The Witches of New York by Ami McKay

 Along with My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece this was the other book I got from the 2-for-1 Sale on Audible. 

I really loved this story. The narrator is Julia Whelan and I thoroughly enjoyed her performance. She does a good job with the voices and the accents. I will gladly get more audiobooks she narrates, if the story sounds enjoyable of course. 

The Witches of New York grabbed my attention because of the title, I love with stories and stories about my hometown, NYC. With the arrival of Cleopatra's Needle to be placed in Central Park as the backdrop this is a little history, a little gothic horror, a bit of mystery, and a good with tale, all wrapped in the lovely story of three amazing women who find and love and support each other. They just happen to be witches. 

Beatrice is a young girl with a very open and curious mind. She sees an ad for a job in a tea shop in NYC that includes the words "Those averse to magic need not apply." She sets off to apply for the position placed by Adelaide Them, fortune teller and partner in the shop, unbeknown to her partner Eleanor St. Clair, maker of "teas" and guardian of the raven Perdu. 

Besides the relationship between the women that blossoms we find the tea shop is set to be a safe space for women in a world still in the grips of the Suffragettes movement and where men were clearly in control and women were dismissed and often policed by each other. 

The story is very white, there aren't any characters of color that I noticed. And the feminist part of the story isn't gone too deeply into. Eleanor is a lesbian and other than her back story and lover that leaves her to get married and the problems that brings to her when the husband finds out and maybe a slight flirtation with another character near the end it isn't really explored or gone into any deeper. But she is secure in her feelings of loving other women and it is just to her who she is. 

There is talk of Blackwell Island and the asylum there. Women were institutionalized for what today seems ridiculous reasons. They are too emotional or not emotional enough. They are sent there for being "hysterical."

It isn't a perfect story but I wasn't looking for or expecting a feminist manifesto, just an enjoyable story with some mystery and witchiness. And that is exactly what I got. It was escapist and interesting and I enjoyed it. 

(Finished March 3, 2021)