The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan (Redhook)

Louisa Morgan’s The Age of Witches brings you straight into a world where witchcraft is tangled, powerful, and anything but simple. At the heart of it sits Bridget Bishop, hanged as a witch in 1692. Her legacy, her magic, does not die with her. Instead, it splits, running down two family lines. One uses their gifts to heal and support women, the other chases power without restraint. Out of this old feud comes Annis, a young woman in Gilded Age New York. She is caught between these rival branches, her life hanging in the balance, and she has to find her own strength to escape becoming just another pawn. If she fails, something far darker threatens to swallow everyone.

Annis anchors the whole story. At first, she is sheltered, almost oblivious to the real dangers circling her family. She does not grasp how deep the magic runs, or how high the stakes are. Her journey is all about waking up, discovering her hidden abilities, piecing together the truth about her ancestry, and figuring out the difference between magic used with care and magic twisted for control. Annis has to trust herself, even when the people around her, some mentors, some manipulators, try to sway her. These side characters sharpen the story’s focus, prompting Annis and the reader to confront what it really means to use power.

Power, women’s strength, and the fight between good and evil, these are the book’s big themes. Morgan uses the Gilded Age’s glittering surface and rigid rules to show how even magical women struggled to carve out their own place. It is a reminder that the fight for autonomy is not over. By connecting the Salem witch trials with the rise of the women’s suffrage movement, the book grounds its magic in real history, making every spell and struggle feel urgent and true. Power, political or magical, always comes with a price.

Morgan’s prose feels lush and carefully constructed, matching the period’s style and the gravity of its history. She builds a world that is easy to step into; you can almost feel the velvet and hear the city’s clamor. By tracing Bridget Bishop’s descendants across generations, Morgan gives the magic real weight; it is not just a trick, it is a legacy, shaping each new generation in subtle and obvious ways. That focus on family inheritance, rather than just personal discovery, makes the novel stand out among other historical fantasies.

When I finished The Age of Witches, I felt reflective, almost like I had spent time in that gilded, shadowed New York myself. The historical details are so vivid you can taste the era, and the magic feels alive, both dangerous and redemptive. If I have one complaint, it is that the early chapters, heavy with family history, sometimes drag. But once Annis steps forward, the story finds its stride. In the end, Morgan reminds us that history, mundane or magical, shapes us all, and that we each have the chance to decide how we use our own power.

4/5