Review by Kelly Jarvis: The Maiden and the Marrow Witch by Rebecca Buchanan

The Maiden and the Marrow Witch is a compelling novelette about murder and mystery in a magical, mythical world. Dedicated to the people of ancient Crete and the archeologists uncovering its beauty, the story launches directly into action with a proclamation that “The bull is dead.” This fact is unsettling to the Pasithea who rules over the kingdom. When the caretaker fails to learn how the bull has been killed and offers his own life for the ritual sacrifice to the maiden, his daughter, Ariemme, the least of the Pasithea’s children and an unlikely detective, must solve the crime and save his life.

The tightly spun plot of Buchanan’s novel kept me reading, but I lingered on the sumptuous details of her world building and characterization. This is a tender country filled with magic, a place where the Pasithea can speak with the bees and bulls, call forth the rains, and hear the cracking of the earth. While Ariemme's bare-chested mother and siblings wear skirts in varying shades of red to denote their power, her skirt is pale pink because her abilities are so diluted. Nevertheless, golden bees click in her hair, and her compassion and curiosity lead her outward toward adventure and discovery. In a relatively short space, Buchanan expertly weaves the tale of a world I long to know more about, and I hope she circles back to this lore in future novelettes. The Maiden and the Marrow Witch swept me away and returned me changed; its images and characters will stay with me for a long time.

If you enjoy fantasy, mythology, folklore, murder, and tight, purposeful narrative that paints pictures in your mind, you will love The Maiden and the Marrow Witch. It is the perfect, bite-sized appetizer to Buchanan’s luminous short stories, novellas, and poetry collections like The Adventures of the Faerie Coffin, Geek Witch and the Treacherous Tome of Deadly Danger and Not a Princess, (But) Yes, There Was a Pea & Other Tales to Foment Revolution. You can find it here.

Kelly Jarvis works as the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine and teaches writing and literature at Central Connecticut State University. Her work has been featured in A Moon of One’s Own, Blue Heron Review, Corvid Queen, Eternal Haunted Summer, Mermaids Monthly, The Chamber Magazine, The Magic of Us, and Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers. Her debut novella, Selkie Moon, was released in 2025. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/