The Shetland Witch: Or, Atropos Wants Her Shears Back

by Kate Macdonald

Hazel is an archaeologist, working in Unst, on the most northerly coast of the Shetland Isles.
She’s digging on Ishabel’s land. Ishabel is a retired professor of botany, and one of the remaining three Shetland witches, along with Maggie the artist who is getting too casual about shape-changing in public, and Avril the wildlife warden with too many birds to guard.
Maggie discovers that Hazel is also magical, and she becomes a Shetland witch.
Then Atropos arrives, to look for her shears that she sent into hiding to the ends of the earth thousands of years ago. She has to protect them from Zeus.
How will the witches protect the islands from a Fate and Zeus?
How will Hazel learn how to do magic again?
How will she cope with Tornost, a malignant trow with a penchant for eighteenth-century manners?
The Shetland Witch is a novel about magic, sisterhood and learning to be human. Available in paperback, hardback and as an ebook.

Genres: Fantasy

261 pages, Hardcover

Published September 9, 2024

About the author

Kate Macdonald studied at the University of Aberdeen and University College London, and teaches British literary history at Ghent University, Belgium. A former academic editor, she has published books, book chapters and articles on British publishing history in the later Victorian period and the early twentieth century. She is a leading authority on the fiction of John Buchan, and active in the advancement of middlebrow studies, with an interest in the recovery of forgotten authors. She is a series editor for Pickering & Chatto’s monograph series Literary Texts and the Popular Marketplace. Her podcast series on forgotten fiction is at www.reallylikethisbook.com.

Reviews

[Runalong]

A really impressive story with a mix of mythologies all coming together in the Shetland Isles of today: it works and feels quite fresh - lots to enjoy! Highly recommended

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Janice]

I didn't mind the mixing of witches and mythology too much. I'm always personally less comfortable with someone discovering she's a witch, and then suddenly she has All. These. POWERS. including the ability to fight off Zeus. Jeezopete.

And there was the second part where one of the characters gets pregnant by Zeus??? How did THAT happen? I obviously missed something.

I liked the witches that all worked together. Some of the other stuff just didn't work for me though.

[Ginger of Horror]

When a book arrives that promises to mix Shetland folk magic with the Greek Fates and a dash of Norse mythology, you have every right to brace for impact. The Shetland Witch by Kate Macdonald is a quiet, confident, and deeply smart book about women who have been overlooked finally getting the stage to themselves.

On the surface, the premise reads like the set-up for a cosmic-level brawl. We have Hazel, an archaeologist who has just discovered she is a witch while working a dig on the island of Unst. She is taken under the wing of the island’s three protectors: Ishabel, a retired botany professor; Maggie, an artist with a habit of shape-shifting; and Avril, a wildlife warden. A perfectly pleasant, low-stakes coven story.

Read the full review here

https://gnofhorror.com/the-shetland-w...

[KateKing58]

An entertaining mash-up between classical Greek mythology and Shetland folklore. Zeus follows the Fates to Shetland with violent intent, and is trounced by the local witches.

The author may have written herself into a corner here, as given what we now know about the power, fortitude and ruthlessness of these women it's hard to imagine what new challenge could create enough jeopardy for an exciting story.

But there are clearly some fascinating back stories to be told.