The Witch's Lullaby // Hester Fox

This dual point-of-view (pov) novel set in multiple time periods gave me big Practical Magic (Alice Hoffman) vibes and museum curator job envy. We see the story through the eyes of Margaret in the past, and Augusta in the present. Each woman's personality and voice is very distinguishable on the page. This is difficult to do, and is a reason why I don't often love dual pov novels. But! In this book it was easy to follow the different characters in their separate (and then combined!) threads of time, and I thought that was in large part due to the formatting. 

Though I would call this an overall lighthearted gothic read, you could spend a great amount of time thinking more deeply on the themes of the book: What is the legacy of those people who are unrecorded, mundane, voiceless? What affect do these people have on others past, present, and future? For women in particular, how can those who have power to give voices to the voiceless, yet do so in a way that honors the whole story? 

Since I don't generally read gothic, paranormal, or horror, picking this up was a bit out of my comfort zone. I was drawn in by Augusta's job at the museum, and by the intertwining historical time periods. The plot was predictable, but since this is out of my usual genres, I didn't mind so much because it kept the creepies at bay.

Probably my favorite thing about this book was how Augusta moves from being a vanilla character who lets life happen to her, to an active participant with passions, opinions, and agency in her own life. My second favorite thing was the snippets of folk songs at the beginning of Margaret's chapters which set a lovely atmospheric tone.