy fiction, and it is based on the premise that magic once existed in the world but was eradicated when St. George hunted down the last three witches in existence. This fantasy premise is combined with factual events of late 19th-century American history, including demonstrations for women’s suffrage and the growing support for national labor unions. As the estranged Eastwood sisters repair their relationships and attempt to build a community of women to take back their lost powers, the novel explores the themes of overt male abuse, covert female resistance, and the strength found in solidarity.

This study guide refers to the 2020 Redhook Kindle edition of the novel.

Author Highlights

Harrow initially rose to prominence because of her short stories, for which she has received multiple Hugo and Nebula awards since 2014. Her first novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January (2019), was critically acclaimed as well. In 2023, Harrow published Starling House, which has received mixed reviews and is in the same fantasy tradition as her previous works.

Content Warning

The source text features depictions of gender-based violence, emotional abuse, and physical abuse.

Plot Summary

Juniper Eastwood flees for her life after killing her abusive father by using a magical spell. She finds herself in the city of New Salem, which lies a short distance from the burned ruins of Old Salem, where witchcraft in America was eradicated a few centuries earlier. Juniper is unaware that her two older siblings also live in New Salem. The middle Eastwood sister, Agnes, works in a cotton mill. She is pregnant and contemplating an abortion. The eldest sister, Bella, is a college librarian. She is troubled by the loss of her siblings since she and Agnes were forced to escape their father’s rage but had to leave Juniper behind.

On the evening of the spring equinox in 1893, Bella remembers these events as she scans a book of fairy tales. The book contains handwritten verses scrawled on the last page that speak of wayward sisters and reclaiming what has been lost. Bella weeps at the memory of her lost family and walks out of the library. She finds herself in St. George’s Square, mumbling the verses to herself. Agnes and Juniper have somehow been drawn to the same spot, and all three sisters witness the apparition of a black tower that Bella’s random words have called forth. As other spectators flee in panic, Bella, Agnes, and Juniper realize that they have all converged at this same point and have witnessed a magic spell in the making.

The sisters begin to repair their broken relationship and learn that they have the power to bring real magic back into the world. Juniper recruits new witches from the women’s suffrage movement, Agnes recruits from among her factory coworkers, and Bella researches secret magical codes hidden in fairy tales with Cleopatra Quinn, a journalist and the secret leader of the Daughters of Tituba, an organization for Black witches in New Salem.

Their greatest foe is Gideon Hill, a conservative politician who opposes magic and women’s rights. Gideon is also a centuries-old witch who has abused magic and wants to horde it all for himself. The sisters distribute the magical lore they have acquired among their growing coalition and stage spectacles that display the existence of magic and challenge patriarchal authority. Gideon Hill counters by launching a new inquisition to hunt down and kill all the witches in New Salem.

The Eastwood sisters are eventually captured and sentenced to burn at the stake after an unjust trial. Gideon offers to teach Juniper more magic if she betrays her sisters and joins him. However, the sisters have all learned the lesson of strength in numbers both through their community organizing, and through their invocation of the Mother, Maiden, and Crone, the last three witches alive before magic was eradicated. The Eastwoods’ allies help to defeat Hill using their combined magical knowledge, and Juniper pays the ultimate price by sacrificing her own life to banish Hill forever. Agnes, Bella, and the other witches of New Salem cast a spell to resurrect her soul and give her corporeal form. Bella marries Quinn and becomes a historian of magic, Agnes begins a relationship with a young labor activist, and Juniper returns to the family farm to teach magic to new witches. All three Eastwood sisters continue their work of reconstituting magic and using it as a force for good in the world.