We all know the basic premise of a fairytale is the longing for a beloved child. Agnes and Oskar have been trying for over ten years and when they move to a new village, Agnes goes against her husband’s wishes and befriends their neighbor. It’s not that Oskar is an unsociable fellow, but the whole town suspcts that Mathilda is a witch, letting her live isolated in her house for years for fear of her wrath. But Agnes can’t reconcile the kind, loving woman as being the same vicious witch the town rumors she is. They form a friendship and then Mathilda offers an herbal remedy that will guarentee Agnes will be with child. The only price Mathilda offers for this magic, is that they remain friends.

As you may guess from the ominous title, Agnes doesn’t keep her part in the bargain, swayed by her husband who worries for their precarious position as newcomers in town. They can’t continue associating with Mathilda and Agnes lets the friendship grow cold.

But Mathilda warned Agnes that a promise is a powerful thing. We all understand the emotional stakes connected with promises that are made with trust and friendship and can bring pain when broken. Dao heightens the fraught nature of promises with the presence of magic where the refrain is that a broken promise leads to unforseen consequences, uncontrollable and unknowable until it strikes.

What with the insulted witch, and a family curse, the story has shades of Sleeping Beauty that immediately hooked me in, and then Dao speeds forward to the year 1858 with Elva, the child born of a broken promise with the power of prophecy.

Dao weaves a intriguing coming of age story where Elva’s life has been a life of hiding herself and secrets. Besides having the power of prophecy, the family is also cursed with the power of three. For every two good events, one bad one will follow overshadowing the good, making it so the family can never fully enjoy their happiness.

But life is fine for Elva. She is fine with hiding her gift as she has so much else to distract her. Her life is starting to turn toward adulthood when her sweetheart proposes to her and she tells him her secret. Instead of shunning her for her magical forsight as her parents always warned her, Willem accepts her and Elva is encouraged to start looking into water again (she can only see the future through reflective surfaces so she’s been avoiding bodies of water almost all her life) and begin to view her magic as a gift rather than a curse. It’s something which she can use to warn her family of bad fortune or good.

Just as she begins to get into the swing of things, she comes across a bundle of letters Agnes saved from Mathilda and Elva decides to seek Mathilda out to find out what happened between her mother and her, and possibly find someone who understands.

The friendship between Elva and Mathilda is organic as they start with the usual grumpy mentor, optimistic mentee banter whose lessons make a good foundation for readers to understand the basics of magic in this world=the different branches, the isolation, the consequences etc.

But their relationship is the heart of the book as Dao depicts a parallel between witches and other marginalized people, making this a tale about learning to embrace oneself and the worth of a human being. Mathilda can be a difficult character to reach from her prickly exterior but readers can see as Elva does that Mathilda holds a lot of hurt and compassion thanks to her past. The isolation that she complains about is almost a self-fulfilling prophacy. Elva’s presence in her life, not only gives her some warmth hope for the better. Dao manages a delicate balance managing the different arcs of Mathilda and Elva, one who is so cynical of the world and one who still has more to learn.

As I said above, Elva had been content with herself and had no interest in further exploring her powers, but her time with Mathilda has feel more herself than ever before. She feels in control and wants to know about her capabilities. She realizes that she is like Mathilda.

Yes, her parents accept her and love her because she’s family but they want her to hide her powers like it’s a shameful secret. They might not see her as Mathilda but she is, and if she wasn’t their daughter, she realizes that she could have been just as easily ostracized as much as she wants to believe that people are better than that.

However, Elva is the heroine of this story and seeks to make things right. Not by outing herself but showing the courage of her convictions to stand up for what’s right. She urges Mathilda to try to intigate herself back into society because the good people will outnumber the bad if the people realize that Mathilda is harmless. And she encourages her family to do the same because even though they’re scared of the town’s reaction, there is opportunity to do the right thing.

Of course, the situation is more complex than that as Dao has Elva confront not only those who want to burn the witch but those who only see witches as tools for their own ends and glory.

I really enjoyed the message Dao left readers to ponder with witches representing many different people, those who did not ask to be different in whatever way (be it race, sexuality, disability, etc), who are not harming anyone and deserve to have a full life with respect, kindness and friendship.

And that’s not all, readers will enjoy the other elements of family and messing with time and destiny to create a jaw-dropping twist in the end that will leave readers eager for more.

4 stars.