Boneset & Feathers

Boneset & Feathers is a novel of witchy folk horror by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste, in which a young woman must re-ignite her magic against the threat of the dreaded witchfinders.

You don't know their fire is coming until it's too late. That's exactly the way the witchfinders like it. As an isolated enchantress, Odette knows this too well-she lost nearly her whole family to the last round of executions, barely escaping with her own life. All the magic she could conjure wasn't enough to protect her mother and sister, a burden that leaves a despondent Odette practically wishing she'd burned with the rest.

Now it's five years later, and as the last witch left from her village, Odette has exiled herself to the nearby woods where she's sworn off all magic, hoping instead for quiet and for safety. But no witch has ever been permitted a peaceful life.

It starts with crows tumbling out of the clouds and spectral voices on the wind that won't leave her alone. Then there are those midnight visits to the graveyard that she can't quite remember in the morning and the strange children following her everywhere she goes. Odette wants to forget magic, but her magic doesn't want to forget her. Meanwhile, the former friends she left behind in the village are cowering together, hiding from the ghostly birds they believe she's sent to torment them for abandoning her. But that's only the beginning of their problems, as Odette soon discovers their worst nightmare is about to come true-the witchfinders are returning. And this time, the decree is clear: to burn the witch that got away.

With the men drawing nearer to the village, Odette must face the whispers from the dead and confront her fear of her own growing power if she wants any chance of stopping the army of witchfinders determined to rid the countryside of magic once and for all.

Author: Gwendolyn Kiste
Publisher: Broken Eye Books
Published: 11/03/2020
Pages: 172
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.57lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9781940372570


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/14/2020
Library Journal 10/01/2020 pg. 68
Booklist 10/15/2020 pg. 36

About the Author
Kiste, Gwendolyn: - Gwendolyn Kiste is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens from Trepidatio Publishing; And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe from JournalStone; and the dark fantasy novella Pretty Marys All in a Row from Broken Eye Books. Her short fiction has appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Nightfire's Come Join Us by the Fire, Black Static, Daily Science Fiction, Shimmer, Interzone, and LampLight, among others. Originally from Ohio, she now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, two cats, and not nearly enough ghosts. Find her online at gwendolynkiste.com.