Books
What We Talk About When We Talk About Witches
A Review of “The Shadow Cabinet” by Juno Dawson
The Shadow Cabinet, the second installment in the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven (HMRC) Trilogy, delivers on what the first book promises. Author Juno Dawson brings twists, turns, and fresh ideas into the narrative, keeping it rocketing forward.
To set the scene: four friends — fiery Leonie, timid Elle, kind-hearted Niamh, and stubborn Helena — fought in and lived through this universe’s version of a “wizarding war,” during which the opposition was led by disgruntled warlock Dabney Hale. The four friends’ vastly different ways of recovering from the trauma of the war don’t break the bonds between them in the years following. But in the first book, conflict over Theo, a young trans witch, tears them apart catastrophically. The institution at the heart of the book, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, must grapple with the consequences of its staid and traditional approach to witchhood.
When the second book opens, HMRC High Priestess Helena has been executed for the unforgivable crime of consorting with demons as part of her reckless plan to kill Theo, whom she was convinced was the prophesied “Sullied Child” primed to usher in the apocalypse. Theo’s gender, the crux of most of the conflict in the first book, is less of an issue in the second as HMRC seeks to put the scandal behind them and install Niamh as the new High Priestess in order to usher in what most witches hope will be a more progressive era.
There’s only one problem: Niamh is dead.
The shocking cliffhanger that ended the first book pays huge dividends in the second. Ciara, Niamh’s damaged and self-absorbed twin sister, takes over from Niamh as narrator after springing back to life from a years-long coma, stealing her sister’s body with the help of demon magic gifted to her by Helena, and then dispatching Niamh, now trapped in Ciara’s comatose body. Ciara is a well-written unreliable narrator, seeking to piece together lost memories of what she did during the war and why Dabney Hale (still alive and on the lam after escaping prison with Helena’s help) and a multitude of demons have taken a close personal interest in her.
And, as she commits egregious acts along the way, she never lets the reader forget that it was perfect, kind-hearted Niamh who unraveled her memories and put her in that coma in the first place.
As Ciara uncovers more about her life before and during the war, though, she starts to realize that her excuses for her crimes might not hold as much water as she thought. Her returning memories are rarely pleasant and force her to confront truths about herself that she’s not entirely comfortable with. The book opens with a prophecy; Ciara and Niamh’s mother, Miranda, is given the unwelcome news that one of her expected twins “will be kind, generous and loving, [while] the other will consort with the devils.” The prophecy becomes self-fulfilling as suspicion drives a wedge between Miranda and the still-innocent Ciara. Relentlessly compared unfavorably to her seemingly perfect sibling and blamed for everything wrong in the family unit, Ciara grows up understandably bitter. But rather than trying to overcome this admittedly painful upbringing, she uses her hurt and grief as excuses for bad decisions that cause further suffering and lets the long string of slights, grievances, and tragedies in her life lead her down a very dark path. Ciara’s awakening to her own culpability is a painful and necessary exploration of what it means to realize you’ve caused harm and need to seek forgiveness, even if you may not find it.
There are a multitude of other plotlines — Elle’s sudden realization of how shockingly powerful her own magic is after discovering her husband’s affair; Leonie’s search for her missing brother, who is himself searching for Dabney Hale, who in turn seeks a dangerous and powerful artifact so he can finish the war he started; Theo’s uncertainty and confusion about the magical transformation of her body and where she stands with “Niamh,” who she sees as the closest thing she has to family; the discovery of a utopian island of witches reminiscent of fantasies of Atlantis; tension between the mundane government’s titular “Shadow Cabinet” and HRMC, which comes to a head with the help of a cartoonishly horrible secret society of misogynistic witch hunters — but Ciara steals the show, and is ultimately the lynchpin that ties all the subplots together in another shocking conclusion that leaves the reader hungry for more.
The end of “The Shadow Cabinet” promises further revelations about demons and their motivations; answers to lingering questions about the “Sullied Child” prophesy; and a potentially explosive confrontation between Ciara and the person she loves and hates most in the world. I can’t wait to see what the third book delivers.
About the Author
Juno Dawson is a #1 Sunday Times best-selling novelist, screenwriter, journalist, and a columnist for Attitude Magazine. Juno’s books include the global bestsellers, THIS BOOK IS GAY and CLEAN. She won the 2020 YA Book Prize for MEAT MARKET. Her first adult fantasy trilogy HER MAJESTY’S ROYAL COVEN launched in 2022, becoming an instant best-seller.
She also writes for television and has multiple shows in development both in the UK and US. Her debut short film was THE BIRTH OF VENUS (BBC 2020) and she created the first official Doctor Who scripted podcast DOCTOR WHO: REDACTED (BBC Sounds 2022). An occasional actress and model, Juno had a cameo in the BBC’s I MAY DESTROY YOU (2020), a recurring role in HOLBY CITY (BBC 2021) and was the face of Jecca Cosmetics Play Pots campaign.
Juno grew up in West Yorkshire, writing imaginary episodes of Doctor Who. She later turned her talent to journalism, interviewing luminaries such as Steps and Atomic Kitten, before writing a weekly serial in a Brighton newspaper. Her writing has appeared in Glamour, The Pool, Dazed and the Guardian. She has appeared on Pointless Celebrities, BBC Women’s Hour, Front Row, ITV News, Channel 5 News, This Morning and Newsnight.
Juno lives in Brighton. She is a part of the queer cabaret collective known as CLUB SILENCIO. In 2014, Juno became a School Role Model for the charity STONEWALL.
Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
