The Once and Future Witches
#3614.02 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2020 Reading commitment Low Alix E. Harrow Last reviewed 2026-08-13
Overview
The Once and Future Witches follows three estranged sisters, Beatrice, Agnes, and James Juniper Eastwood, who reunite in 1893 New Salem to bring witchcraft back into the world, weaving suffrage-movement history with fairy-tale magic. Alix E. Harrow's standalone 2020 novel imagines witchcraft as a power suppressed alongside women's political rights, with the sisters' fight to relearn lost spells running in parallel to a fictionalized women's suffrage movement contending with real hostility and violence. The book draws explicitly on folk-tale structure, nursery rhymes, and fairy-tale tropes as the literal source of the sisters' reclaimed magic, giving the historical setting a layered, intertextual fantasy framework. It was a finalist for the 2021 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, continuing the critical attention Harrow had already drawn with her debut, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and further establishing her as a major voice in feminist historical fantasy.
Historical fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
The Once and Future Witches (2020) core · 4.02 (113,315 ratings); Three estranged sisters reunite in 1893 New Salem to bring witchcraft back into the world, weaving suffrage-movement history with fairy-tale magic. Alix E. Harrow's second novel, a separate, unrelated standalone from The Ten Thousand Doors of January (admitted 2026-08-11).
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Once and Future Witches? The Once and Future Witches's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is The Once and Future Witches finished? Complete (2020).
- How much reading does The Once and Future Witches take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~517 pages).
- How is The Once and Future Witches ranked? #361 in this site's official ranking, based on 113,315 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #361?
Ranked #361 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.02 across 1 core book.
- Backed by 113k reader ratings.
- Less than 0.01 behind #360, Sorcery of Thorns (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 1 book · Complete · 113k ratings · Ranks #361 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment historical fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Fantasy Novel), 2021: finalist: The Once and Future Witches; Placed 5th in sfadb.com's own 2021 Fantasy Novel poll results; registered per this canon's no-cutoff Locus-poll convention.
- British Fantasy Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 2021: nominated: The Once and Future Witches; Per Wikipedia only, not independently re-verified against britishfantasysociety.co.uk.
- Dragon Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 2021: nominated: The Once and Future Witches; Per Wikipedia only, not independently re-verified against the award's own results.
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- The Tale of the Serpent's Heart Mythic fantasy / Historical fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.06
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.02 across 113,315 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: The Once and Future Witches admitted as a single-work universe accepted 2026-08-13
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-13
Rule: Registered as a single-work universe (LOTR-analogy convention): one Core Canon entry, the 2020 novel.