Red-Haired Ash Reads

Witchcraft: A Graphic History tells the story of Biddy Early, a famous wise woman in Ireland who was tried as a witch. This is a dramatized version of her story and the relationship but the relationship between her and her apprentice is false and is just used as an element to move the story along. 

I found this graphic novel to just be ok because this is supposed to be a nonfiction graphic telling the story of a witch’s life, but instead we have this fake apprenticeship that basically becomes the main story. I wanted this to focus on Biddy and the facts of her life but instead we see mostly the teacher/apprentice storyline.  

Another issue I had with the story is that we see Biddy being given a court order for being accused of witchcraft but we don’t see how that trial plays out, only how the townspeople react to it. I really wanted to know how this trial went without having to go to Google to find out. 

In between the story of Biddy and her apprentice we get brief informational sections about witchcraft, famously accused women, and witch hunts. I really liked these informational sections and think they were a great way to give brief info dumps on witchcraft. But, they only discussed women and so felt very exclusionary.  

My last real issue is with the title. I went into this expecting a graphic novel discussing many women who have been accused of witchcraft and the history behind it. Instead this focuses only on one woman, so I think the title should have said ‘story of a wise woman’ or ‘story of Biddy Early’ to be more accurate. 

Overall, this was an ok story with beautiful graphics. If it had been more focused on the actual history of witchcraft or on Biddy’s history, I probably would have enjoyed this more. 

*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

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