The Women of Wild Hill

This is the kind of book that sneaks up on you. It’s not loud or overly dramatic, but it has this steady, slightly eerie vibe that keeps you reading “just one more chapter.” The setting does a lot of the heavy lifting—it feels isolated and a little brooding in a way that fits the story perfectly.
What I liked most was the focus on the women and their shared past. Their relationships feel messy and real, and the gradual uncovering of secrets adds a nice layer of tension. It’s definitely more of a slow burn than a thriller, but if you’re in the mood for something atmospheric with strong character dynamics, it’s an easy one to settle into.

Wild Hill was home to the Duncan family for five generations. The women who were raised here were bequeathed special gifts but the family abandoned the property after a tragedy. Three of them are now returning to fulfill their destiny as modern-day witches and their mission is to wage war on the patriarchy. But first they must resolve their differences.

This book is essentially a multi-generational family saga which is well conceived, clever and engaging. It is also a modern-day adult fairy tale complete with witches, spells, potions, ghosts and visions, not to mention ravens and wild boar who are the witches’ version of Evri, delivering messages as and when necessary.
In theory this is the kind of book that I avoid like the plague – fantasy, paranormal, and psychic mumbo-jumbo. However, it was a copy given to our book club by the publishers and I felt duty-bound to plough my way through it. I was convinced I was going to hate it, in fact almost determined to do so. Well, what a surprise. For some unknown reason I absolutely loved it, so much so that I didn’t want it to end.
The “story” is used to attack certain social and environmental issues within our current day society – men and climate change being the main targets.

For me, the book was not flawless. The feminist narrative was certainly not subtle and
it did feel a bit like a rant and that I was being preached at. The stereotypical rich, white males are portrayed as being solely responsible for not only the patriarchal society in which women are subjugated to within an inch of their lives, but also for climate change and the damage humans have done to the planet. A little bit of moderation might have reduced the didactic nature of the narrative.

I would whole-heartedly recommend this book which can be read on all sorts of levels. It is not only a good story that is well told, it also contains enough challenging material to make you think - if that is what you want from a book. A word of warning to ardent anti-feminists - there’s a pretty good chance you are not going to like this book.

This was a really enjoyable, well written book. The characters were all really distinctive and immediately felt real - there are quite a lot of characters in the family tree but the book spends a long time introducing each one so it wasn't overwhelming and we can get to know each one in time. In fact, the characters were really my favourite part of this book - all these Duncan women feel like people I would like to meet, and it's enjoyable to spend time with them.

The one thing that stopped me from reading this in one or two sittings was that the early part of the book felt like a lot of description about things that have happened, that doesn't really take the story anywhere, and the main bulk of the present plot takes a little while to kick start. But once I realised and rolled with the fact that the past really IS the story, it got easier. I do think in general it could have stood to lose a little and condense down a bit, but there is a lot of great stuff in what is there.

If you're interested in a moralistic, environmentalist fable, focused on the power of women and nature, you'll enjoy it. If those sound like not your cup of tea, probably best to skip this one!