While I was requesting the book on Thor, I also chanced upon Warriors, Witches, and Women. Requesting this book from NetGalley was a no brainer because I love mythology and I thought it would be very fun to have the spotlight on women in various myths from around the world. While I enjoyed this feminist take on various women in religions and myth overall, it failed to impress on several counts.

Warriors, Witches, Women looks at fifty different women that are grouped into five categories – Witches, Warriors, Bringers of Misfortune, Elemental Spirits, and Munificent Spirits. Each profile comes with an illustration, a quick biography and a short paragraph or two about their relevance to the modern world.

For the most part, I liked that the profiles managed to give the readers a good sense of the woman being discussed, exploring their mythology and bringing out their relevance. The author did mention that she chose certain narratives over others, but they don’t always seem to the most traditional ones. For example, in the story of Uzume, it’s said that the mirror was hung so that it could reflect Uzume’s butt, whereas I’ve always read that the mirror was hung from a tree so that Amaterasu could see her face. I imagine that would be hard to do so if it was reflecting Uzume’s butt.

I’m also a bit iffy on the book proclaiming that Saint Brigid was a lesbian – while I agree that her origins are possibly pagan, the claim that Brigid was in a relationship with her ‘soul sister’ seems to a bit of a reach and from what I understand, not an orthodox interpretation. The concept of Anam Cara, which I assume is the basis of the ‘soul sister’ claim, reminds me of David and Jonathan’s friendship which was deep and true and without romantic implications, as well as the call to koinonia within the Church. We should be celebrating and encouraging intimate friendships because we need friendships that are deep and true and it frustrates me a little to see that everything interpreted in a romantic way. So that chapter was mildly annoying on two accounts – first because we don’t know for sure what Brigid identified as and what was presented as fact seems to be a more modern interpretation, and second, because I’m tired of all ‘deep’ relationships being seen in a romantic light because that is not the be-all and end-all of our relationships. The whole “you can only find true happiness and fulfilment in a romantic relationship” idea is a damaging one that leads women to seek happiness in a relationship but that is a rant for another post.

I also liked that there was a reading list and a playlist at the end of the book so that you can use it as a starting point to explore more about the women featured here.

But sadly, there were a few points that stopped this book from being truly impressive to me.

Firstly, there was the issue of diversity. The book definitely tries to be diverse, but it came across to me as not trying very hard. Out of the fifty women profiled,

• 10 were Greek and/or Roman
• 16 were from Europe (out of the 16, 4 were from the Celtic mythos)
• 6 were from Asia
• 6 from the African continent
• 2 from the continent of America
• 10 from the rest of the world

I did my best but the contents page freely jumps between classifying by religion and ethnic group and as someone familiar mostly with Western and Asian cultures, I have a gap in my knowledge with regards to other countries. But even this count shows that over half the women are from traditional Western myths, with the Celtic myths representing a quarter of the whole of Europe. I’d argue that Asia and Africa have equally rich mythic traditions, yet they take up just under a quarter of all the women profiled. It seems like no matter what, there’s still dominance by the traditional Western and Greco-Roman myths.

Secondly, the women chosen were kind of odd too. I mean, from China we only have Mazu, but what about Guanyin, Chang’Er, Mulan, the Huli Jin, or historical figures like the four great beauties? From Japan, there’s the Futakuchi Onna and Ame no Uzume but what about Ameterasu, Yuki-Onna, Murasaki Shikibu? Where are Korean women? Where are Cambodian women? Malay and Indonesian get lumped together in the Pontianak, which is described as a “Malay ghost” but whose Indonesian moniker, Kuntilanak, is also mentioned. I can only really comment on the Asian section but it felt rather random and unbalanced, especially compared to the amount of Green and Roman women mentioned. I can imagine that just reducing the number of Greek and Roman women (most of whom are already pretty famous) to three or four and then adding one or two women from other parts of the world would have made it so much more diverse.

And the parts that were diverse really were the best parts. My favourite bigoraphies were of women who were completely new to me, such as Mami Wata (African goddess) and Yennenga (Mossi, African Princess). If the book wanted to celebrate the lesser-known women figures, as it seems from the Asian selection, then I want to see more of them and less of the more mainstream names like Hel, the Valkyries, Freyja, Cassandra, Medusa, etc.

Finally, the illustrations were a bit odd too – the one about the Pontianak did not remind me of a pontianak at all. Perhaps it’s the lack of blood on her dress, perhaps it’s because her colouring was very similar to that of the selkies, but I did not get pontianak feels. The Japanese characters were better but I suspect it’s a lot to do with the kimonos.

Overall, I’m conflicted about the book. I really like the concept and I think that for the most part, the biographies are well done but I wasn’t impressed with some of the illustrations and while I really love the Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Norse myths, I would have loved to see more from other countries as well. I suppose this is a case of misaligned expectations – For some reason, the introduction made me think it would be a lot more diverse than I found it.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.

Featured Image: Photo from Canva