Blogtober Day 18: Witches

I feel like witches are one of the few characters that can be thrown into almost any story and it works. I don't mean that in a bad way, but I'm noticing they seem to pop-up in a lot of different stories and time periods, and serving different purposes, and it still works, depending on how talented the writer is.

You're writing a historical thriller? Perhaps a murder victim was really killed by a witch. You're writing a contemporary story? Maybe the protagonist's family was once accused of witchcraft. Maybe she learns she's a witch. For a story being told in the far-off future, humanity could believe they found answers to everything and witches are fictional, only to learn that the aliens they've been fighting have abilities that can only be explained by yelling "Witchcraft!" as dramatically as possible. Not to mention how witches are seemingly everywhere in fantasy.

My point is, witches are prevalent in fiction. The characters being described as witches don't necessarily have to be witches, they just are accused of it. They could simply be suspected, or the narrative could imply that the only way an event could happen is through witchcraft. Yet, for such a seemingly ubiquitous stock character, witches aren't defined to one role in fiction.

Witches sometimes are evil. The first example that comes to mind is the witch in Hansel and Gretel. She murders and eats children. Another example is the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus. The Wicked Witch of the West. The Grand High Witch from The Witches. I could go on. Ursula in The Little Mermaid. There are plenty of witch characters that are completely evil and serve as the villain of the story. Maybe they want to take over or end the world. Or maybe, they just want revenge on a specific person or people.

Witches are also protagonists or at the very least "good guys" in stories. For an example, see Hermione Granger. Diana Bishop from A Discovery of Witches is another good example, as is Sabrina Spellman. The list goes on. Sometimes, the story is about a girl, or woman, finding out she's a witch and learning to control her powers. Other times, the witch is called upon to defeat some greater threat. In few, but some cases, magic is being repressed and the witch character is meant to end the magic-hating regime and free the other witches and repressed magical creatures. Sometimes, the witch isn't a main character, but fulfills the role of a mentor or motherly figure to another.

The third category of witches seems to be "witches as plot-devices". This is more of an urban-fantasy thing than anything else, but it does pop-up elsewhere. The "good guy" characters are in trouble. Maybe they were captured by the villain, maybe they come across some unpassable obstacle. Perhaps one's been cursed. It's awfully convenient then, that a member of their party, or another prisoner, or some random person walking by, happens to be a witch and knows a spell that will help. I won't lie, this one annoys me a lot. Because these characters either show up as a deus ex machina, or if they are part of the core character, they fade into the background until they're needed again.

One fairly popular show that did this often was The Vampire Diaries. Bonnie Bennett, the only main witch character for most of the series, somehow found a spell that stopped the Big Bad every time. In fact, it seemed like the only reason her character existed and remained on the show was to find a magical solution at the last minute to save the day.  She saved everyone from the bad guy, and then had a crappy storyline that only existed so that she'd be around the next time they needed magic to solve their problems. I don't like this trope because it cheapens the character and shows that her only purpose is to do one specific thing and then go away.

Witches show up a lot in fiction. They serve many different roles depending on the story. I love witch characters. The good, the bad and the plot-devices. I know some people claim they're sick of witches, but I actually think we need more witches. Ones with different stories, different rules, and different backgrounds.

What's your view on witches, and magic in general, in fiction?

Blogtober Day 17: My Autumn Feelings

Autumn is an interesting time of year. It's finally not super hot, or unbelievably humid. At the same time, it's also not unbearably cold and I don't need to put on three layers just to walk from my house to my car. I know some of you may be reading this thinking "oh, so autumn is in between summer and winter weather-wise? Who would've known?" sarcastically. I know how dumb that sounds, but I feel like the weather is a good analogy to discuss autumn as a whole and how weirdly fluid it feels. Being in between summer and winter, it kind of fluctuates wildly.

Parts of autumn, specific days even, are beautiful and have more of a spring feeling than an autumnal one. Other days are rainy and remind us that winter is coming. This variability also comes into play given the different holidays in autumn. Halloween is pretty much its own season at this point, whereas Thanksgiving doesn't, but most people view as being Christmas-adjacent, an honorary winter holiday, even though November is, in fact, a fall month.

Now that I've gone into more depth than needed about why I say fall is a weird time of year, let me explain why its my favorite season. First of all, autumn is a beautiful season. The leaves change colors. The skies aren't always clear and blue, but they also aren't always that grey tone they seem to be in winter. The weather is perfect, since it's cool without being too cold. Fall is also when some of my favorite seasonal goodies are released. Caramel apples, pumpkin pie, apple strudel, and salted caramel everything. Fall is a great time of the year for food.

Fall is the time of year where I feel happiest. Some of that is due to happy memories I have of trick or treating and pumpkin carving. The rest is just that I really like the season as a whole. It's where I feel the most at home, if that makes sense.

So, I love fall. What's your opinion on the season?

Blogtober Day 16: October TBR Check-in

Hello everyone, since today is October 16th, AKA the exact middle of October, I decided it was time to do a Blogtober check-in. This isn't going to be a long post, but it felt right to do a check-in and see where I stood halfway through the month.

First up, how has Blogtober been going? 
Well, I've posted every day so far, which I'm proud of. (Blogtober posts can be found here). When I said I was going to do Blogtober, I was a little worried I'd be unable to continue/lose interest after the first few days, but I haven't. Yay me!

Second, what's the status of my TBR list?
I had four books on my TBR list for the month:
The Scarred God by Neil Beynon- complete, my review can be found here
Nightmare Escpade by Waylon Piercy- finished, review will be up soon
A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan- currently reading
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (2018 Edition)- currently reading

Since it's halfway through the month and I'm halfway through the books on my list, I see that as a good sign.

Third, anything else you want to share?
Nothing I can think of at the moment. I do hope everyone has enjoyed my posts so far.

Blogtober Day 15: This Time, Last Year

So, the prompt/idea/question this post was supposed to be about is the following:

What were you reading this time last year?

Initially, I was going to write a short-ish post describing the books I was reading, as the title says, this time last year. There's just one problem: this time last year, I wasn't reading anything. I wasn't doing much of anything. So, rather than talk about books, this post is about how far I've come in a year.

(If you're here for me to talk about books, and not my mental health, today's post isn't for you. Sorry)

This time last year, I was in a bit of a funk. It had been over a year since I graduated college and despite having my degree, I hadn't managed to land a full-time job. I was working part-time at a coffee shop and part-time at a math tutoring center. They both paid fine, for what they were, and I didn't hate them, but they weren't what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. As a result of my unhappiness with my work situation, I fell into somewhat of a depression. Things I used to find enjoyable weren't fun anymore. Days when I didn't have work, as few as they were, I didn't really do anything.

At the end of November, I got an interview with a staffing office who learned of an open position at a nearby company. The day after I interviewed with the staffing company, I had an interview at the company with the open position.  One week, and another interview later, I received a job offer. My first full-time job. A job where'd I'd actually use my degree.

So, I started my first "real" job. And as I got more comfortable in my role, and familiar with the industry, a strange thing happened. I started picking up some of the old hobbies I'd abandoned. I started reading again. I started writing again. I joined a book club. I did things other than sit around, stressing about my future. And, I'm a lot happier now than I was a year ago.

So, that's where I was this time last year. What were you doing last year?

Blogtober Day 14: The Scarred God

The Scarred God is a 2019 novel by Neil Beynon. It was released on August 26, 2019 and was published by Haynes Ltd. It's a fantasy book aimed at teenagers. It was one of the books I mentioned during my October TBR post.

The novel tells the story of a teenager named Anya who escapes being captured with the rest of her village when they're attacked by invaders. The invading army is assisted by an exiled god of her culture and Anya goes on a journey through a spelled forest, alongside the forest's mysterious guardian Vedic, to save her people and defeat the exiled god. Along the way, she learned not much separates heroes from villains.

There are some books I read because they're recommended to me. Others, I stumble upon and the premise instantly grabs me. The Scarred God fits into the second category. The idea intrigued me, starting with the teaser/tagline on the cover of the book reading "how do you kill a god?" Once I read that this novel was about a teenage girl going on a quest to kill a god, I couldn't really resist.

To begin this review, let's discuss Anya. I enjoyed her as a character. She had personality, she was driven. Her motives and morals were clear. She wanted to save her people. She wanted to stop the Kurah's plans. At the same time, she was dealing with doubts about whether she could do what needed to be done. She wasn't always sure the path she was taking was the right one. Mostly, however, I was happy that she was a dynamic character, and not the archetypal "strong female character" that can sometimes fall flat on the page. Anya was a character the reader could connect with.

There were many aspects of this novel that I enjoyed. One of the aspects I found the most interesting was Beynon's use of deities from more than one culture. Rather than only having gods from the Greek pantheon, or only Norse god, etc, there's a variety of gods mentioned. The main gods we see are Danu, a Celtic goddess, Pan, from Greek mythology, and Cernubus, the titular scarred god, although I'm not sure what pantheon he was part of. There are also illusions to gods and myths that aren't named but the average person would recognize. The story gives off the feel that, for example Greek myths are true, but Celtic myths are equally true without the two mythologies contradicting each other.

Another thing I enjoyed was Anya's personal journey and how it pans out. Anya isn't explicitly a "chosen one"; she's capable of defeating the scarred god, but at no point does the narrative make it seem like she's the only person capable of doing that. Her training, at the hands of her warrior grandmother, has given her an edge, but she's the heroine as a result of circumstance, not destiny. Anya and her connection to Vedic, the protector of the woods, is another noteworthy aspect of the story. Vedic isn't helping Anya for completely altrustic reasons, and while I enjoy stories where people work together for the "greater good", I also like characters who are reluctant heroes or mentors.

One of the best aspects of the novel, from a writing standpoint, is the way it avoids certain tropes. There were points in the story where I thought "okay, this is when [insert fantasy trope here] is going to happen". Sometimes the plot went exactly how I imagined, other times it surprised me. I like being surprised narratively.

While I enjoyed the story overall, there are a few critiques I need to share.Most of my criticism comes from a world-building or clarity perspective. There are a few thing within the world of the novel that aren't explained as well as they could be. Certain terms, how one group related to another and the like.  There were a few times where a specific term or title was used and I needed to stop and remember what it meant in this world. The phrase that often gets thrown around is "show, don't tell" which I feel is a bit vague. "Show, don't tell" is about balancing those two acts, at least to me. Somethings can be shown, others may need be told to the reader. Beynon doesn't quite achieve the right balance in my opinion, with the things being shown not quite giving the reader enough information to fill in the blanks. While I mention the author didn't explain enough, I'd like to be clear that I prefer his style as opposed to having everything explained as exposition-as-dialogue or there being page after page of explanations without context.

I should note that certain passages of the novel, which are depicted as dreams Anya is having, are intentionally confusing. They relate to a big plot point, so I won't explain too much about them, but I wanted to acknowledge that there's a purpose behind those passages being confusing or hard to follow with the rest of the story. I'll freely admit that I didn't think that that particular plot point was going to have the revelation that it did. I thought the reveal was going in a different direction entirely.

The Scarred God is a good book. It's entertaining. I enjoyed what I saw of the world and would be happy if the author wrote another story in this universe. Yet, when I reached the end, I felt like something was missing. The resolution was satisfying, but it felt like the end wasn't quite complete or was maybe a little rushed. Some of this could easily be having plot elements unresolved for a second book, in which case that makes sense.

Rating: 3.9 stars