Synopsis:
Necrology by Meg Ripley
“It’s amazing what the spirit can cope with to preserve the body. My spirit is a mighty oak that just won’t fall.”
In a fantastical aftermath of the Salem witch trials, magical women known as the Dirty have signed a contract swearing off their innate magic in exchange for freedom from violence by non-magical Freemen. Two hundred years later, in a Catskills orphanage, headmistress Whitetail has sprouted antlers—proof of a violated contract. When her wealthy benefactor visits, proposing marriage, her appearance sparks abuse. Rushing to her teacher’s defense, eight-year-old Rabbit curses the Beard dead, and Whitetail’s arrested on trumped-up charges. As Whitetail awaits her trial and execution, Rabbit is groomed as the Freemen’s star witness and learns of the terrifying reality to which they aspire. With her magic at stake and a loose tooth in her mouth, Rabbit has little left to lose. And a revolution to gain.
My Edition:
ARC provided by Net Galley (also provided as a PDF from the publisher, but long story, couldn’t use it on my tablet
My Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed Necrology. It is Meg Ripley’s debut novel, but you wouldn’t know it by reading it. She has crafted a thoroughly immersive and well thought out fantastical version of our world with some alternate history at play. Necrology was a load of fun to read, which I don’t often find to be the case in any story that even touches upon witch trials – that’s truly nasty stuff.
I did really appreciate the way the story hinges on women’s’ power and their connections to earth. I want to be able to dig my toes into the dirt and access some of the power flowing through it. I want that so bad, I can’t even tell you.
I found Whitetail to be a powerful and commanding character – although I do wish that we had gotten a bit more of the story of her, but I understand that this isn’t her story so much as it is Rabbit’s. But maybe Meg Ripley can file that away for later? Give the world the Ballad of Whitetail?
As for Rabbit, I felt that she was exactly right. She was just the correct amount of stubborn, willful, loving, arrogant, and anxious for a child of her age and circumstances. She was a highly believable and wholly captivating.
Necrology manages to explore themes of feminism, misogyny – internalized and externalized, fear and corruption. It plumbs the untold depths to which weak, frightened men will go to assuage their baseless fears. But it also plumbs the depths that women who have internalized these misogynist trappings will go to assuage their own fears of being “othered” like the less compliant members of their gender.
Rating:
I really enjoyed Necrology. It is a beautifully written and, I think, important piece of writing that has the potential to impart a lot of important ideas. Oppression, repression, reclamation, vengeance, the importance of caring for the Earth and caring for other people, sacrifice, and power, just to name a few.
Necrology
By Meg Ripley
Creature Publishing
Expected Publication: September 24, 2024
ISBN: 9781951971144
Paperback, E-book
380 Pages
