strange and random happenstance: Curse

Shadowstitch by Cari Thomas
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 6th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 658 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Anna Everdell's life has been turned upside down by the arrival of Effie Fawkes. Her sister. Her twin sister. Her twin sister whom she never knew about. They were separated after their parents' death in the hope of surviving the curse that killed them. Anna was raised by her unlamented Aunt while Effie was raised by their mother's best friend Selene. The curse is such that they are fated to love the same man with deadly consequences. That man in Attis Lockerby. He is Selene's true child, unlike Effie, born and raised to break the curse. But Anna and Effie could never live without Attis so they must find another way. All three of them living together under Selene's roof isn't ideal but after the death of her Aunt, Anna can't face that house of horrors she called home. She was tortured her entire life and for what? To learn to hide her true self? Which might be a valuable skill in the current atmosphere. Protective coloration is needed with what's coming. Her Aunt might not have been wrong about the Hunters. There is a new government agency, the WIPS, the Witchcraft Inquisitorial and Prevention Services. They are tasked with investigating the rising cases of hysteria. And Anna's school, St. Olave's, is the epicenter of the hysteria, thanks in no small part to their coven's manipulations of mean girl Darcey. The school year starts with investigations and inquisitions. Things that were whispered about are now spoken aloud, that Effie, Anna, Manda, and Rowan are witches. It just so happens that on this one occasion they are right. The terror gripping London intensifies when on the one year anniversary of the death of the faceless women in Big Ben the ravens at the Tower of London start to act up. Everyone knows the legend, if the ravens leave the Tower London will fall. The Coven of the Dark Moon must therefore keep their heads down. Which is exactly what Effie doesn't want to do. She will never kowtow to anyone no matter if it endangers herself or others. And the coven is having teething issues as the member try to discover their affinities. Their powers are starting to develop but Anna's are still unpredictable and that puts everyone in danger. Anna and Effie need to find out what their mother learned about their curse and trace it back to it's origins in the 1600s in an attempt to break it. But even those who talk to the dead, the Hel Witches, don't seem able to help. The only one actually helping Anna is her ex Peter Nowell. He wants to "save" Anna. But it looks like she and her coven might be beyond saving.

In the modern era a witch hunt is a term used politically. Think of McCarthyism. Now that was an actual political witch hunt. But in the current era there is a certain bombastic politician who likes to throw the phrase around. A lot. He might just be the most powerful person in the world to my dismay and the dismay of many others. I'm sure he probably doesn't even know what it means. He just says it as a way to get his followers to believe he is being wrongly persecuted. Because, sadly, most witch hunts were about punishing the innocent, usually clever women for being helpful to their communities, though there are also cases of mass delusions and well, plain old spite and revenge. This certain politician is all about the spite and revenge. He plays the victim for sympathy again and again. But just his intoning of the phrase "witch hunt" repeated ad infinitum has made it relevant again. Not because he is the victim of said witch hunts, but because he is carrying them out on innumerable people unjustly. It is the classic case of Republican projection, whatever they say the Democrats are doing to them they are doing themselves. It's reprehensible. But because of the omnipresence of witch hunts this lends a grounding in reality to Shadowstitch. Yes, they really are witches, yes, they might have done some questionable curses, but that doesn't make the witch hunt justified. It's just rounding up the "other" and punishing them for not falling into line. Just because a book is fantasy doesn't mean it's not reality. Some of the harshest truths and bleakest realities can be seen clearer when focused through the lens of fantasy. Just look to Andor. This is a show set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, and yet there isn't a more relevant show out there that speaks to this moment in history. The Ghorman Massacre, holy hell, it is so powerful and terrifying because I can see that happening at any moment to people I love and care for. Shadowstitch also speaks to this moment. But it speaks to it in the way Arthur's Miller's The Crucible did, which besides being about teenagers, please ignore the anachronistic use of that word for the Salem witch trials, was about McCarthyism. It all comes full circle. But with a dash of the Third Reich. Because where would a book about teenage witches be without some Nazis Youths.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Andor, Anna Everdell, Attis Lockerby, Cari Thomas, Coven, Curse, Effie Fawkes, Ghorman Massacre, Hysteria, McCarthyism, Nazis Youths, Politics, Shadowstitch, Summer School, The Crucible, Third Reich, Threadneedle, Witch Hunt, Witches

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: November 2nd, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Robin Blyth's life changes in an instant because of a bureaucratic error. Despite being of the landed gentry the baronet has to take a job because of his recently deceased impecunious parents. He has an estate to oversee, a sister to shepherd through the world, and all of it needs money. Therefore he takes a job in the civil service. And that's where the error happens. He is mistakenly appointed to the Office of Special Domestic Affairs and Complaints. The mistake is that Robin, unlike his predecessor who mysteriously disappeared, doesn't know that magic exists. Therefore it is left up to his new colleague, Edwin Courcey, the liaison to the Chief Minister of the Magical Assembly, to "unbushell" him. Edwin figures it's the safest course for the time being to let Robin see a bit of this secret world, after the administrative error is corrected Edwin will administer Robin Lethe-mint and Robin won't remember a thing. But there's a time limit to Lethe-mint and the longer it is not administered the more likely it won't work. On his way home from his eye opening first day of work Robin is attacked. The thugs are magicians and curse Robin agreeing to remove the curse only if he hands over a powerful magical object that his predecessor has hidden. Seeing as Robin didn't even know of magic twenty-four hours previously it's unlikely he would know where the magical object is secreted, so he turns to Edwin. They scour the office but find nothing. What's more the curse is violently attacking Robin. He has severe attacks of pain accompanied by visions of the future. And it's spreading. This is serious. Which makes Edwin take a course of action he usually avoids. He goes home to his family estate. There the family has a massive library that might contain a clue as to how to help Robin. But there there is also family. A family that treats him as their whipping boy. While the little bit of magic Edwin has performed for Robin is amazing in his eyes, Edwin knows the truth. He barely has any magic. A fact his family likes to remind him of. And he's walking into the belly of the beast for a stranger. But their battle against curses, thugs, and family brings them closer than either of them could have thought of in their most detailed fantasies.

Touted as "Red White and Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell...featuring an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies"A Marvellous Light was my most anticipated read in November of 2021. After reading it I have to say it's blasphemy that they invoked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to try to sell this dreck that everyone else seems to love. I just don't get it. What is so great about this book? Yes we get copious amounts of gay sex, but that needs to be balanced by the narrative, for example actually bothering to define the magical system in the world this book is set in instead of having people say it's similar to The Magicians. No. Bad Freya. You need to have your own unique magical system that is well defined. I repeat, WELL DEFINED! I should not know more about Robin's cock than I do about how the magical system works! A BALANCED NARRATIVE. That shouldn't be too much to ask for in this day and age now should it? Apparently it is as everyone just loves this book. OK, how about I attack the writing style, would that help? Well, it would help me, because I'm still pissed this book didn't deliver. The writing style is not polished, confusing, and at times so elliptical that I would have to re-read whole sections to try to get the gist of what the author was attempting to say. Also while the book is seen through both Robin and Edwin's eyes sometimes the transition from one to the other is fumbled and it's really confusing for awhile until you realize whose POV you're reading. In other words, this book is in dire need of an editor. I find it hard to believe that Tor actually published a book that is more fanfic than it is literary endeavor and really pushed out the boat to promote it too. And I want to make it clear, it's not the explicit gay sex that is what I object to, it's that the book needs to have an explicit magical system to balance it and overall it just needs to be better written. I don't even buy Robin and Edwin as a couple. They are two gay men who a thrown together in a life and death situation who learn each other's secret and therefore decide to have lots of steamy sex. And I'm not buying the whole "opposites attract" theory either. In the normal course of things neither would have considered the other as a romantic partner, and what they've been through doesn't make them bound together, it just makes them need an outlet. And that's not really romantic at all.