The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Henderson, Alexis. The Year of the Witching. ACE, 2020. Kindle.

The novel is broken up into five sections and is narrated in the third-person past with a focus on Immanuelle. In “Beast,” the midwife, Martha, delivered her daughter’s child. When the baby was born, Martha said that her name was to be Immanuelle. This pleased the dying mother, who said the curse the witch in the woods had told her about was nearly complete.

“Blood” is the second section of the novel. Immanuelle was 17 and attended church with her family. Her best friend, Leah, was betrothed to the Prophet. Immanuelle herself had not yet bled, which was unusual for a girl of her age. She lived in a small village named Bethel, which was surrounded on all sides by the Darkwood, which were said to be haunted. Only the Prophet and his closest companions were able to leave through the Hallowed Gate to venture out into the rest of the world. In the Age of Light, the Father had given many humans supernatural Gifts, but now they were quite rare. The Age of Light had ended after the Holy Wars, during which the four witches (Jael, Mercy, Lilith, and Delilah) worked as servants of the Dark Mother to fight against the Father.

The Prophet and his ancestors had the Gift of Sight, and Martha had the Gift of Naming. Many people thought Immanuelle might have a Gift like her grandmother, especially because her skin was dark like her father, who had been from the Outskirts of Bethel before he was burnt at the Pyre for betraying the Prophet by sneaking away with his fiancé, Miriam. After her lover had been burnt at the pyre, Miriam had tried to stab the Prophet before running into the woods, only to return a few months later to deliver Immanuelle and die during the process. Immanuelle now lived with her grandparents, Martha and Abram, as well as Abram’s second-wife, Anna, and their two children: Honor and Glory. Abram had once been the second-most-powerful man in Bethel, but the Prophet had stripped him of his lands and titles after the incident Miriam. One day, her grandparents ordered Immanuelle to take a ram to market to sell it. Immanuelle stopped to look through a book of poetry and ran into Ezra, the Prophet’s oldest and most rebellious son. He was reading a forbidden book of knowledge, which frightened Immanuelle. She tried to sell the ram, but was unsuccessful. She walked home, but the ram escaped and ran into the woods.

She followed after the beast, but suddenly she came across two witches. They beckoned Immanuelle and gave her a book, which turned out to be her mother’s diary. About a week later, Immanuelle went to Leah’s wedding. After the ceremony, she spotted Ezra in a compromising position with one of his father’s other wives, Judith. That night, Immanuelle woke up from a nightmare and went into the Darkwood because she heard a strange noise. She found a lake and was coerced into it by the witch Lilith. Immanuelle started her period and then ran home. Ezra arrived at her house and gifted her a book of poetry. They heard a scream and found her half-sister, Glory, holding a bucket of blood she had fetched from the well. Immanuelle theorized that one of the lines that was repeated over and over in her mother’s diary “Blood. Blight. Darkness. Slaughter” was actually a warning of four plagues delivered by the four witches. The town began to panic as the blood plague infected all their water sources. The church announced that someone had made a blood-sacrifice to the Dark Mother and awakened an ancient evil. Immanuelle realized she had bled in the lake and started the plagues by accident. She talked to Ezra and asked him to help her sneak into the Prophet’s private library so she could find information on how to counter the curse she had started. Ezra agreed and when she decided she would have to return to the lake to reverse the curse, Ezra offered to come with her. However, when she attempted to reverse the curse, it did not work, and Ezra was attacked. Immanuelle found him unconscious and brought him back to the village. He remained in a coma for nine days. When he woke up, he lied and told everyone he had his first vision as a new Prophet. Everyone rejoiced for his new powers and the Blood plague ended.

In “Blight,” the sickness plague started and hundreds fell ill in Bethel. Immanuelle went to the Outskirts and found out her maternal grandmother lived outside Bethel in Ishmel. Immanuelle found an old cabin her mother had lived in during her pregnancy and theorized that her mother had actually cast the plagues herself and made Immanuelle the curse to get revenge on the town that had burnt her lover. Immanuelle felt betrayed by her mother and resolved to make things right by finding her grandmother. She asked Ezra for help, and he agreed to help her sneak out of the gates and to even go with her. However, they were ambushed by the Prophet’s men and Ezra had to stay while Immanuelle escaped into the Darkness as the third plague began.

In “Darkness,” Immanuelle rode to Ishmel and found her grandmother, who told her she could stop the plagues by carving a sigil into her arm with a holy object. The Prophet’s men arrived and captured Immanuelle, who was locked up for two weeks before facing trial. At her trial, Ezra claimed he was the one who performed all the evil. The Prophet had Immanuelle brought to him in secret. He offered to spare Ezra if she agreed to marry him. She agreed, and they were married. However, right after the ceremony, the Prophet announced that Ezra would be burnt on the pyre for his sins. Immanuelle tried to sacrifice herself instead, and took the opportunity to grab the Prophet’s holy knife and quickly carved the sigil on her arm. However, the fourth plague started instantly. Beasts and the four witches burst into the church and attacked, killing dozens. Immanuelle summoned her magic powers and defeated the witches. When she and Ezra captured the Prophet, they had to decide what to do with him. Immanuelle insisted that they should show mercy in order to lead an example for a new and kind world. In the Epilogue, however, Immanuelle and Ezra both worried that their mercy toward the Prophet would result in another Holy War.