HMRC was nice scones-and-jam English witchcraft. No menstrual blood. No sacrifices. No sex, please. We’re British. [loc. 2329]
Possibly because of the cover design, I'd somehow formed the impression that this was another Regency-set fantasy*. This error was very quickly dispelled in the prologue, which finds five pre-adolescent girls lurking in a treehouse and talking about which member of Boyzone they intend to marry. They're distracting themselves from the ceremony the next day in which they'll swear allegience to the eponymous Coven, founded by Anne Boleyn and charged with protecting the United Kingdom from magical threat.
A quarter of a century after that opening, a lot has changed. There's been a civil war, ravaging arcane society. The five baby witches in the treehouse are now women in their mid-thirties. Helena is the High Priestess of HMRC; Leonie (Black and lesbian) has formed a more inclusive coven, Diaspora; Elle doesn't have much to do with HMRC, but does routinely assume a glamour so her husband will still fancy her; Niamh, who lost her fiancé in the war, is living in Hebden Bridge and working as a vet; and Ciara, Niamh's twin, is imprisoned after picking the losing side in that war. There's a prophecy about a 'sullied child' who will destroy HMRC, and possibly the world: but prophecies are like film trailers. Some give away the plot, others are twisty and misleading. Helena thinks she's found this sullen child, and takes Niamh to assess the threat, who appears to be a skinny, electively-mute teenage lad. But appearances can deceive.
I liked this a great deal. Dawson's prose is occasionally clunky or misphrased ('virtuosity' rather than virtue, for example) but that didn't get in the way of her exploration of intersectionality, loyalty, love and friendship, mothers and daughters (there are very few boys or men in this novel), gender, transphobia... I especially liked how HMRC fits around the edges of modern life: oracles in 2019 seeing portents of plague and unrest ('some governments heeded their witches'); the British PM giving a national broadcast that erases memories of the war and of witches; Elle's teenage daughter Holly (one of my favourite characters) protesting 'You’re not a witch. You shop at Next'.
The four viewpoint characters -- Helena, Niamh, Elle and Leonie -- have distinct personalities, concerns and talents, and they're all written sympathetically, even when their actions are appalling. There's not much sugar-coating here, and the ending is something of a cliff-hanger. The second novel in the trilogy, The Shadow Cabinet, is available now: I'm very tempted, but then I'd have nearly a year to wait until the trilogy's conclusion ...
For Shop Your Shelves Bingo, Summer 2023: purchased 27OCT2022, prompt 'bestseller'.
*It could be worse. A friend assumed it was another exposé about Meghan Markle.
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