While the precise nature of Zoe’s epiphany, and the role of Feliciana as facilitator, is still nebulous by novel’s end, the overarching theme feels crystal clear. Zoe’s chapters are particularly compelling. Despite all this, Witches sets the ideal stage for Lozano to prove herself as a master of character study. Witches is a novel, not a piece of reportage, and on the whole Lozano doesn’t so much make critiques as gesture toward them. Early on, she says her conversation with Feliciana has transformed her perspective, though by novel’s end it remains unclear exactly how - the connective tissue between their two stories is tenuous, their symmetries never fully teased out. At the start of Witches, Zoe promises us a reckoning, a revelation. A wonderfully illuminating translator's note. Feliciana’s voice is especially idiosyncratic, at first hard to follow, then, with time, poetic in its fluidity. And it’s a testament to both Lozano’s mastery of voice and Cleary’s translation that our two narrators’ voices feel immediately distinct and immersive. We feel as though Zoe is speaking directly to us, and Feliciana directly to Zoe. The first-person narration of Witches is digressive and intimate. With surprising swiftness, Paloma’s murder fades to the background.
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