I actually read Hex for Novellas in November but somehow forgot to schedule it for November. Oh well.
It seems I have been reading the Darkland Tales series in order without even knowing it existed. I read the first, Rizzio by Denise Mina, because I usually read everything by her. Hex is the second.
Darkland Tales is a series of retellings of incidents in Scottish history, written by well-known Scottish writers. In this case, Hex is about the hanging of Geillis Duncan (not the Outlander Geillis Duncan) as a witch in 1591 Edinburgh.
The story begins with a witch from 2021 using a seance to visit Geillis in her cell the night before her execution. Iris, the real witch, is determined that Geillis will not spend her last night alone. Geillis is a young housemaid, a healer who has fallen afoul of her master’s plot to steal the inheritance of his wealthy sister-in-law.
This story interprets the witchcraft trials as misogyny, which they were, and so its two main characters express a great deal of the opposite. This work is symbolic and poetic, sometimes a little too abstract for me, but also angry. It’s powerful.
What? Me Read? 