Reesa’s Comments (group member since May 22, 2021)

Reesa’s comments from the Becoming Leidah group.

Three women could be considered a witch. To me, only one actually is.

One otherwise-excellent review lists characters including "a ghost" (Helgar) and "a spiteful witch" (that can only mean Hilde). To me, there is only one real witch, and it's not Hilde.

Maeva is a (view spoiler)[different creature altogether. She is magic, but she doesn't practice wicca except as a by-product of being not-human. (hide spoiler)]

The only real witch is Helgar.

Hilde is ... I don't know if I'd call her a charlatan, but never does she demonstrate any extraordinary abilities. She sells Pieter the knotted rope, but did that have any effect? Maeva goes into labor prematurely, after Hilde sets leaches on her, but Maeva had just bent low to pick up something heavy, so all we have is correlation.

I am sympathetic for Hilde - (view spoiler)[she was about to tell Pieter she was pregnant when he arrived saying he'd found himself a wife. (He thought she was committed to her freestyle life, not willing to be a wife, so perhaps he thought she'd be cool with that.) Then she loses her baby. (hide spoiler)] Is she a "spiteful witch"? Spiteful yes, witch - not exactly. Practitioners of wicca do no harm. Hilde intends harm. It seems she has no such actual effect, but her intent - and her lack of effects - means to me that she is not wiccan.

Is she a typical stereotype of an evil witch?
This is one of the things I love about this book. The reality of the contradictions. Most of the church congregation is nasty, but the pastor is kind-hearted. Helgar is a healer, but the pseudo-witch Hilde is not so ideal.

I'd like to have the abilities of Helgar, but in truth I'm probably more like Hilde. I try to be real, but in reality I'm more playing-at wicca. If I have any powers, they're nothing outstanding. Reading a story where the pseudo-witch is almost a stereotypical nasty witch made me at times uneasy. That's me. But I have to laugh and acknowledge it's all too true. Not everyone of us have had the circumstances that allowed us to develop witch skills. And Helgar I love.

What did you think of the presentation of witches and/or wicca in this novel?