Enchantment
By: Orson Scott Card
I’ve been collecting fairy tale retellings recently and yeah for me for actually reading one! I was drawn to Enchantment (despite not being the biggest fan of Card) for one reason: the time element.
For Sleeping Beauty is out of time and Ivan (circa early 90’s) first goes back in time with her to her world and then she travels forward to ours. Getting a bit ahead of myself though.
Continue reading “A Fairy Tale Out of Time… in more Ways than One”
Fake Blood
By: Whitney Gardner
Grade: A
I thought I’d do quick mini-reviews of the rest of my “Halloween” reading as I throw myself into non-fiction/sci-fi November because there were some interesting reads. See Fake Blood. Which is completely my kind of relationship drama.
Continue reading “Mini-Review Wrap-Up: Halloween Reads Edition”
The Price Guide to the Occult
By: Leslye Walton
Grade: A
Okay, this is definitely more witchy. Nor Blackburn lives with her grandmother on Anathema Island in the Pacific Northwest. Family roots on the island run deep and her great (many times) grandmother was the first witch on the island. When the locals burned down her home- she cursed the place.
Yet grandma Rona is actually pretty sweet compared to our main protagonist Nor’s mother Fern.
Continue reading “Black Magic & Bad Moms: The Price Guide to the Occult”
The Witch of Willow Hall
By: Hester Fox
Grade: C
Available: October 2nd
After thinking about this book for a while it’s most like an origin story for a witch when said witch is the least interesting character. Also a love story. Also not that interesting.
*Netgalley kindly provided me with a copy of the book in exchange for a review.
Equal Rites
By: Terry Pratchett
Grade: A
A dying wizard passes along his magic staff to the chosen eighth son of an eighth son. Only whoops- someone really should have checked on that first cause the son number eight happens to be a daughter and well, girls can’t become wizards!
Which after reading about the (not so) braintrusts of the wizarding world in the first two books you’d think gender shouldn’t be an issue.
I saw this Fantasy Fun Tag a while back and really liked the questions. I hadn’t heard them or heard them put quiet like this before. So I thought I would give it a try. The original creator of the tag is on Youtube at: A World of Words
The Witches of New York
By: Ami McKay
Grade: B-/C+
Beatrice Dunn arrives in New York for the first time and immediately begins seeing ghosts and experiencing strange happenings. Luckily she gets a job at a tea shop run by Eleanor St. Clair and Adelaide Thom, who are more than capable of helping Beatrice, if they can get past their own problems, the accusations of witchcraft, and the strange things happening in New York.
I saw the Spooky Scary Book Tag on Youtube and since my Halloween mood has been kind of lacking recently I wanted to give it a go. I also wanted to see if I could get through it without picking Harry Potter for anything. (Fail.)
The original creator of the tag is Clever Fox
The Witch
Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy
Grade: A-
In 1630 a family of highly religious settlers try to make a go of it on the edge of some very lovely looking woods. It’s not going to badly until baby Samuel disappears without a trace and the crops begin to fail. Then everything definitely takes a turn for the worse.
The Witch Hunter
Author: Virginia Boecker
Genre: YA/ Supernatural
Grade: B
Well, The Witch Hunter was supposed to be for my Halloween month reading but it was neither creepy or scary. It did however fulfill one of the spots on the Great Imagination game, so yeah!
Elizabeth Grey lives in an alternative history Europe where she, along with her best friend Caleb, hunt witches and warlocks for Blackwell, the Kings Grand Inquisitor. The number one mission is to find Nicholas Perevil the crown’s major enemy and the man whom the magically inclined seem to be supporting. The witches and warlocks that Elizabeth finds go right to being burned at the stake.
Elizabeth isn’t having the best month ever but it gets progressively worse when she’s given up as a witch herself. Rescued from execution by the very people she’s hunted and turned into Enemy #2 by the people she used to work for Elizabeth has a problem.
Yeah, this isn’t a book that was full of surprises. I pretty much knew where everything was going right down to the betrayals but it was still an enjoyable read. I liked the characters and I liked how the author wove the magic into the world.
I also liked that John, the boy Elizabeth finds herself falling for, isn’t your typical male lead in these kinds of stories. He’s the healer and the heart of the group not really the fighter. But other than that even in the relationship nothing played out that surprised me.
This book is not a stand alone and while I overall enjoyed myself I’m not exactly chomping at the bit for the next one.
Recommend: Yes, for those that like their witches and alternate histories. Otherwise I could take it or leave it.
