SYNOPSIS: These are tales of wickedness... stories of evil and cunning, written by today's women you should fear. Includes tales from Kelley Armstong, Rachel Caine and Sherrilyn Kenyon, writing in their own bestselling universes.
Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery will take the classic tropes of tales of witchcraft and infuse them with fresh, feminist perspective and present-day concerns--even if they're set in the past. These witches might be monstrous, or they might be heroes, depending on their own definitions. Even the kind hostess with the candy cottage thought of herself as the hero of her own story. After all, a woman's gotta eat. Bring out your dread. The lineup in this anthology is not to be BELIEVED. So many authors I already love and some I'd been meaning to read. And there are a couple of short stories set in larger universes that I haven't gotten into yet, so that was a nice preview. Thank you, Night Worms! <3 My favorites: Widows' Walk Home: A Morganville Vampires Story The Deer Wife Bless Your Heart Last Stop on Route Nine Haint Me Too Gold Among the Black How to Become a Witch-Queen Honorable mention to The Night Nurse, which was amazingly well-done but I am never reading it again because it got into PPD a little too well. Quotes/Lines: ((spoilers below!)) AN INVITATION TO A BURNING -- Lovely opening paragraph. -- "And if I were a witch, and here you are alone with me, with no matches in sight, what do you think would happen then?" I approve of your sass, Sage. -- I love the feeling of connection and found family in this ritual. WIDOW'S WALK -- 'Once only Martha lived there but the others gradually shifted into it as husbands shuffled off mortal coils, either naturally or otherwise.' WHAT A LINE. -- Oh Chelsea, poor kid. -- 'She's old enough to understand that her position is one of shame; not because of the theft so much as being a child whose parents cannot feed them adequately. The shame isn't hers, but she still feels it, suffers for it on her mother's behalf.' :( -- "Your penance will be to come here for breakfast before school every weekday. And after school, there will be chores." ... "Until your debt is worked off or you're no longer hungry." I love them. -- "Who should take Mr. Landreneau?" "Me. I love a bully," says Eugenie. **pledging fealty to all these badass ladies** -- "Now, now, girl. If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all." Virginia where were you when I was in middle school -- DAMN, Eugenie. Not screwing around at all. I love it. -- Ohhhh. Have I mentioned how wonderful Angela Slatter's stuff is? Because yes. I haven't found a story of hers yet that I haven't loved. BLACK MAGIC MOMMA: AN OTHERWORLD STORY -- "I don't believe you are aware of what you possess, Miss Levine." Yep, totally am. But go ahead and explain it to me anyway.' Heh. I like her. -- "That's Tiffany. She's a total bitch." "Savannah..." "Sorry, Mom. I should roll up the window before I call her that." I adore this child and will definitely look into this series. -- 'Once Dora surrenders-- well, the third time she surrenders, the first two being fake-outs, which I expect' I love the fighters-who-respect-each-other's-tactics trope. -- I love you lady behind the counter please do not die for trying to help. -- I really like Dora. I hope she shows up in the series more. THE NIGHT NURSE -- 'Two year olds, constitutionally, are passive-aggressive. It's literally a hallmark of their personalities.' Yep. -- 'and then socks, always socks! No one could ever find, match, or put on their own socks!' TRUTH. -- 'Esme had tried to befriend these women, but they happened to be the same kinds of women who read Eat, Pray, Love and considered Love, Actually the best movie of all time. They were lovely women who would raise lovely children and Esme had nothing in common with them.' *checks author credit* Get out of my head, Sarah Langan -- 'So she got up and held the baby. Offered her breast, which the baby bit, tearing up the scab that had just healed. "I don't want you," she cooed sweetly, because babies don't understand English.' Yeahhhh, that is not a good sign. -- 'Spencer threw fits when she was late, which it turns out is normal for a two-year-old, but somehow unacceptable at a preschool for two-year-olds.' Right??? -- "Oh. Should I cram this baby I'm holding back in my vagina?" she asked. YOW. YOU TELL 'EM. Also, poor Esme. I'm getting secondhand stress/memories of my own PPD just from reading this. -- The ointment concerns me, and I do not trust Wendy one bit. Esme should have a proper support system, not a do-nothing husband and a woman she met at a museum who I'm pretty sure bewitched her somehow. The whole 'oh, I'll work with you on payment' just means the price will be WAY too high. -- 'She got the text from Mike that he'd be coming home late. He had this pattern since they'd started having kids. He stayed away util they were sleep-trained.' Fuck you, Mike. If the Night Nurse really is some kind of monster hopefully she'll eat you. -- "You can't have my references because you're not my employer." Liking Wendy a little more now. Get that asshole. -- 'Wendy smiled at the baby and she smiled more at Esme, like she mattered. Like she was a person who could be seen.' Oh, honey. You need help, and what got into your house because your husband's an unsupportive ass? (please don't let anything happen to her or those kids) -- 'The next day Mike slept in because it was Saturday and he was tired.' And she isn't?? -- "It's voodoo," Marlene whispered. "I can smell it on the children. You're marked." UM. -- "Can you feed him? I left a bottle," she asked Mike. Mike popped a last beer, and answered like he'd only vaguely heard. "Sure." She'd been through this before. Sure meant absolutely not, but she decided to let it play out.' My hatred for Mike is bright and unending. -- Wendy keeps ignoring her when she suggests it's time to leave oh nooooo -- Oh my GOD these judgmental preschool dipshits. "I trust you'll give me my money back. A false accusation of child abuse is a big deal. I can't imagine you'll keep your accreditation if I sue." GET 'EM ESME. -- 'Ritah's mom asked Esme to babysit. "You realize I'm drowning and you've never once offered to watch Lucy, right?" MY GIRL, there you go. Now do Mike. -- Ask Marlene for help!! She might know what to do. It's not going to be as easy as throwing stuff away. -- Oh no. No, no no. That is the stuff of nightmares I cannot handle this. THE MEMORIES OF TREES -- ...please be a more lighthearted one I need it after that. -- 'The Faithful intended to hang the child at dusk.' Oh, well then. Okay. -- I have read two more paragraphs and I want every one of the Faithful to die slowly and horribly. -- The more things change, huh? -- 'Our weapons are older, stronger,' the trees responded. 'We will not let you fall, little one.' <3 -- 'Elder Barrow's expression didn't waver, except to allow a tiny, almost imperceptible smile.' Looking forward to your brutal death. -- 'We spared the children, who ran away into the woods. Little Ellena had asked for that, and we obliged.' Good on you, kid. HOME: A MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES STORY -- "Way to waste your blood donations," Shane said, and nodded at the cuts that had opened up in Oliver's hand.' A vampire getting pissy that someone's opening a rival coffeeshop across the street? I love it. -- 'He had a family to protect, not just from the random hunger pangs of some nightstalker, but from the things even the vampires feared.' oooooh. *curious about this series* -- "If you draw that stupid thing, I'm going to have to refuse service," Jane said. "And cook that arm for my dinner. Oh, who am I kidding. I'll feed it to the cat." Yikes? -- Shane you dumbass -- Fluffy vampire bunny slippers? Myrnin, I adore you. -- "If I'd found you gadding about, I'd have burned you on the spot, Myrnin." Shane felt a chill, because Oliver's voice was no longer cool. It was vicious, and completely serious.' So he acts like that even now, and used to murder witches? ...let Jane have him. -- "Pot, kettle," Shane muttered, and she at least pretended not to hear, which was good, because he liked his internal organs on the inside.' *snerk* -- "Do you like my new familiar? I thought he'd be useful. Oliver seemed concerned for his safety. Unusual. He normally doesn't care about the mayflies." okay that is creepy -- "Hundreds of thousands of innocents slaughtered to find a handful of genuine threats. Isn't that right, sugar?" "Yes," Amelie said quietly. "But that began before my time, or Oliver's." "You took up the cause happily enough." "It's what we were taught," Oliver said. "Is that what you want to hear? An apology for that?" "Oh no, sweetie. I'm not here for your regret. I'm here for your blood." ngl I'm still kinda on Jane's side here -- "Back away from me, boy." "Or what?" Michael, you do not seem to have much common sense. -- "Don't offer up your blood for him." "I'm not. I'm offering it up for this town. There are a lot of innocents here. You talked about how many were killed to get to you, right? I'd like to avoid that here." ...please don't die -- "Tell your friends how I died, Oliver." "The times were different," he said. what did you DO you asshole -- ...go straight to hell Oliver, wtf -- "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Take us home, my love." Awwwww. -- "Even for Morganville, that was weird." I'm buying all of these books. THE DEER WIFE -- 'She has killed those who cross her. She has scared men to death. If you're out in the woods at night and you hear her song, it'll be the last sound you ever know. But the stories, they're all half-truths.' This is a beautiful piece so far; I love these women and their relationship. -- ...sorry, if he was gonna get drunk and violent then he had it coming. Hope the kid's not showing the same tendencies; if he starts in then get the hell out of Dodge. -- Okay, fuck him forever for even trying that. Get out, Julie. -- *heart eyes* THE DANCER -- "They don't mean it." Mrs. Weaver smiled at Baker, you know how children exaggerate.' Ugh. -- "Oh, you don't need to tell this part," Mrs. Weaver said, staring at her shoes. Poor Ani. She and her brother need parents who give a shit about them instead of maintaining appearances. -- "We are a family, Mr. Baker. We're going to live as one." Even if it means tying up your kid?? -- "Ani, if you come with me, I will bring you to Burlington and find a place for you for the night." Bless you. -- 'The repercussions of taking Ani wouldn't be slight, but Baker had a good lawyer, and he wasn't afraid. This wasn't the first time.' Hello yes I would like an entire series of Baker being an epic badass and getting abused kids out of bad situations. -- ...okay I didn't see that coming. BLESS YOUR HEART -- The first paragraph of this just kicked my anxiety into overdrive. PTA politics, noooo -- 'It was the end of church for her. It would have been the end of the entire town if she could have swung it.' I love you. ((please let her son be okay)) -- "Well, you know how kids can be--" he started.' Kill him. -- "Eh, a few of them were involved" "the bully's not a *bad* kid" fuuuuuuck youuuuuu -- Oh, Tuck, sweetheart. -- 'Isolating a gay kid in a red county...she knew how that went. He'd end up broken, running off, or dead. And I ain't losing my boy.' I love you, agree with you, and will provide an alibi if necessary. ((seriously, she's not brushing this off or thinking 'oh, he just has to get through this and he'll be fine'; she knows and flat-out acknowledges how bad this can get without sugar-coating it in her own head and that is So Important)) -- "Not the time, Audrey! Not the damned time, all right?" Should've listened sooner, asshole. -- The. Last. Line. THE DEBT -- oh shit, that paragraph about the one time she ever wore a dress. -- 'hopeful that the reason her dad had suddenly been so eager to take her to the country of his birth was because he wanted to rekindle the warmth they had lost.' *looks at story title* *looks at theme of anthology* Yeah I doubt it. -- Baba Yaga reference yesssss -- If you did this to your little girl on purpose I swear -- "This settles your debt." Your debt might be settled with her but now I get to kill you, them's the rules. TOIL & TROUBLE: A DARK-HUNTER HELLCHASER STORY -- Without her...humans are screwed. Sounds about right. -- "Not the most original of prophecies, is it?" "Nay. Seems as if patricide be the crime of the hour. How very gauche." I like how this started all formal and then went full snark. -- I like Eeri a lot; she's actually giving the people who want help honesty. She's still *trying*. (I can see the witches' cynicism, being ageless and all, but...yeah.) Also, instead of them letting Eeri go and asking her to apprentice of her own free will, they keep her as a slave and have the gall to think her 'treacherous'? You're lucky she hasn't played steal-the-eyeball. -- okay so that's definitely the same creeper in disguise RUN -- "But you judged your sisters for your crimes and for that you are damned." Wait, what? Those weren't her sisters; they were her owners. She panicked and ran after being directly threatened, how is that damnation material?? And I just looked her up on Kenyon's website and her character profile still says 'slave', just apparently to a demon or somesuch now? No thanks. (I haven't read anything else in the series; if I misread something here or Eeri does get a happy ending, please DM me on Twitter and let me know!) LAST STOP ON ROUTE NINE -- "My dad got locked up here," Kai said. "He said that place was just a bunch of rednecks who hurt kids for fun. And he said Gracetown is haunted as shit." Poor kid. I'd be twitchy around there, too. -- So the grandma sent him to a creepy 'Reformatory' and then said he needed therapy as an insult when he didn't bounce back all happy-cheery afterwards? What a sweet lady. -- "What if we get pulled over? And I get locked up for no reason like him?" Oh honey. Why can't I do battle with this society and win dammit -- "There's a house. I'm just going to knock on the door and ask for directions." NO -- "That's crazy!" Kai said. "Haven't you ever seen Deliverance?" Listen to the kid please and thanks -- 'She still remembered a black woman's name: Renisha McBride. And there were others. But she also wasn't going to let fear rule her life. It was broad daylight. She was lost. She was dressed for church. She would be fine.' No no no no live in fear for just the next five minutes please -- "Lock up behind me. I'll be right back." oh no not The Words -- 'Then Charlotte noticed the Confederate flag' DRIIIIIIVE -- worry about the car later just GO -- well shit -- "We didn't!" Kai screamed at her. "Someone hit us!" "Kai...calm down. Breathe." No, Kai is showing exactly as much panic as the situation requires, do not get out of the...you're getting out of the car, aren't you. -- 'Kai's gratitude vanished, replaced by bitter fright. "You still don't get it!" True. Don't get me wrong, I want Charlotte to get out of there but it's so much worse for Kai because he's a kid and he's trying So Damn Hard to get her to LISTEN and she won't, and she's not going to be the only one to pay if this really goes south. -- "I have to see if he got thrown." OH MY GOD LADY. -- "Tell him...what? He won't believe you." "Yeah, he will," Kai said, sure of it.' I think I'd like Harry a lot. WHERE RELICS GO TO DREAM AND DIE -- "If you had it all to do over again, how would you want to die?" Well THERE'S an opener. -- The spirit in the candle flame (and how it got there) is both nicely done and Utterly Terrifying -- "You've been affable company these years." ... "Thank you," she said. "So have you." <3 <3 <3 -- "While you slept I took from you all that I need to make a child of our own." Um. They knew each other and loved each other and he pretty much just willingly died for her but that is still kinda disturbing. THIS SKIN -- 'I didn't have to introduce myself. He already knew who I was. What he didn't know was I was prepared to tell him everything. As soon as it had happened, I'd known I wanted to tell someone. What was the point of doing it if no one knew it was you?' o___O -- AUGHHHHHH -- okay that was just a full-body shudder of a story HAINT ME TOO -- 'She didn't like work and she didn't want to be in the house with those mean kids. They were always doing things to hurt her. She wanted to tell her parents, but she knew that it would just make them upset. They couldn't do anything about it. That was just how it was.' *rooting for the haint to eat the family* -- "Those pots from upstairs need chucking out back, Our Nig." ...die -- 'Somehow, they often reminded her, this wasn't slavery-- that had ended forty years before. No, this was sharecropping.' I need a time machine and a flamethrower. -- 'Somehow the family never remembered her name. Her parents had given her a name but it must have been too hard to remember.' Oh sweetie, no, don't give them even that much benefit of the doubt they're just assholes -- Okay these kids can go straight to hell -- "Business. You know a few years ago you wouldn't have even known the word." *flames on the side of my face gif* -- "I will not die as a free woman running from these men." She walked into the house, grabbed the rifle off the mantel, and came back out. "I won't leave you." Hello yes I would die for you just thought you should know -- 'White people did not like ghosts, Shea reasoned, because they were not controllable. They didn't like Negro women ghosts because they were angry.' godDAMN what a line -- I haven't read any of Burke's stuff before and what the hell, self. Shame. THE NEKROLOG -- 'I seem to recall an urgent, whispered conversation with Dad when she discovered a birth certificate stamped with a six-pointed star. I was told never to mention this to anyone and Mom's look was so serious, so desperate, that I never did.' ..... -- 'I don't blame them. Only they didn't let me hold her in the end.' Ummmm. Your kid is not dead -- 'But I was told they had died and I was an orphan and all this was for my own good. They didn't indulge my grief. We were all grief-stricken.' GO MAGNETO ON THESE ASSHATS, GIRLS -- 'We learned to love one another. This was the first thing though it wasn't what they intended to teach us.' *found family feelings, send help* GOLD AMONG THE BLACK -- I have now adopted Greta and Jesper and nothing bad is ever allowed to happen to either of them. -- 'She preferred to stay with him even if it meant sleeping in the forest.' This darling. -- 'But Liesl wouldn't stop. "They say that dog is your familiar and he can change shapes." Hell. No. I see where this might be going and it's not allowed. -- <3 HOW TO BECOME A WITCH-QUEEN -- 'The list of things queens cannot say is a long one, and you have not said them for most of your life.' -- 'If you had been given a choice, you would have stayed in the forest with the dwarves--or the huntsman.' Snow White adaptation!! *love for this story immediately increases tenfold* -- 'It is tiresome to ask permission, but you have had to ask permission from men all your life-- your father, your husband. Only in the forest were you free.' -- "And perhaps I shall take Dorothea with me. The nuns will know how to assuage the grief of an emotional girl." Nicely done. -- 'He had never asked you if you still went to the king's bed. He knew that queens have no choice in such a matter.' I am rooting so hard for you both. -- 'You knew that whatever inn you stop at, she will arrange it so that for the first time in fourteen years, you will spend the night with the man you love.' *flail* -- I really like the setup of the dwarf families. -- Ermengarde. I love it. -- The relationship she has with Wilhelm is wonderful. "Want to be King after I defeat your brother's army?" "Yeah sure sounds good" -- BATTLE GHOST WOLVES I am buying all of Goss's stuff -- 'The three of you standing there, resemble the three Fates.'
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A WORLD WITH A BLUER SUNMy reviews are set up a little like live-tweets: I write down lines I like/impressions as I read, and then transcribe. Reviews will contain spoilers, but I'll give a warning before they start. Archives
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