Synopsis:
Inspired by Sri Lankan folklore, The Island Witch is award-winning author Amanda Jayatissa latest offering. She turns her feverish, Gothic-tinged talents to late 19th century Sri Lanka where the daughter of a traditional demon-priest—relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself—tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village.
Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father’s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise.
Now someone—or something —is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara’s father’s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself.
As she tries to clear her father’s name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can’t shake the feeling that it’s all connected to the night she was recovering from a strange illness, and woke up, scared and confused, to hear her mother’s frantic No one can find out what happened .
Lush, otherworldly, and recalling horror classics like Carrie and The Exorcist , Island Witch is a deliciously creepy and darkly feminist tale about the horrors of moral panic, the violent space between girlhood and adulthood, and what happens when female rage is finally unleashed.
Edition:
E-Arc via Net Galley and pre-approved by publisher, Berkley
My Thoughts:
I think that Island Witch might be my first foray into long-form Sri Lankan fiction (tbh, I am not 100% on that – I know for sure I’ve read some Sri Lankan short horrors, but that’s all that’s immediately coming to mind). And I loved every moment of it. Jayatissa has woven a beautiful tapestry of gothic horror, historical fiction, and folklore here. I could have read about every moment of Amara’s life and felt good about it. She is such a relatable, delightful character. I developed a much better understanding of her than I feel I could have reasonably expected in under 400 pages. She’s certainly not perfect, in fact she’s every bit as flawed as you would expect any young person to be.
Jayatissa manages to create so much atmosphere within these pages that it’s going to blow your mind. She describes Sri Lanka so beautifully that you’ll feel like you’re standing right there watching Amara’s story play out in real time. Like, I wanted to live here – big bad monster possibly lurking in jungle or not.
That is not to say that everything you’ll find in Island Witch is going to be the beautiful type of atmospheric. That’s definitely not the case. She also creates an extremely tense atmosphere. A village on the verge of violence against their own. She also explores themes of misogyny, religious zealotry, colonialism, bigotry and intolerance. There is a palpable feeling of escalating panic among the villagers.
Island Witch is full of some of the most engrossing prose I’ve encountered in a long time. Amanda Jayatissa is not an author I was familiar with prior to reading Island Witch, but she is definitely one I will be seeking out in the future. She has a fantastic ability to draw a reader in and refuse to let them go.
Island Witch By Amanda Jayatissa Berkley Published: February 20, 2024 ISBN: 9780593549261 Hardcover, E-book 384 Pages
