Toil & Trouble

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft edited by Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe (2018)

I am feeling very pleased with myself about actually reading this book at a somewhat seasonal time! This is a teen anthology of stories about witchy girls, and there's a lot of diversity as I have come to expect from Jessica Spotswood's anthologies. They're a mix of contemporary and historical with characters of different backgrounds, but always strong females and a lot of sisterhood.

Of course I had a few favorites. "Afterbirth" by Andrea Cremer was a chilling tale about midwives in Puritan New England. A young apprentice assists with an unusual birth that turns tragic, and the midwife is held responsible. "The Heart In Her Hands" by Tess Sharpe is set in a world where a sort of magical tattoo appears on young women, telling them the first words that will be spoken to them by their soulmate. But Brenna already has a soulmate, a girl, and she refuses the boy who speaks the prophetic words to her. "The Truth About Queenie" by Brandy Colbert is about a young witch who wants to keep her powers secret; also secret is that she's in love with her best friend, Webb. When he brings home a girlfriend for her to meet, her hopes are crushed. This story made me want more, in a good way. There's enough here about Queenie and Webb's friendship, and Queenie's powers and her family, for a full-length novel and I would definitely read it. "The Legend of Stone Mary" by Robin Talley was a creepy small-town legend about a mysterious statue that is said to come to life under the right circumstances, and a teenaged girl who is a descendant of the subject of the statue.

Now I'm realizing I have too many favorites to relate them all in details, but others include "The One Who Stayed" by Nova Ren Suma, "Divine Are the Stars" by Zoraida Cordova, "Daughters of Baba Yaga" by Brenna Yovanoff, "The Well Witch" by Kate Hart, "Beware of Girls With Crooked Mouths," by Jessica Spotswood, and "Love Spell" by Anna-Marie McLemore. There were really only a few stories I wasn't really into, and in a couple of those cases I think I just shouldn't have started a story when I was already tired. It takes some focus to get into a new story and that's one of the difficulties of reading a short story collection.

All in all, I really enjoyed this collection and recommend it if you're looking for some witchy-themed fall reading!

The Radical Element

The Radical Element: 12 Stories of Daredevils, Debutantes and Other Dauntless Girls, edited by Jessica Spotswood (2018)

Back of November of 2016 I posted about A Tyranny of Petticoats, a feminist anthology edited by Jessica Spotswood. The Radical Element is the follow-up, and it's just as good.

There weren't any stories I disliked, but four of them particularly stood out to me. "Lady Firebrand" by Megan Shepherd takes place in South Carolina in 1863. Rose is visiting an aunt and uncle with her friend Pauline, a free black woman. They are unhappy about Pauline's presence, but Rose claims she is specially trained to help people who use wheelchairs (which Rose does). Coincidentally (or not?) their visit coincides with a rash of crimes committed by a mysterious Northern Sympathizer called Lord Firebrand.

In "Step Right Up" by Jessica Spotswood, a young woman in Tulsa in 1905 eagerly anticipates the annual visit by a traveling circus. She has been obsessed by the high wire act since she first saw it, and hopes that this year she can finally pursue her dream. Ruby's Uncle Jack, however, is an abusive hothead who doesn't care what she wants and she'll need to contend with him before she can really be free.

Anna-Marie McLemore's "Glamour" is set in the roaring 20s and stars a young woman who is pursuing fame despite not looking the part, but she has a special power that allows her to change her appearance. Grace is Mexican-American and disguising her appearance doesn't keep others' cruel words from affecting her. It's getting harder and harder to pretend she's someone she's not, but how else can she fit in?

"When the Moonlight Isn't Enough" by Dhonielle Clayton is about a very unusual family with a secret they've kept hidden by moving to a new place every few years. Emma is tired of just being a teenage girl who needs to obey her parents, and can't ever form friendships because they'll just be over the next time they need to move. She wants to do something more with her life, something real, something involved, but she also needs to keep her secret closely guarded.

Interestingly, these last two contain otherworldly elements, magical realism, I guess. I remember from A Tyranny of Petticoats the stories I liked least were those with the same kind of elements. I don't know if these stories are just better or if my tastes have changed, but I was a little surprised at how much I liked "Glamour" and "When the Moonlight Isn't Enough." I was less surprised how much I liked the first two I mentioned. These stories are full of young women trying to make their lives their own, despite the expectations of those around them. In some cases, the characters are non-white, which proves extra difficult in the context in which they're living, and the stories also include LGBTQ and gender non-conforming people. There are all sorts of ways these characters are being hindered from living their best lives, but still they persist.

I found the stories in this collection inspiring and hopeful, and just as with A Tyranny of Petticoats I also learned more about the historical periods in which they took place. The authors included notes about the settings and characters which give us a broader context in which to understand the stories. All together this was a very enjoyable collection, and I've found some new authors I now want to read!

The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls

The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls by Jessica Spotswood (2018)

Four sisters, orphaned and living with their grandmother, share a transformative summer. The oldest, Des, works full-time in the family bookstore and has been handling most household responsibilities while their grandmother has been recovering from an injury. Bea has just graduated and will be going to Georgetown with her boyfriend Erik, except she can no longer tolerate even thinking about this long-standing plan. Kat has been dumped and is formulating a plan to get her (jerk of an) ex-boyfriend back. Vi has a deep crush on a girl named Cece who seems super nice, but also seems to have a boyfriend.

These were all such good story lines, and I really loved these characters. Des is this totally dependable mom-figure who takes care of everybody at the expense of really living her own life. The book never comes out and uses the word "asexual," but she makes it clear a few times that she is uninterested in pursuing romantic relationships with anyone of any gender. She is, however, interested in a friendship with Paige, new to town, and different from anyone Des has known before. Her grandmother warns her away from this girl, claiming she is trouble, but Des ignores her, tempted by all the fun times she can have with Paige.

I loved how imperfectly realistic these characters are. Like Bea, who has been with her boyfriend since she was 13 (!!) and they've totally planned their lives together, but she is no longer interested in that life. She has also met a very attractive boat-dwelling guy named Gabe and has been spending some time with him. She can't bring herself to break up with Erik though. His family is like her family and vice versa. It would be like two families splitting, rather than just two people. And Erik is a super nice guy. There's nothing wrong with him, it's just that Bea is no longer in love with him. It would be much easier if he was actually a terrible person. 

Like Adam, Kat's ex-boyfriend. He cheated on her and is now dating the girl he cheated with. Kat is determined to win him back and realizes that the person to help her do it is Mason. Mason is bisexual and recently went through a breakup with his own boyfriend, who he also wants to win back. Kat's idea is that they will pretend to date and make their exes jealous. This will be especially easy since Kat and Mason got the lead parts in a play - a perfect situation to construct a romance! But it starts being difficult to tell what is acting and what is real.

The youngest sister, Vi, has been an out lesbian for a while now, and it's no big deal. The girl she is crushing on, however, is Latina and has a pretty conservative family. Also, a boyfriend. Vi has no idea if Cece is even interested in her and is SO angsty about it and tries to avoid Cece and gets all weird when they actually interact. (I mean, you remember being 15, right?) Cece is so great and they have a ton in common but Vi can't tell if Cece is being friend-nice or more-than-friend-nice. I feel you, Vi - we've all been there! I liked that some little things were included about Cece's life, like how annoyed she gets when people ask her where she's from and compliment her on her English. (Hint: she is from the United States and has always spoken English.)

I love small town stories and stories about sisters, which Jessica Spotswood is so good at (see also: The Cahill Witch Chronicles.) She's also good at creating individual, diverse characters who are realistically flawed and who I always root for. I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a perfect summer read. I know the title says "the last summer" but I would absolutely read another book about these characters and how things are going a year or so down the road. I want to make sure they're all ok!

A Tyranny of Petticoats

A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers & Other Badass Girls, edited by Jessica Spotswood (2016)

If you have been reading this blog for a while you probably know how much I love author Jessica Spotswood. The Cahill Witch Chronicles is one of my favorite series, and I love her new contemporary novel Wild Swans. I'm very happy that Spotswood has stuck to her feminist tradition and edited this book of short stories that feature a diverse cast of young female characters making their way in the world and creating the lives they want. Authors include such well-known names as Marie Lu, Elizabeth Wein, and Marissa Mayer, plus several authors who are completely new to me. All stories are historical fiction that take place in the United States, but some have elements of fantasy and magical realism. They are arranged chronologically, the year and location listed below each title, beginning in 1710 in British North America, ending in Illinois in the summer of 1968.

As I began, I thought I'd write down the titles of the stories I especially liked so I'd remember later which ones I wanted to talk about. Pretty soon it became clear it would be much easier to write down the few I wasn't super crazy about. Mind you, even the ones I didn't like weren't bad, they simply weren't my style (i.e. magical realism.)

So what did I love? "The Journey" by Marie Lu, in which a young Inuit woman's parents are killed by white invaders and she must flee with her sled and dogs to try and reach another village. "The Red Raven Ball" by Caroline Tung Richmond set in Washington D.C. during the Civil War and stars a daring girl determined to reveal a spy at a fancy ball thrown by her grandmother. "Pearls" by Beth Revis, in which a teenage girl is will be forced to marry the man who raped her, but instead leaves to begin a new life as a teacher in remote Wyoming Territory. "The Legendary Garrett Girls" by Y.S. Lee, the story of two bartending sisters in Alaska and what happens when renegade men decide to steal their business. "The Color of the Sky" by Elizabeth Wein, recounting the story of Bessie Coleman, the first black woman to get a pilot's license. And so on, and on. This is a really strong collection.

Some stories I kind of wish were novel-length. I would have loved to spend more time with Yakone, the Inuit woman in Alaska in the early 1700s. Or with brave Helen, leaving behind the men who want to control her and forging a new life as a teacher. Or Madeleine, the title character of Spotswood's story "Madeleine's Choice," who learns early how to make her way through an unfair world and I just want to know if she ends up being happy with her life.

I also learned a lot about American history from this collection. I didn't know about the lives of free people of color in the early 19th century, about the quadroon balls and the "arrangements" between white men and free black women that Spotswood wrote about in "Madeleine's Choice." I didn't know anything about Bessie Coleman either until reading Elizabeth Wein's story. Or the Black Panthers, which of course I'd heard of but never really read anything about. The author of the "Pulse of the Panthers," Kekla Magoon, is publishing an in-depth book about the history and legacy of the Black Panthers which I'm hoping is also a teen book so I can recommend it to my book group. There is so little historical fiction that takes places in the US, yet our history is so rich with surprising and adventurous stories.

I could go on at length about all the stories in this collection - there were great ones that I didn't even mention here. They are all worth reading, and you'll find much to admire about the brave, fierce, unstoppable young women that you'll meet.

Wild Swans

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood (2016)

Milbourn women are extraordinary, but it has come with the price of early, tragic death. Ivy Milbourn doesn't think she'll ever live up to the expectations of her grandfather and achieve the greatness of her grandmother and the women who came before her, but maybe that means she'll also escape the family curse. At any rate, this summer she's done with all the extracurriculars, the classes and activities her grandpa has pushed at her in hopes of finding some hidden talent. This summer, Ivy is just going to be a regular teenage girl and party with her friends and swim and have fun. That is, until her mother - who abandoned Ivy as a baby - returns to town with two other daughters in tow.

My biggest fear when I was anticipating this book was regarding the fact that it's it's contemporary fiction and therefore will be nothing like The Cahill Witch Chronicles, Jessica Spotwood's series about three witch sisters with an ominous prophecy. Much to my delight, Wild Swans opened with the story of the Milbourn family curse. This immediately put my fears at ease and drew me into the story and soon I had forgotten all about my worries.

Ivy was great. I totally get her frustration about not having a thing she excels at. I've never had pressure to be extraordinary at anything, but I always thought it would be nice to be really good at something. It sucks when you keep trying a ton of different things and are only ok at all of them. I can only imagine how much worse it must be with the pressure of such accomplished ancestors hanging over your head. Ivy is kind of introverted but still sometimes goes out with friends, and she attends some local bonfire parties and even drinks (though not to excess.) She loses her head a bit over a boy named Connor who is one of her grandfather's students and I like she got carried away a little with him. She was so realistic to me. She was also kind of dorky in the best way, with her summer job at the library and the way she responded to stress by signing up for a college-level French class.

Ivy had two best friends, Claire and Abby. They were both good friends but I especially loved Claire. She was openly bisexual and was frustrated at the assumptions people made about her, but instead of feeling bad or internalizing these ideas, she worked hard to refute them. Claire knew what she was all about and was confident and not afraid to say what was on her mind. She was also very protective of her friends and unapologetically feminist, offering such as advice as "We do not give blow jobs so that boys will like us!" She made me laugh out loud more than once, and I really, really want her to be the protagonist of Jessica Spotswood's next novel. (I have maybe already contacted her with this request. Maybe.)

The cast of characters was quite diverse, actually. In addition to Claire, Abby's younger sibling is possibly transgender, and neither of Ivy's potential love interests are white; one is Mexican-American and the other biracial.  This book isn't about issues of diversity, it's not about race or gender or sexual orientation, but rather just happens to be populated by a variety of people who are different from each other. You know, like in real life.

Fundamentally, this book is about Ivy and her family, and how she feels about the way she fits into it and the way that they treat each other. She has huge issues with her mother - as would anyone who was abandoned as a child - but also maybe with her Granddad who has been raising her all this time. Not to mention the difficulties with her half-sisters who didn't even know that she existed. There is a romance story here too, and I like it, but it takes a back seat to the other parts of the story because this isn't a romance novel.

Despite my intense love of The Cahill Witch Chronicles, I was not at all disappointed by this new novel, which I devoured in just two days. It was wonderfully satisfying. And now I have to patiently wait for Jessica Spotswood to write her next book. (Hopefully starring Claire.) Perhaps in the meantime I'll pick up A Tyranny of Petticoats, a book of short stories that Spotswood edited that features fiction about badass women. If you're ever looking for some feminist fiction for teens, you will not be disappointed by this author.

Sisters' Fate

Sisters' Fate (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #3) by Jessica Spotswood (2014)

Finally, the third and final volume of this series has arrived! When we left the Cahill sisters, the witches had just caused a mutiny at Harwood Asylum and rescued a large group of women who had been committed unjustly and horribly mistreated. But the witches were divided, and Maura was so angry at her sister Cate, she did the worst thing she could think of - she erased Finn's memory so he didn't remember her. I didn’t know how Jessica Spotswood was going to write us out of this horrible situation. Of course I shouldn’t have worried, and I wasn’t disappointed with the wrap-up of this series.

Now, not only are the witches still in danger, but a fever is sweeping New London and the Brotherhood is trying to keep it a secret. The witches want to prevent further spread of the disease without revealing themselves, but as Sister Inez gains more power the Sisterhood's internal rifts only increase.

Since the first book of the trilogy, we’ve known about the prophecy the Cahill sisters are meant to fulfill. One family of three witches, all with the ability to use mind magic: one sister will be an oracle, and one sister will kill another.  I wondered if that last part of the prophecy would come true at all, or whether fate would somehow be thwarted. Tensions increased between all three Cahill sisters as Tess's visions became more and more terrible and real, convincing her she was going mad, and Cate remained furious with Maura for erasing Finn's memory. The conclusion was both exhilarating and satisfying.

I love the world that Spotswood has created for this story. In this alternate New England, witches have been persecuted so heavily that all women are punished, and greatly oppressed by the powerful Brotherhood. The paranoia and secrecy remind me a bit of the Soviet Union or North Korea, though of course old New England has a very different feel from those places.

Although there is romance, the best relationships in the series are those between the sisters and among their friends. We learn a lot about their friends and their friends' families compared to other teen books, but it doesn't get too complicated. It was just enough to make their friends seem real and interesting, and I think it helps remind us that this is their story too, and not just that of the Cahill sisters. There is an awful lot at stake here.

Sisters' Fate is a strong finish to a series that deserves more attention than it has gotten. I realize there's a lot of competition, but not many trilogies are so consistently good from start to finish. But I do what I can as a good librarian and recommend the first volume, Born Wicked, at every opportunity. (Because librarianship is all about making people read the books you love most, right?)

I hate to place undue pressure of authors to keep producing - and I do think it's enough of an accomplishment to write three really good books (or even one) - but I do hope Jessica Spotswood has more in store for us.

Star Cursed

Star Cursed (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #2) by Jessica Spotswood (2013)

Young witch Cate Cahill is now a member of the Sisterhood, learning more about magic in an environment where her powers don't need to be kept secret, yet still heartbroken over the choice to break her engagement with Finn. The Brotherhood have increased their persecution of witches and the Sisterhood are becoming desperate to put a stop to it, but they are divided into two camps. A struggle for leadership of the Sisterhood is brewing as well, because the current leader is ill and Cate has still not come into the powers predicted by the Prophecy.

Even though this book came out in June, I was determined to wait for the audio version to appear because I so enjoyed the audio of Born Wicked. I waited SO LONG. Finally, in desperation, I messaged the lovely and friendly Jessica Spotswood on Goodreads only to learn that there will be no audio. So ultimately I read the print version, while imagining Nicole Sudhaus reading it to me.

Audio or no, I am continuing to enjoy this series a great deal. I already wrote in my review of Born Wicked how much I like the alternate history Spotswood has created, but I didn't mention the strength and bravery of the women and girls in the books. Their situation in this society is complicated, and there aren't any simple solutions. Frequently in YA there is a clear right and wrong and, therefore, good and bad characters. Not so here - it is realistically nuanced as it would be in real life. It is easy see why Sister Inez and her followers feel like action needs to be taken soon, and why they are willing to make sacrifices. Although Cate disagrees, she frequently doubts herself because just as in real life, there is no clear right and wrong. But she makes her decision and sticks to it. Although there are men who are on their side, ultimately it is the women who must take responsibility and take action, and they do it with courage.

Somehow I omitted discussing Cate's romance with Finn in my review of the first book, though I enjoyed it a great deal. It came to what seemed a heartbreaking end but I was happy that Star Cursed brought new hope to that relationship. In this alternate world of 1800s New England same-sex relationships were sometimes a surprise, but not shocking or especially disapproved of. I very much like Spotswoods treatment of the romance between girls and women in her books. It is similar to present-day Massachusetts, where it is generally accepted but not the norm.

There is just so much I liked about this book, basically everything except the title (and I don't have a better idea, so there you go.) It was a very strong second in the series, which will be continued with the more appealingly-titled Sisters' Fate in August. August! After the shocking ending - which was even more upsetting than that of Born Wicked - I do not know how I'll wait until then. I also don't know how the author will resolve the horrible situation she created at the end, but I have faith that she will bring it to a satisfying conclusion. She hasn't disappointed me yet.

Born Wicked

Born Wicked (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #1) by Jessica Spotswood, narrated by Nicole Sudhaus (2012)

Ever since their mother died, Cate has felt a responsibility to take care of her sisters. This proves especially difficult because they are ruled over by the Brotherhood, an oppressive group who seek out and persecute women for the least offense. Cate and her sisters are in great danger if anyone finds out about them because all three of them are witches. Tension mounts when Cate finds her mother's diary and learns of an ominous prophecy. On top of that she is nearing her birthday and will soon have to choose the path of her life, either marriage or joining the Sisterhood. A decision which at first seemed so clear, is becoming more and more difficult to make.

I always feel like it's easier to talk about why I dislike a certain book than why I like it, but in this case I absolutely understand why I loved this book.

As is probably clear to anyone who reads this blog or has ever talked to me about books, I have a soft spot for historical fiction. If it takes place in New England, all the better. But this isn't the New England with which we are familiar, nor is it the world we know. The Western US is colonized by Indo-China, the South under Spanish rule. When Cate and her peers talk about freedom they long for Dubai where women can vote and wear trousers. It's historical AND a dystopia!

I think what makes this book a better pick for me than some paranormals, like The Gathering Storm, is that although it includes paranormal elements they aren't the focus of the story. Obviously, there wouldn't be a story if Cate and her sisters weren't witches, but not many spells are cast during the novel - it's more about the way witches (and all women, when you really get down to it) are persecuted in this society.

Another thing I loved about this book was that Cate didn't exhibit those annoying qualities that plague so many young protagonists. For instance, she wasn't artificially stupid or naive to further the plot, and though there were times when I felt she should tell her sisters secrets she was hiding for seemingly no reason, she didn't hold out for long. Just when I thought she was beginning to act a little bone-headed, she would come through for me.

The narrator on the audio version had a great reading voice and added emotion without melodrama. Combined with the relative simplicity of the writing, this was a good audio pick!

Since this is the first in a series, things didn't wrap up tidily the way I wanted them to, which is why I'm not a writer. (I'm telling you, my books would be SO boring because I wouldn't let the villains be horrible enough nor would I keep the love interests apart for long.) I am only upset that I read this when it was so new. Honestly, I had no idea I'd like it this much and want to read the next books in the series. Now I have to wait until February for the (unfortunately titled) sequel, Star Cursed.