The Honey Witch

“Marigold has grown up surrounded by the poets who propel the narrative—how romantic to die young, unstretched, unsullied, without ever outgrowing the part of the ingenue. But what happens when the girl keeps living, when she ages proudly and defiantly, without abandoning imagination, or stories, or that secret wish to find magic wherever it hides?

Well, then the poets would call her a witch.”

This quote describes the cultural and societal perception of women through the eyes of male artists and poets in the 1800s. The idea that women either die young, marry, or are deemed a witch illustrates the way society romanticizes women’s youth and innocence above women’s autonomy and intellectual contributions. This quote not only foreshadows Marigold’s transformation into the Honey Witch, but also develops the theme of The Complexities of Women’s Social Roles and Expectations.

“‘It is your life and it is your choice, Marigold. Completely your choice. Just because she chose a life of love and marriage does not mean you must. I beg you, darling,’ she says as she grasps Marigold’s hands. ‘Put away all thoughts of anyone else’s expectations. Only you have the right to decide your own fate.’”

In this quote, Althea encourages Marigold to make decisions for herself, regardless of the pressure put on Marigold from both her mother and her grandmother. In this context, Althea has not seen Marigold since Marigold was a child, and she does not know that Marigold is already uncertain about Raina’s wishes for Marigold to settle down and marry. By encouraging Marigold to make the decision between marriage and witchcraft for herself, Althea emphasizes the importance of navigating Familial Duty Versus Personal Freedom.

“‘We have something that finds us, too, life after life, and that is power. We are power, in its truest form.’

‘I’d choose power in my veins over a ring on my finger any day.’”

In this quote, Althea explains how power, rather than love, is what finds Honey Witches in life after life. Marigold responds with her disdain for marriage and her preference for power. This quote relates to the theme of The Struggle Between Power and Love by showing how Marigold believes that power is superior to love. As the novel progresses, Marigold’s belief in this apparently strict dichotomy will gradually weaken.

“Many of the customers are women seeking some sort of cure, refuge, or fertility-control spells. It brings Marigold great joy to know that she can save another woman from being trapped in a life that she does not want, for she was so close to a similar fate. She narrowly escaped the life of a wife and mother, and she will always help another woman do the same. A Honey Witch provides women with choice—something they are all too often denied.”

The Honey Witch’s customers are mostly women who need some form of control over their life and their autonomy that only the Honey Witch can grant them. The customers’ predicament reflects that they live in a society filled with The Complexities of Women’s Social Roles and Expectations, while Marigold’s eagerness to help them contributes to the overall feminist tones of the novel through the repeated emphasis on the importance on autonomy and choice.

“In the Hazelwood Forest, the flicker from before remains, though it is stronger now. Marigold can see it directly. A sense of unease floods her body, effectively muting all feelings of loneliness with something much stronger—fear.”

This quote describes the flickering light that Marigold sees in the forest across the lake from Innisfree, and the intense negative feelings Marigold experiences when she sees this light. This quote establishes the flickering light—later revealed to be a will-o’-the-wisp—as a symbol of the lurking danger of Versa (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“I am so sorry for how things ended the last time we saw each other. I do not know if this will make you feel better or worse, but it’s the truth so I am going to tell you: I am where I am meant to be. Never have I felt so sure, so complete, and so happy.”

In this quote, Marigold writes a letter to her mother for the first time since leaving Bardshire and apologizes for going against her mother’s wishes by choosing to be a Honey Witch. Marigold assures her mother that she has made the right decision, unsure if that information will be comforting or harmful to her mother. This quote develops the theme of Familial Duty Versus Personal Freedom by showing how happy Marigold is with the choice she got to make despite hurting her family in the process.

“When she touched my hand, I felt something. But she’s positively wicked, and I’m…well, I’m cursed.”

In this quote, Marigold talks to her cat about the way she felt when Lottie touched her hand for the first time, hinting at the beginnings of romantic chemistry between the two characters. This quote also refers to Lottie as “wicked,” foreshadowing the eventual reveal that Lottie is the granddaughter of the wicked witch that threatens Innisfree. This quote develops Marigold’s curse as a motif (See: Symbols & Motifs) for The Struggle Between Power and Love, as Marigold recognizes the love she gave up for power.

“There was a time when that was all she wanted, to feel like she was talented enough to belong. Now, she has that, but at such a cost. Some nights, she lies awake and thinks of her parents, of Aster and Mr. Woodrake, Ronan and Caoimhe, June and Lachlan, and now August and his future soulmate, and Lottie and whoever her partner might be.

On those nights, she wonders if she got the raw end of the bargain.”

Here, Marigold thinks about all the happy, in-love couples that she knows and wonders if she made the right choice in giving up love for power. This quote shows how Marigold’s perspective on The Struggle Between Power and Love begins to shift as her loneliness as the Honey Witch deepens with time.

“Is she talking about Talaya? Can Lottie Burke, somehow, in some way, see the landvættir? If so, it begs the question—what else can this impossible girl do?”

After Lottie warns August about a snake in the apiary, Marigold recognizes that the only snake present is Talaya the landvættir, establishing that Lottie can somehow see the landvættir as well. This quote compounds the mystery of Lottie Burke and foreshadows the eventual revelation that Lottie, too, has magical blood like Marigold.

“At the time, I had no qualms with accepting the curse. I wanted to run away from that life, from the balls and the courtships and the life of being a wife. I thought that maybe it was because I was always meant to be a Honey Witch, and my intuition knew that love wasn’t for me.”

In this quote, Marigold explains her decision to forsake love for power. Marigold’s reasoning for her disdain for love stems from the culture she was raised in, in which women are confined to being courted at balls and being made into wives and mothers. Marigold thus once believed that avoiding The Complexities of Women’s Social Roles and Expectations meant avoiding love entirely.

“Marigold feels more anxiety than she cares to admit. Innisfree is her true home now, and she hates to leave it when the spirit guardians are going through such a strange metamorphosis, but she has no choice. It has been more than a year since she saw her family last. She has already missed too much. She promised Aster and Frankie that she would come, that she would be there for them, that they would still have their sister.”

As Marigold leaves Innisfree for the first time to visit her family in Bardshire, she worries about leaving her home in a state of uncertainty, as the transformation of the landvættir hints at a greater problem on Innisfree. This quote relates to the theme of Familial Duty Versus Personal Freedom, as Marigold feels obligated to be there for her family despite knowing that Innisfree needs her too. This quote also develops the landvættir as a symbol of the isle’s overall health (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“Lottie said her mother believed in magic. She never said that her mother tried to use it. Clearly, she does not know what this rune means. Marigold cannot take her eyes away from the tattoo. What is hidden away in the back of Lottie’s mind? What memories of hers hold the key to understanding this?”

In this quote, Marigold analyzes all the peculiarities about Lottie that hint at a magical origin. Lottie’s tattoo resembles the protection rune that Marigold has learned to use to protect Innisfree, but Lottie’s only memory is that she saw this rune in her home. Marigold wonders about Lottie’s mysterious past, foreshadowing the reveal in Part 4 that Lottie is an Ash Witch.

“‘Aster, Frankie, this is my friend August Owens.’

‘August Owens,’ Frankie repeats back. There is a certain heaviness in the air, as if fate has come to pass in this very room.”

Here, August and Frankie meet for the first time, and the magic in the air between them is detectable. This intense meeting is evidence that Marigold’s soulmate potion works, proving that Marigold did not brew an ineffective spell. With proof that Marigold’s spell works, the mystery surrounding Lottie’s lack of effects from the soulmate spell deepens, foreshadowing the eventual revelation that Lottie is Marigold’s soulmate

“It is your curse. That is what it has been all along. When I try to act on my feelings, it is immediately followed by pain and the smell of salt and smoke. I know now that scent means magic.”

In this quote, Lottie explains to Marigold that she has determined that the source of her mysterious headaches and illness is Marigold’s curse, as each instance coincides with Lottie’s desire to act on her feelings for Marigold. This quote finally solves the mystery of Lottie’s illness and confirms Lottie’s romantic feelings for Marigold despite the curse. This quote also develops the curse as a motif (See: Symbols & Motifs) for The Struggle Between Power and Love.

“This card merely symbolizes the death of an era that does not serve you anymore. There will be change. There will be reformation. Then, if you play your hand correctly, there will be resurrection.”

This quote is from the reading that Marigold receives from the fortune teller at the masquerade. Although this reading upsets Marigold initially, this quote foreshadows the novel’s ending, in which Marigold’s curse is broken, and she dies, returning to life with Althea’s help from beyond.

“She is surrounded by so much love, and yet she cannot have any of it for herself.

It is a cruel trade, a heart for power; she is left questioning whether any of it was worth it.”

Here, Marigold acknowledges the pitfalls of her choice in The Struggle Between Power and Love, as the depths of her loneliness only grow in the face of potential love. Marigold’s changing attitude reflects how far her feelings toward love and intimacy have changed since she met Lottie.

“I remember seeing that image in my home. All over the walls, sketched out like mad musings. My mother did them. When I think of the fire, I see those arrows on the wall, unscathed. Everything else around me, even my parents, became ash. Somehow, only the arrows and I survived.”

In this quote, Lottie explains the significance of the protection rune that she decided to tattoo on her body, adding the details that the rune was the only thing to survive the fire that killed her parents. This quote provides more backstory to Lottie and strengthens the link between Lottie and magic by showing how Lottie’s mother practiced witchcraft and attempted to protect their home.

“That will-o’-the-wisp has been casting its threatening glow ever since her arrival. Her grandmother thought it was another landvættir, but Althea never saw it for herself. She did now know what it was, but Marigold felt it in her bones from the beginning. Now that the will-o’-the-wisp is strong enough for Lottie and Mr. Benny to see, it is far beyond an omen—it is a threat.”

This quote follows the shared sighting of the will-o’-the-wisp between Marigold, Lottie, and Mr. Benny. Marigold has always recognized the flickering light as an omen of something sinister to come, but this quote solidifies the link between the will-o’-the-wisp and threat that Versa poses to Innisfree (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“There was a time when we had a life together. But when she was cursed, so was I. I lost all memory of what we were. We lost the life we were supposed to have. And when she died, I felt it. The crash of my memories and my love that had been waiting there, waiting for her, for fifty years. I finally understood why I could never love anyone else.”

In this quote, Mr. Benny explains how the curse affected him just as much as it affected Althea, as the love that they had built together was suddenly erased for him until the day Althea died, and he remembered everything. This comes after the revelation that Mr. Benny, upon Althea’s death, remembered that they were soulmates. This is significant as it indicates that Marigold, too, has a soulmate who is destined to be alone because of her curse.

“Everything comes together in her mind—how Lottie could see the landvættir. How she could smell the ash magic. The bad blood that Lottie’s mother tried so hard to outrun. They were running from Versa.

Lottie shares the Ash Witch’s blood. That’s why she was able to resist the curse and fight against it. She is a descendant of the witch who created it.”

After finding Lottie’s book of nursery rhymes and realizing that it is instead a book of ash magic spells, Marigold discovers the truth about Lottie. This quote pieces together the mysteries surrounding Lottie and her enigmatic connection to ash magic.

“The agreement is on the tip of her tongue, but before she answers, she remembers her grandmother’s words. She remembers that it is never her place to decide someone else’s fate.

‘I will not take your choice away from you, Lottie. You decide.’”

This quote occurs after Versa offers Marigold a deal: Convince Lottie to perform the ritual to become a full witch, and Versa will give Lottie to Marigold once she takes Innisfree. While Marigold would love nothing more than to finally have Lottie for herself, she is reminded that one of the most valuable things Althea gave her was the freedom to make up her own mind, and she applies this concept to Lottie. In this way, Lottie is also given the chance to navigate Familial Duty Versus Personal Freedom.

“‘I cannot let you die without knowing how it feels to finally love you the way I know I am meant to.’ Turning back to Versa, she says, ‘I accept. Do what you must.’”

Here, Lottie makes the decision to perform the ritual with Versa and become a full Ash Witch. In this quote, Lottie is choosing to accept power as a means of accepting love, turning the tables on the overarching theme that power and love are opposing forces. By accepting her own power in order to properly give love to Marigold, Lottie illustrates the idea that love and power can be forces that work together.

“She reaches into the bodice of her dress and pulls out her soulmate spell. It glows as she brings it close. ‘You are my soulmate.’

She tries to gasp, but the air shreds her dry throat. ‘What?’

‘I felt it the moment the ritual was complete. It was you all along.’”

This quote features the revelation that Lottie is Marigold’s soulmate, which she felt as soon as she embraced her own magical powers as an Ash Witch. Lottie’s Ash Witch blood is what first granted her the ability to ignore the curse, and becoming a full Ash Witch allows Lottie to finally acknowledge the soulmate she has in Marigold. This revelation was foreshadowed by her soulmate potion not working and Mr. Benny’s description of how soulmates work within the confines of Marigold’s curse.