The Witch of Willow Sound  by Vanessa F. Penney

ECW Press, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1770418424

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

The story starts with the burning of a woman. Author Vanessa F. Penney details the fire singeing the feet and its expansion as it rises up her body, the crackling sound of the fire, the color of the smoke, the logistics afterwards, the small rituals that have to be done when you burn a witch. It is easy to get rid of the flesh, but what to do with the bones? The prologue yanks you into this novel about the disappearance of Madeline Luck, the local witch, though the rest of the book is a slow burn (no pun intended).

Madeline Luck has been missing for three months. Her niece, Phaedra, also known as Fade, is given the task of finding her, due to the family’s rightful distrust of the local police department. Even though she used to be very close to her aunt, especially when she lived with her at Willow Sound, Fade hasn’t seen her for over 20 years. 

The reader follows Fade’s steps as she makes her way up unmarked paths to get to her aunt’s house, atop a secluded cliff in Nova Scotia, and works through the mystery of her disappearance. As Fade gets deeper and deeper into the case, she exposes shocking town secrets, uncovers literal skeletons in the closet, and learns the deep history of witchlore from a bumbling but lovable historian named Nish, who becomes Fade’s sidekick in solving the mystery. The novel keeps you guessing until the very end to find out if it was Fade’s aunt, Madeline, that was burning at the stake at the beginning of the book, or if she was the one that set the fire. 

The book moves at a slow pace, with each detail mentioned being an important clue to the final resolution. The author has a gift of bringing you into the woods where Madeline’s ethereal house stands, with a haze over the sound and a large shadow cast upon the nearby, distrustful town of Grand Tea. The town is literally under a shadow of a huge rock which threatens to fall and crush the residents. The air is full of suspicion and tension, directed at Madeline, who the townsfolk blame for all their misfortunes. Fade will not find any help from them.

The Witch of Willow Sound  is a delightful book that transports you into the landscape of Nova Scotia. It explores witchlore, and feminist ideas of the suspicion of women who do not conform to the gender norms expected of them. Even though it is labeled as horror, I would say it’s more of a mystery, with historical and gothic elements. It is a sweet tale about memory and expressing your appreciation of people before they are gone. Fortunately, Fade discovers this before the end of the novel.

This would make a great book for a reading club and would spark great debate about how society views women who live just for themselves. Men living alone in the woods are “self-sufficient” but somehow women living on their own are viewed with suspicion and labeled as witches who need to be taken into the fold. Labels such as cat lady (witches are also known to have black cats) and spinster (an occupation of spinning wool into yarn which was a way for unmarried women to support themselves during the Middle Ages) have similar attributions. Why can’t some of us just like animals more than people and be left alone with our hobbies without fear of being burned at the stake? Is that too much to ask for? Recommended. 

Reviewed by Lucy Molloy