Review: Bright I Burn

Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Now, I am my own creation, and it’s far too late to change me. 

Told in a lyrical and bard style, Bright I Burn breathes historical fiction life into the first recorded person condemned for witchcraft in Ireland, Alice Kyteler. The story brings readers in when Alice is nine years old in 1279 Kilkenny, Ireland. At this age, Alice learns an important truth of how woman are valued, their ability to give their husbands heirs and to always remember to stay at least one step ahead of the men in her life. Her desirability is a hindrance, first avoiding her father, and a help as it leads to her being able to marry who she wants. I liked how the story did touch on Alice's privilege, class and race, and how that protected her at times. From this important formative year, the story jumps year to year as Alice grows, plotting, planning, and maneuvering to gain riches for herself and her son, knowing this leads to protection and choices. 

Successful women don't always fair well in history, though, and knowing an important part of the historical outcome, each year that goes by, with Alice marrying and playing a part in her widowhood, jealousy, envy, and anger grow among the townspeople and certain men in power, there is a feeling of dread. There are moments, where you want to start to agree with her son, have her be less for safety, but then you rally and know she shouldn't have to. However, Alice isn't portrayed a perfect character, she has pride, desire, and selfishness, making her all the more accessible. She feels stifled by her first husband, has her sexual liberation with her second, grows more centered with her third, and lets some of her rage out on her fourth. 

The story was throughout good with dripping with disdain pointing out the hypocrisy of the church and it's clergymen. When Bishop of Ossory, Richard Ledrede arrives in Kilkenny, you could feel the rising tension and building fervor of him using economic strife and men's fear and want to control women, from the pulpit to slowly poison. Alice in her late fifties/early sixties alluring and intimidating men, them not knowing how to deal with these feelings causing anger, felt like a tale as old as time. While the true historical texts don't know what ultimately happened to Alice, I liked the ending the author imagined. An historical fiction story that took a real life and imagined filled in places, it will make you want to rage and, maybe, wish for a time that poisoning wasn't so detectable.

View all my reviews