I’ve just completed the fourth Witches of Woodville book – The Holly King – by Mark Stay and it is absolutely fantastic. The series has grown over the past couple of years to be one of my favourite fantasy series. If you’re unfamiliar with it , think Dad’s Army written by Terry Pratchett. It tells the tale of a young girl – Faye Bright – set against the backdrop of World War Two, a young girl who lives in a small English village who discovers that her mother was a witch. The previous books have grown this world introducing new characters and their backstories, in particular two other witches who live within the same village: Miss Charlotte and Mrs Teach, and Faye’s love interest, the plucky and adorable Bertie.
I have enjoyed every single one of them, but book four, for me, suggests a change of gear. A step change in relation to Mark Stay’s writing. The Holly King is far darker, far deeper, far more interesting and more captivating than the previous three books. This is not to say that the first three books are bad – they are not, they are very good. But the Holly King is the best of the series by quite some distance.
Mark Stay delves deeper in this book, much deeper, far further into darker corners of the mind, and the corners of morality which some authors may have avoided going to for fear of displeasing their audience. But I would suggest that this is exactly where future books need to go. The backdrop of World War Two is epic, terrible and curious, all at the same time, and Mark Stay seems to be taking great delight in putting all of his characters through very difficult times, both morally, ethically and from the point of view of loyalty.
I enjoyed this book tremendously. Who doesn’t love a book filled with evil fairies, witches with Japanese swords and drunk one man bands? His books can be easily consumed, the writing excellent, making the reading effortless, but with a confidence of an author who you feel you can trust, go with, and who knows exactly what they are doing.
He leaves the book on a huge cliffhanger. And it’s a huge cliffhanger which, in many ways, is the right direction to take future books in and also offers a huge number of opportunities to expand the universe of the Witches of Woodville. I really hope that Mark Stay continues to be brave and remain on this path. Because if The Holly King is anything to judge by, the Witches of Woodville stands out as one of the finest British fantasy series of recent years, and stands on the edge of moving even higher.
If you haven’t read it, where have you been? The good thing is that you’ve got plenty of time to catch up. Start with book one – The Crow Folk – and you won’t be sorry, I promise.
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