The Women of Wild Hill - Kirsten Miller - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Kirsten Miller

GENRE: Fantasy

PUBLICATION DATE: October 7, 2025

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A multi-timeline fantasy featuring powerful witches with a modern-day agenda. Many intriguing (female) characters, many interesting subplots. First 75% excellent, final 25% a bit too wild! A creative combination of themes not often seen together. Recommended.

Plot Preview:

Wild Hill, an isolated place at the tip of Long Island, has long been haunted by a ghost. For centuries, she didn’t allow anyone to settle there, until a young Scottish girl with strange powers, Sadie Duncan, was permitted to stay. Five generations of Sadie’s descendants have now known this magical place as their home, each generation more “gifted” than its predecessor. But after a terrible incident, the latest generation of Duncan women left their ancestral residence. Brigid moved to California and used her dark talent to carve a successful acting career. Her sister Phoebe settled at a remote ranch in Texas working as a healer. Now, about three decades after they left Wild Hill, they have been summoned back by The Old One. It is time for the powerful Duncan witches to fulfil their destiny, whether they want it or not.

The story comes to us in the third-person perspectives of multiple generations of Duncan women, thus covering varied timelines as well.

No Yays and Nays this time, as each point I thought of seemed to have a counterpoint. The overall tilt is still towards the positive side.

✔️ The juxtaposition of witches (often seen as historical or fantastical) and our real-life modern-day world with its myriad dystopian and climatic issues.

❌ Took my brain a while to accept this pairing, though it's definitely clever and well-handled.

✔️ Expected a witchy feminist fantasy. Found the same but with some extra garnishing.

❌ The ’garnishing’ left me with mixed feelings. Two of the key themes specifically caught me unawares because I didn’t expect contemporary social commentary to pop up in a witchy fantasy.

✔️ Several fascinating characters, especially the Duncan women and Bessie the ghost. Brigid, Phoebe, and Sybil are the most interesting, especially in how distinct they and their powers are from each other.

❌ The men are mostly decorative. Only a couple of men have a strong role to play in the plot. This is to be expected in a feminist witchy story, I suppose, but it still feels lopsided.

✔️ All generations of the Duncan women and their powers are wow!

❌ A bit tricky to remember their family tree with all the interconnections and backstories.

✔️ The audiobook version has an accompanying enhancement PDF for the Duncan family tree.

❌ I felt too lazy to open it again and again, so after a point, I just went with the flow. 😏

✔️ The multi-generational story spans several decades, giving us a good look at the treatment of women (and witches) over time.

❌ The year isn't always mentioned, so it's tricky to keep track of the passage of time.

✔️ The magical content, coming from the gifts each Duncan woman has. The diversity and darkness of the gifts make the proceedings interesting.

❌ Despite the presence of a ghost and a somewhat-divine entity, the dominant vibe of the story is more like magical realism than fantasy. I wish the dark content had actually felt more tense.

✔️ The concept of "The Old One" – fascinating! I wish she had a greater active role in the book. It felt like we missed out on knowing a powerful being.

❌ Anything inexplicable/tragic is conveniently attributed to the Old One's divine plan, much like many believers do in real life. Annoying in reality; annoying in fiction as well.

✔️ The extended backstories of each generation of the Duncan women – excellently written, giving us a clear idea of their strength and magic. It is not a typical generational-trauma story. I love that each witch is more powerful than her mother.

❌ I wish these stories had been more scattered throughout the book instead of coming in a single extended sequence of one chapter per woman. After all those stories were done, I didn’t even remember the last event in the main contemporary timeline. Also, a certain decision taken by one character in the backstory didn’t make sense to me at all.

✔️ The first 70-75% or so (not sure of the exact %age as I had the audio) is very strong, with deft storytelling, proper character development, and an intriguing plot. Until this point, I was sure my rating would easily cross 4 stars.

❌ The remaining chapters. The only word I can think of to describe them is ‘unhinged’. The whole finale felt extreme (in a bonkers way) compared to the rest of the book. I am not too comfortable with what happened as it’s morally ambiguous.

✔️ Then again, a part of me acknowledges the necessity for the intense ending. I enjoyed indulging in some wishful thinking and even compiled my own list. (You’ll know what the list comprises if you read the book.)

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 10 hrs 38 min, is narrated by January LaVoy. She is as exceptional as always, narrating each character perfectly. However, given the complicated timeline and the sheer number of characters, I would recommend the audio only to experienced audiobook listeners. Newbies, better stick to actual reading.

Overall, I am pretty sure this book would have crossed the 4-star mark easily had the final 20-odd% delivered as well as the rest. The ending was somewhat a letdown for me. Despite this, I think this book ought to be read because whatever was good… was really good.

Prior to reading this novel, I have read only one other book by this author: “Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books”, which I loved. Reading this new novel showed me how diverse her writing skill is. Conceptually, this book doesn’t have much in common with Lula Dean, the latter being a socio-political satire. But if compared in writing approach, both contain socio-political commentary, both demonstrate the author’s keen observations and sharp sense of humour, and both are highly relevant to current happenings. While I am bit tired of so many books inserting social commentary unexpectedly, I acknowledge the relevance of the topics raised by the author. In a world filled with crazy despots, every voice of protest matters, even if it comes from a fictional fantasy novel.

Recommended to those who enjoy feminist fantasies relevant to the real world.