Anastasia Greywolf

I'm not sure that "handbook" is the best description of this. It is a collection of spells, potions and superstitions gathered from various cultures, more akin to an encyclopaedia than an instruction manual. It's an interesting thing to read through, but maybe not what a reader expects from the title.
I found it a bit odd that so many witch's spells contained Christian references. Witchcraft and Christianity tend to be mutually exclusive.
There are also a lot of entries of the types of spells that gave witches a bad name, ones that are harmful and/or spiteful.
And then there's the impracticality of a lot of them. Even if someone wanted to try them, the ingredients are so obscure and/or the steps so implausible to follow that it would be next to impossible to do so.… (mer)