I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Factory Witches of Lowell by C.S. Malerich Published by Tor.com on November 10 2020
Genres: Adult, Historical fantasy
Pages: 123
Format: Finished paperback
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Malerich brings some interesting ideas to the table, but the novella format was just too short in this case, and didn’t allow for much story or character development.
The Factory Witches of Lowell takes place in nineteenth century Lowell, Massachusetts (the exact date is never mentioned) during the boom in the production of textiles, when young girls were employed as cheap labor to operate the large looms necessary in the production of cotton fabric. However, as you probably guessed from the title, there is a speculative element to the story, as a group of disgruntled girls decide to use witchcraft to bind themselves together and go on strike until their demands for better working conditions are met. I thought this was an interesting idea, and I was intrigued by the setting and the time period, a part of American history that I didn’t know much about. However, despite enjoying certain elements, I ended up being mostly underwhelmed by the story itself, the characters, and especially the witchcraft.
I want to start with the positives, because as I mentioned, there are things I liked about this book. The first chapter is simply magical: a group of girls has decided enough is enough, and so they gather in the attic of their boarding house, cut off locks of their hair, and weave them together into a rough fabric of sorts, all while chanting a spell of solidarity. Each girl is given an armband from the woven together hair and vows to wear it and uphold the strike until Mr. Boott, the mill owner, agrees to increase their pay and cut back their hours. But is this magic strong enough to turn the tide in their favor? At first the girls are worried because Mr. Boott simply goes out and hires more girls to take their places. But then Judith, the ringleader of the group, comes up with a radical idea that might give them an advantage.
The story focuses on two of the girls, Judith and her friend Hannah, who has the “sight” and claims she can see demons in the looms, demons who are literally stealing the girls’ lives away. I love that the author added interesting historically accurate details about the hard life of factory workers into her story. Hannah is ill and coughs nonstop, due to long hours inside the mill, breathing cotton particles into her lungs. Malerich mentions something called the “kiss of death,” part of the weaving process where the girls must suck threads through a shuttle in order to thread the loom, and small particles of thread enter their lungs each time. This is a horrifying yet fascinating bit of history that worked really well in this story.
The author adds a queer romance between Judith and Hannah into her tale, and while I appreciated the idea, like many other aspects of the story, this one just didn’t have enough time and space to properly develop. In fact, the novella’s length is the story’s main downfall, unfortunately. It was too short to explore all the interesting aspects—the author even brings up slavery a couple of times in respect to the bails of cotton that are being used in the mills, but there just aren’t enough pages to fully integrate this into the story. And I’ve read some amazing novellas this year, so you can’t really blame the format.
Ultimately though, I mostly found the story to be just OK. I thought it would be easy to read this all in one sitting, but it failed to really capture my attention, and so I kept setting it aside. I was hoping for a story focused more on witchcraft, but those elements turned out to be rather sparse. If you’re interested in a historical witch-centric story, you’re much better off reading The Once and Future Witches, which also deals with women’s rights but is much more successful.
With thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
It’s a pity that such an interesting premise did not fulfill your expectations! Still, there are those historical elements that might prove more interesting than the story itself…
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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I always love when authors do their homework and nail the setting, and she did a great job.
Hm, well, the way historical details and intriguing witchy-things are woven into the plot sounds good, but I guess the overall story falls short.
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Yes, that sums it up! I did love the setting/time period though, it’s so interesting.
Too bad! If only it was a longer story it might’ve been better in general. I love that there’s a queer romance in it but sad that it couldn’t develop well enough.
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The romance was almost like “blink and you miss it”!
This sounds like a fascinating premise, and I’ve been looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I often feel let down by novellas. If the story is good, I always end up feeling like I would have wanted the world explored in more detail in a full-length novel.
Novellas can be a tough format, I guess just like novels, some work and some don’t.
I wanted to read it, but now I’m happy I didn’t get my copy from NetGalley – judging by your review I don’t think I’d enjoy this. Pity, as the premise sounded intriguing!
I loved the idea and setting, I just wanted more, I guess?
It’s interesting how some stories work so well and pack so much into the shorter novella format, but others just don’t work as well. I’m sure there’s a fine balancing act, and the skills of the author likely also plays a part.
It’s a tough format, that’s for sure.
Sorry to hear this one didn’t live up to your expectations. The premise sounds really interesting so it’s disappointing that it just couldn’t hold your attention. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
It was a really cool idea, I just think it needed to be longer.
Darn, kinda hoping this would have gotten a higher rating from you, but this wasn’t really on my radar to begin with even though I was mildly curious. I’ll definitely pass now though.
Yeah, I was disappointed.
Novellas are always very risky I think. They really aren’t just ‘shorter novels’, it’s a whole different skill set to tell a complete and satisfying story in a a short word count. Shame this didn’t work well for you, I think I’ll be reading and reviewing it too once SciFi month is over 🙂
I agree, there is a finesse to editing a novella, I think. I’m curious to hear what you think about this!
Sorry this one turned out to be so average. I think I still want to check it out at some point but it won’t be much of a priority. 🙂 Thanks for your thoughts!
Hey, on to the next one:-)
Oh, that’s a shame. I was kind of waiting to see how you felt about this one. Maybe I’ll give this a miss.
Lynn