Lovely little story. Charming characters and magic. ( )

Sparse tale about mill girls in Lawrence unionizing. With sympathetic magic. And love. And spit.

Though it deals with serious issues, i wish it had been more complex. It seems to me a YA book actually meant for YA readers. This is not a slight; just acknowleging that I am not its primary audience. ( )

Under the leadership of pro-union firebrand Judith and her best friend, secret witch Hannah, the female factory weavers of Lowell, MA demand better working conditions and are willing to strike to get them. As the nitty-gritty of workers' rights mixes with paranormal elements, the two young women fall in love.

This novella probably could have been extended into novel length, but perhaps it is just as well that it was not. ( )

Delightful little book, and not in any diminutive way because I find it to be very satisfying and thoughtful, but it's short. Well, it's really as long as it needs to be. But fewer pages than I was expecting.

I think I picked this one up because the topic intrigued me and it was categorized as a fantasy, which is something I was hankering for at the time. Having completed it, I would classify it as an historical novel with a touch of magical realism, and all the better because of it.

I have a tendency (that I'm only realizing as I write this) toward magical realism over fantasy, probably because I have some real issues with world building and establishing rules concerning magic use (or whatever supernatural element that's used), and I suppose I'll talk about that more elsewhere, because it isn't relevant here. In this novel, it is completely plausible that there is no magic at all, outside of the kind of "magic" that modern day witches practice, though I won't go too far in that direction as I'm not one. What I'm saying is, until the end of this novel, I think it's possible to read the story as one of real magic or some element of suggestion taking hold of the characters. This becomes less so at the end, but again seems more in line with magical realism as the magic doesn't really seem to be the point and does more to serve the story and characters than to engage the reader in "wonders."

Speaking of characters, the titular factory witches are well-developed, in spite of its relative brevity, a sign of solid writing in my mind. In some ways this is more a love story than anything, one constrained by the time-period in as many ways as the actual witchcraft, which makes it even more resonant. By the end I was as invested in the main character's burgeoning relationship as anything else, though the whole thing concludes quite satisfactorily on all fronts.

It looks like [a:C.S. Malerich|8204048|C.S. Malerich|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png]has at least one other novel out, so I'm eager to read [b:Fire and Locket|46160466|Fire and Locket|C.S. Malerich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559775412l/46160466._SY75_.jpg|71115215]. I suppose that's as good a recommendation as I can give. ( )