True evil, Immanuelle realized now, wore the skin of good men. It uttered prayers, not curses. It feigned mercy where there was only malice. It studied Scriptures only to spit out lies.

There are a lot of creepy things in this book: beasts of the wood, witch queens, water turning to blood, mysterious plagues. But the true horrors here are man-made, as the quote above suggests. Sometimes, the designated external threat is just a cover—or an excuse—for the inside crimes.

The Year of the Witching has a powerful message that is woven in every part of the narrative. The character development here is a definite strength: the lead character's journey is logical and thoughtfully shown, and every other character we meet is interesting and complex, with their own set of truths and lies they live by. I loved the atmosphere of the mysterious Darkwood forest and the claustrophobic feel of the cult-like Puritanic community the story mostly takes place in. 

The pacing felt a little rushed at a few key points, and I had a few small qualms with the prose: it's very good overall, but sometimes it seemed like the author found a great turn of phrase that worked beautifully the first time around, then kept using it again and again. Those are pretty minor flaws, though, and they didn't stand in the way of greatly enjoying the story.