Hi guys, it's Olivia here from Olivia's
Catastrophe and I'm here to give you the
top 5 reasons why you should read The
Familiars by Stacey halls. This is an ARC
copy so that's why you can't see the
cover properly. There's no title on it
but I assure you the cover is just as
nice as this.
So The Familiars is a historical fiction
book set in 1612 England around the time
when the rich -- witch hunts are going on
and women are being burned at the stake
for being witches. A lot of these people
are people who practice medicine and
midwifery but men being men decided that
they were witches and let's just burn them
all. So we follow Fleetwo0d who is a 17
year old wife who has lost many children
in the past and she's pregnant now. And
she really really wants this to be the
one who gives an heir to her husband. And
she gets this new nurse who is a
little bit entangled in the witchcraft
mystery stuff and yes, that's what this
one is about. And here are the top five
reasons why you should read this one. The
first one is that it is so, so
atmospheric. It's historical fiction, it's
set during the witch trials but if you
read this in October it is the perfect,
perfect read. For starters Fleetwood's
house is surrounded by forest which
already, you know, just gets that Earth-y kind of autumny vibe. Kind of like the
cover is bringing off here. And as well
as that, I don't how, the descriptions
just seem so rich, so mysterious, so
haunting. So if you are a seasonal reader
do read this one in October the
atmosphere is brilliant. Secondly,
feminism. The main character in this one
is not happy with the way that men are
treating woman in this time. And even
though this is set in the past so the
feminism isn't like: making protests that
we do nowadays, or, you know, things that
are modern feminism, she's kind of
fighting for women in her own way and
she really like, stuck it to the man. I
was reading this and I was like: you go girl,
you get what you need, you just keep
doing what you're doing. I could feel the
feminist vibes in this one. The third
reason why I should read this is because
the theme of motherhood and infertility
and how that can really ruin a
relationship and
really make relationship difficult is
very present in this one. And I felt like
it was done very well. Aven though, you
know, I am a 20 year old woman. I'm not
like, married, I'm not thinking about
having kids right now, it still had a
very big vibe for me and I really felt
for the main character. The fourth reason
why I should read this one is friendship,
friendship, friendship. The friendship
between Alice and Fleetwood who is the
woman of the house and then her nurse,
was very, very strong and very present in
this one. And I kind of like seeing that
friendship grow. I liked seeing that
friendship develop. And I liked how much
they would protect each other and stand
up for each other even in the toughest
of times and facing some serious, you
know, judgments and repercussions for
everything that they were trying to do. I
was really, really happy to see that as a center of the book. And lastly the other
thing that I liked is the concept of The
Familiars. So apparently if you are a
witch you have an animal who is you're
familiar and they are kind of, I don't
know, like a token. They are connected to
you and do your bidding. And even though
there's always a question in this one of
whether the witches are real or whether
it's all just fabricated, I did like the
concept of the familiars of seeing how
animals - just generally animals - are quite
a theme in the book and quite present. So
I did enjoy that. So if you like any of
those things those are the five reasons
why you should read this book. However,
the one reason I would say you shouldn't
read this book is because of the slow
beginning. So if you're someone who
cannot stand a slow beginning I wouldn't
say this book is for you. It's quite
character driven it's a kind of slow,
calm, intrusion into the story. It's kind
of like how you immerse yourself into
nature. You start in the city and you're
going into the countryside and slowly
things strip away into the wonderful
world of the countryside. That is how I
would describe this book. You're going
into this wonderful world and it takes
time to get there, but once you get there
it's good. But if slow beginnings aren't
really a thing I don't think I can
recommend this one to you. So there you have your reasons for why
you should pick up this book and why you
shouldn't. Please let me know in the
comment section down below if you've
already read The Familiars or if you are
planning to. And let me know your
favorite witchy read. Thank you so much
for watching this one. Please give it a
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And I'll see you guys in the next one. Goodbye!
