Bright I Burn a review

By Molly Aitken, novel out 6 June 2024 Publisher: Canon Gate

‘Her beard is bloody. She stands on the edge of the forest; beside her lies a dead ram,’

I have a soft spot for a good witch story. I also have a bleeding heart for those who died in the teeth of churches and so-called godfearing men, not to mention the women and children who still, to this day, die accused of witchery. SO when I say a soft spot, I mean it in not just the lovely and caring way, but also in the open wound, soft spot, bleeding kind of way. 

Do witches exist in my world perception, absolutely, should we kill them, abso-frigging-lutely not. Can witches do magic, in my view? Well, that is a far more complicated question. I’d say, no more so than anyone else attuned to energy and nature, and so many modern people, again in my view, are straight up sleeping. Not energetically aware of what is going on around them, or indeed open to the synchronicities and wonders that feel like magic. Are we all witches if we wake up? Probably not. Are you? Are you truly awake?

I’ll tell you who is! Bright and burning awake and that is Alice Kyteler in this extraordinary novel by the lyrical prose goddess Molly Aitken. Even the child Alice is acutely aware of her situation, and she is not a fan. She is not a fan, but she is also not afraid of making the hard choices necessary to change her situation and fortunes. Is she a witch? Well, this story is based on a real person, a woman who was the first ever to be condemned as such in Europe, but as we all know, that means nothing. Just because a man says a woman is something, doesn’t mean she is, but in this absolutely stunning imagining, Molly takes us by not just the hand but our short and curlies and shakes any kind of calm right out of us. Or at least me.

Bright I Burn is a tale of immense power, deep sexual desire and ambition beyond one’s perceived station, and it is both ravishingly wonderful and utterly devastating. Devastating in its literary beauty, a pure joy to read for anyone who finds themselves licking their mouth when reading rule-bending prose, and devastating in its unfolding of characters and plot. We know from the off that Alice is convicted. But to the very end, we know not what the next sentence will be. 

This is historical fiction, but above all else, it is a thriller and a tour de force in how to keep your reader on the edge of the seat.

‘My daughter and I are separate. She has left purple stripes across my belly. Her body flops, still, as if she were a babe, but she is not.’

All in all, and without giving anything away I will say this… Alice Kyteler, may or may not have been one, but if there is a witch, it is Molly Aitken for damn sure, and I would give many a strand of hair or clipped nail to be in her coven. 

Poor Erna is still in shock, but I know I speak for us both when I give this masterpiece five whales

🐳🐳🐳🐳🐳

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