The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale by C. M. Waggoner
I’ve liked
everything by C.M. Waggoner I’ve read. Her books are cozy, worlds are unique, inclusive, and interesting, and the plots are meaningful and not too easy. Cozy doesn’t
mean no stakes or no bad things happening. Everything is simply presented in a low-tension
way. This book was no exception.
Gretsella
has been the witch of reasonable prices in the forest of Brigandale for
decades, dealing in charms and curses—like coughing during classical music
concerts—tending to her poisonous plants and attending her coven of equally
qualified witches. One day, she finds a baby on her doorstep. She knows, as
there are knights ruining her garden, that the boy is special. She takes him in
anyway and names him Bradley. Her witch friends grant him good looks, charm,
kindness and a mean right hook.
Bradley
grows up to be exactly as wished, but he’s not terribly bright. Gretsella loves
him anyway, not that she would be caught dead admitting it. But, as tends to
happen, forest animals tell him he’s the rightful king, and against her wishes,
he sets out to take the throne. He’s successful. Unfortunately, he’s not a very
good king, mostly for being too kind. What is a witch/mother to do but to go to
the king’s castle and set things right, the only way a witch does things—her
way.
This was an
absolutely charming book, well-written and witty. It’s low stakes, low tension,
but not meaningless cozy fantasy, with great characters that have a good heart—even
Gretsella. Waggoner’s characters are never twee, and despite the cozy genre,
they’re not perfectly good with only good things happening to them. Between
chapters there’s another story of another witch, and though the side-steps
break the flow of the story constantly, they’re always short and necessary
additions. The ending is happy and conclusive, with everyone getting what they
want, even if it doesn’t happen exactly the way they imagined it would. It
leaves the reader happy and satisfied with the time spent with the book. I’m
looking forward to reading more books from Waggoner.
I’ve seldom
read Ilona Andrews, but the moment this book hit my radar, I wanted to read it.
It’s in isekai genre, which has been popular in East-Asia for decades, but which has
been making its way to western fantasy only in recent years.
In isekai,
a person from our world is transported to a fantasy world, an alternate reality, game or, like here, into a world of a book the protagonist has been reading. They often
bring something unique from the original world that gives them an edge in the
new world. In this book, the protagonist has an encyclopaedic knowledge of her
favourite book, knows exactly what’s going to happen, and sets out to change
the future.
Maggie has
woken up in a ditch in a strange medieval city without clothes and no idea how she’s ended up there. She’s
had a couple of days to adjust when the book begins, so she’s already figured
out the pertinent: she’s in the world of her favourite book she’s been reading
obsessively for the past decade. She also knows what isekai is and understands that
she’s been transported. She doesn’t remember dying, which is often a
requirement in isekai, but she knows she’s her original self and hasn’t taken
the body and life of an existing character in the book. It’s a cruel and
violent world where her favourite characters are more likely to die than not, and
she knows it’s headed to a violent and bloody upheaval.
She sets
out to survive. She needs money and shelter, and she knows where to find both.
The first requires a robbery which she has no compunctions committing. It leads
to a stunning discovery: she can’t die, hence the series name, Maggie the
Undying. Or rather, she dies and comes back to life a little later unharmed.
The world doesn’t reset when that happens, like often in isekai, and she’s able
to continue with what she’s gained.
Once she
has her basic needs met, she starts making little changes in the lives of her
favourite characters. Little changes lead to large ones and before she knows
it, she’s leading a group of people determined to prevent the bad future from
happening. She utilises the intimate knowledge she’s gained from the point of
view characters, and trades in secrets to win people on her side. It isn’t
smooth sailing, but with some sacrifices—usually her—they get to their goal.
And then it turns out the goal isn’t what they thought, because there are only
two books in the series with the third never published. Maggie doesn’t know how
the story ends.
This was a
great book. It’s told solely from Maggie’s first-person point of view and utilises
the tropes of isekai well. She knows what’s at stake, knows the players, and is
aware that with every change she makes, the future changes beyond her knowledge of
it. She gathers a found family around her, mostly by being nice and helping
them, which in the book’s cruel world is unheard of. Her allies are capable and
loyal, the mysteries are suitably complicated but not impossible, the twists
are good, and bad guys are perfectly evil. The love interest is straight from a
fantasy. The narrative flows well, the pacing is good, and the plot keeps in its
grip. The ending is the worst kind of cliffhanger, and I hope this series won’t
have the fate of Maggie’s favourite book.
My only
gripe is that since Maggie knows she’s in a book, she narrates what she’s
supposed to feel—fear, love, lust—instead of feeling it. It distances the
reader from the emotions, making it difficult to enter into her sentiments. The
romance especially suffers from this. The reader knows why Maggie thinks she
should find him attractive—although she wasn’t attracted to him in the book—but we’re never
shown the attraction and love she feels. There’s no quickening of her pulse, no
flushes of heat, or sweating of her palms when he’s around or kissing her, only analysing narrative. So,
while I root for the pair, I think I might be fine if they never ended up
together. But this isn’t a romance first and foremost, so I can live with that.
These Shattered Spires is the author’s debut novel and it’s wonderfully well-formed
and mature for one. It’s not an easy read and it doesn’t aim to be one. It’s
also not YA, despite the publisher advertising it as such. The main characters may
be in their late teens, but the themes aren’t YA and the characters don’t
behave or think of themselves as people on the cusp of adulthood. They’re
survivors who know they’ll die at any moment. The atmosphere reminds me of Gormenghast, and the world that of Gideon the Ninth.
It’s seldom
that a book stands so firmly on its unique world, but here it’s almost its own
character. Fourspires Castle is the whole world to its residents. It has always existed at
the brink of destruction by a daily apocalypse that has to be stopped with
spells every morning by the four head arcanists that inhabit its four towers: black,
red, green and grey, corresponding with the magic they wield: bone, blood,
botany, and stone. Even with this ceaseless spellcasting, the castle slowly
sinks and rots, disappearing piece by piece, diminishing the world. The rot and
decay of the castle is described vividly, down to smells and tastes.
The fifth
castle at the centre is occupied by the Thaumaturge, the most powerful of the
arcanists. He’s centuries old, and his position is coveted by all the
arcanists. Then the unthinkable happens and he’s assassinated, which triggers a
battle for succession among the arcanists, the Slaughter. It’s a race to the
top of the fifth tower, and as the name suggests, deadly, especially so for the
familiars of the arcanists.
The
familiars are humans trained to wrest, to pull arcania to power the arcanists
spells. It’s incredibly painful for them and wears them out bodily. They’re
treated badly (they’re not allowed to speak, they’re barely fed, and sleep on
floors and filth) and used until they die, usually very young.
The main
point of view characters are familiars of different disciplines. Tarenteeno
(Taro) is the familiar of the bone arcanist; Nixeen (Nixie), the familiar of
the botany arcanist; Elliot, the familiar of a lesser blood arcanist, and
Alis/Alix, a disgraced stone familiar. Taro and Nixie have been plotting an
escape, but the death of the Thaumaturge ruins their plans. The familiars are
instantly marked as participants of the Slaughter and to escape is to die. To
participate is to die too, because the new Thaumaturge will instantly kill all
familiars but their own.
However, Taro
and Nixie learn that the permanent apocalypse of their world isn’t the natural
state of things and that there might be a way to stop it and flee. They can’t
do it alone though, so they talk the other two into taking part. It’s not an
easy alliance or an easy task to pull off, but neither is the Slaughter.
The
relationships of the four are complicated. They’ve all trained at the same time
in the Pit, the academy for familiars. Taro and Nixie used to date, and Taro
still thinks they’re romantically involved. Nixie hates her guts for a
betrayal, but is using Taro to escape. Alis used to be Nixie’s best friend
before Taro showed up, so she hates Taro, but she also hates Nixie for leaving
her. But she loves her too. Elliot is the odd man out, but seems to be coveted
and hated in equal measures by the others for his looks.
The
characters aren’t nice or easy to root for. They’re selfish and brought down by
their harsh life. Elliot is suffering from a curse that makes him especially
irritable, Alis is having a gender crisis, Nixie is filled with hate, and Taro
isn’t entirely sane. They ally and betray each other, sometimes within the same
chapter, and none of them is very likeable. But little by little, reader
becomes attached to them, which isn’t wise when people casually and constantly
die.
This isn’t
an easy book to read. There is pain and suffering inflicted on the main
characters, blood and gore, broken body parts and death. It’s not a splatter
though, the narrative doesn’t dwell on the gory details, or even a grimdark as
such. Suffering is a natural part of the characters’ lives and the narrative
treats it so naturally that the reader doesn’t even blink an eye when a
character cuts into their own flesh to power a spell. Nonetheless, it does make
this a heavy read, and I had to pace myself a lot.
But there is also an undercurrent of hope for something better, an escape that is worth all the pain. This current carried the story against all odds and the harsh reality. Sometimes it paid off, sometimes it plunged the characters even deeper.
A countdown
to the Slaughter at the beginning of every chapter keeps the tension rising as
the four try to break the curse. And then it begins—and turns out to be
something completely different from what everyone believed, as is the end of the
curse. For a first book in a trilogy, the ending is fairly conclusive. It sets the stage for the next book, but the story can be left here as well. I’d read
more though.
I received
a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Entwined is
set in a secondary world that resembles the early 20th century with its
technology, with two kinds of people: humans and Entwined, people genetically
capable of magic who aren’t considered human. The Entwined used to rule Harrow
where the events take place, but after a revolution of sorts, humans are now in
charge and it means trouble for the Entwined that humans hate. Only the Entwined bound
to the Guild can operate freely. But the Guild is a gilded cage that’s not for
everyone.
Ottilie’s
boss has unearthed an artefact a client wants, which should bring in so much
money that Ottilie can finally leave. But before the transaction is complete,
both the artefact and her boss disappear. The client wants the artefact back
and since Ottilie is the only one left, she’s forced to find it. She has a good
notion who took it: her sister Pretoria, who has also left the Guild, and become
a thief.
The
artefact isn’t the only thing bringing Ottilie trouble. Humans are turning
against the Entwined and it’s getting more difficult to hide what she is. Human
zealots and Entwined terrorists are clashing and creating political upheaval, it
could be that the artefact she has to find is a key to destroying the Entwined
for good, and man she’s interested in might be a terrorist. On top of this, her other sister shows up too, and she wants to take
Ottilie back to the Guild. Things soon get out of hands and Ottilie finds
herself in the middle of events she has no way out of.
This was an
interesting first book in a duology. The magic powered by different lights
(sun, moon, twilight etc.) was unique, and the political situation was complex.
It was a bit too complex, to be honest, and I found it confusing a lot of time.
The narrative was rich and pulled the reader into the world and the magic effortlessly.
The story was a bit slow though, and not as engaging as the events would merit.
The narrative
is from Ottilie’s POV. She’s a good character with a lot of baggage, but not as
compelling as, for example, Hessa with her rage in Long’s Four Pillars series.
I couldn’t quite fathom why she’d come to Harrow where she knew she’d be
trapped and why she hadn’t left sooner, as she had the money for it. Many of
the events just happened to her and she accepted everything. Her waffling
between suitors was very characteristic. It wasn’t until the end that she took
a stance and even then, others made the decisions. The side characters,
especially the sisters, had good backstories too, but the reader didn’t have
similar insight into them as Ottilie, though the epilogue gave a good glimpse.
The book
ends at a natural turning point, setting the stage for the second book. Good
though this was, the storyline I was most interested in concluded here and
nothing particularly compels me to read more. I’m not sure I’ll read the
conclusion.
I received a
free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a
queer YA retelling of Sandra Bullock-Bill Pullman movie While You Were Sleeping
from 1995, which I loved back in the day, but which probably isn’t well known
among the YA target (unless they’re middle-aged women like me.) Knowing
the plot, I read this mostly to find out how or if the story would differ from the
original. There weren’t any surprises, but the story worked well.
The only
person who doesn’t believe Kenzie is Zach, 17, Hayden’s equally gorgeous
brother. He and Kenzie end up spending time together, and to their horror,
Kenzie realises they’re falling for Zach. But instead of coming clean, they
double down on the lie. All sorts of misunderstandings and missed opportunities
to tell the truth take place, until Hayden wakes up, bringing an end to the lie.
This was a cute,
feelgood queer romance, but it never rose to the level of the themes it
introduced: gender identity, queerness, or mental health. All characters were
understanding and sympathetic, no one was judgemental some misgendering
notwithstanding, and no bad things happened. Kenzie’s mother roused from her
depression to show some warmth, and even clearing up the lie went without
complications. The ending was a bit abrupt, but conclusive and good.
Kenzie was
a good character, with a lot going on in their life. I don’t know how well they
represented an NB person, and they never reflect on their gender identity. We
get more about them being a witch. Mostly they came across as a very typical YA
heroine with their inner monologue—all their behaviour or self-expression was
fairly feminine—or a Twinkie gay man. The narrative was from Kenzie’s POV, so
side characters, Zach included, weren’t terribly well fleshed out. The bestie
existed to show sympathy and support. Zach and Hayden’s parents were inspired
by Bullock and Pullman. The witchy stuff was also inspired by Bullock’s Practical Magic (1998).
The plot
followed the beats of the original. There was no conflict beyond the lie, so
the mid-part of the book felt a bit long with filler events where Kenzie and
Zach got to know each other. For a YA novel, school didn’t feature except for a
couple of mentions, which was both refreshing and odd. All in all, this was an easy
read that paid nice homage to the original without rising above it or
introducing anything new.
I received
a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
