“The Witches of Moonshyne Manor” - Bianca Marais

⚗️ This is another novel that is outside my usual fare. It has the same irreverence as “The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels” but with more heart. This is a sisterhood of aging witches, fighting the patriarchy to preserve their beloved home. Men’s World is a proposed theme park development (that is every bit as misogynistic as it sounds) threatening to demolish the coven’s beloved Moonshyne Manor.

⚗️ While Men’s World presents the witches with a time sensitive external threat (they must bring their mortgage account current to maintain residence at Moonshyne Manor), the sisterhood also faces several existential crises from within. If each of the sisters doesn’t accept themselves for who they really are, and not who they hope to present to one another, and if they don’t accept the presence of a young, idealistic outsider into their closed-off group, their might be no hope for them at all. Most crucial, one of the sisters must right an old wrong even though it might mean the loss of her sisterhood forever.

⚗️ It might be on the nose, but this coven puts me in mind of the beloved Golden Girls. I love that the protagonists of TWMM are a sisterhood of septuagenerian witches fighting both the patriarchy and their own prejudice.

⚗️ TWMM is sly, witty, and poignant all at once. I found each of the protagonists charming in their own ways, and as unusual as the premise was, I enjoyed this novel.