The Witch's Daughter
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By Imogen Edwards-Jones
avg rating
3 reviews
‘A spellbinding tale of love, lust, magic and betrayal in Imperial Russia…..I couldn’t put it down’ Santa Montefiore
A city in flames. A revolution raging. A woman on the run.
Nadezhda has never wanted to be a witch. But the occult is in her blood. Her mother, Militza, conjured Rasputin and introduced him into the Romanov court, releasing the devil himself. Now he is dead but Militza still dreams of him – he stalks her sleep and haunts her waking hours.
As Petrograd burns and the Russian Empire crumbles, Nadezhda escapes through the corpse-laden streets of the capital, concealing on her person a book of generational magic. Magic she once described as foolishness. But as danger grows ever closer, she may be forced to embrace her heritage to save what she loves most…
Based on a true story, The Witch’s Daughter is an epic tale of women rising from the ashes of an empire, perfect for fans of Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den and Madeline Miller’s Circe.
In The Witches of St Petersburg, we met Grand Duchesses Militza and her sister Anastasia, queens of the Dark Arts. This is Nadezhda’s story.
Praise for Imogen Edwards-Jones:
‘Richly imagined.’ Daisy Goodwin
‘Razor-sharp… brilliant.’ Candace Bushnell
‘I couldn’t put it down.’ Claudia Winkleman
Reviews
When I first started reading 'The Witch's Daughter', I have to admit that I was quite daunted by the extensive cast of characters and I had to keep looking back to keep track of who was who. However, as I got into the story and became more familiar with the main characters, I found the book to be a great page-turner. I enjoyed how the author captured this interesting period of history, providing an insight into how it might have been for the aristocracy during the Russian Revolution.
I particularly liked the portrayal of Nadezhda as a character as she develops from a young girl born to riches and opulence and then later her and her husband have to struggle to find food and live with the constant threat of the Revolutionaries. I think it would be interesting to read the prequel to this novel 'The Witches of St Petersburg' to find out more about MIlitza and her history of sorcery. Overall, I thought The Witch's Daughter was a well-written and interesting book and it has inspired me to find out more about Russian history.
When I first came across this title, I was expecting to read a novel with a heavy emphasis on the supernatural, although there are elements of witchcraft in the book it was a lot less that I expected there to be. However, despite the lack of supernatural elements it was a highly interesting read and gave me some insight as to the comings and goings during the Russian revolution. I had no prior knowledge of the history of the revolution and only some familiarity of Rasputin so it was interesting to find out more about this period of time through this novel. Nadezdha was a well thought out and interesting character and it was great to see her bloom from being an unsure teenager into a fully grown woman. The pace of the novel was good and the story was gripping enough to want me to read just an extra page more than time permitted!
Megan Graham – Lostock High school
Book review of the Witch’s Daughter. By Imogen Edward’s-Jones
From the start to the end of this book I really enjoyed the key features which were carried throughout the book such as the underlying theme of death and decomposition of the Russian Tsar government. I have little to no knowledge of the Russian revolution or history, so this book was a great insight into what happened and to what extent it happened. My favourite things about the book include, finding out about the history of the revolution, I love how the author didn’t shy away from really portraying the brutality and inhumane treatment of the revolution to its people including the unique perspective of the aristocracy. This paired with the use of historical accuracy was really insightful and entertaining and I think she really nailed this part of the book. Similarly, I really enjoyed the depth of writing and thought that has gone into the scenes a lot of the scenes I can picture in my mind and I feel it takes a good writer to portray this onto their audience. Similarly, I was gripped in many parts due to the level of description and how the author conveys feelings for the reader to pick up and really feel when reading. I did like the pacing of the storyline, I could never predict what happens next, but I do however feel like some parts were rushed, especially the birth of Nadezhda’s child, which I thought needed more than just a page to cover this monumental scene, of a life being born into the deathliest revolution, this could have been done better in my opinion to really uncover the significant contrast of life vs death. Some critics, for me I feel as if the title of the book cat fished me in the end, I expected more supernatural stories, but I feel you don’t see enough of this throughout the book for the title to convey this. Secondly, as a non Russian speaker I found it really hard with the extended use of characters, I was confused in certain parts as the characters names are so similar. For me it was quite confusing at some points as the characters were sometimes briefly mentioned but had no depth, I felt I wanted more depth from the main characters and not use filler characters. Overall, I think it was a good book and I really enjoyed it, just some things made it hard for me to read but that may just be personal.
