I recently finished the audiobook to She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove. The story centers feminine rage and friendship with a cheeky horror revenge plot. In addition to it being a superb novel and audio production, I couldn't help but notice features that felt like a warm hug to my disabled self.

In the words of the late Alice Wong, disability justice activist and warrior, "Disabled people know what it means to be vulnerable and interdependent. We are modern-day oracles." The supporting character, Nicola, embodies the oracle in this novel. Her disability aid is the reason she is able to hear and subsequently help Lucy's unrestful soul. Truelove's ingenious application of the disabled oracle principle to this pivotal point in the plot made for great reflection material on the nature of disability and how it shows up in fiction.

There are time-jump and time-freeze sequences in this novel that actually made me feel like I was a mosquito trapped in amber, helpless to the whims of Lucy's emotional dysregulation. This was a powerful representation of the daily highs and lows many disabled folks feel as a result of chronic pain, mental health episodes, and lack of support from loved ones and systems.

The descriptions of Lucy's use of her new doll limbs simulated the way I feel when I'm having a particularly bad rheumatoid flare. Her journey into accepting and working with her new body is hard-won and painful, but so rewarding in the end.

Most importantly, this novel is an ode to survivors. Gender-based violence and disability are inextricably linked, and Lucy's character is a compelling representation of this. I hope every survivor who picks up this book takes care of themselves (first and foremost) while also feeling the bubbling joy for Lucy's pursuit of justice. Justice looks different for everyone, so I find joy in characters who find theirs.

She's a Doll is the perfect horror novel for all of us this upcoming scary season!

Thank you to Harper Voyager, and HarperAudio for the ARC/ALC. Here is my genuine review:

⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶️? (One scene, not terribly graphic but still open door)

Audra has two conflicting prophecies and her decision will have major ramifications.

I enjoyed the story that focused heavily on dark academia, classes, “trials”, magic struggles, etc. It is not heavy on romantic elements, really doesn’t get there until the end.

I think this book would be great for those who love a dark academia, fae, magic systems, chosen one, conflicting prophecies/destinies, demon/underworld, and not everything is at it seems. This is a dual narration (not a duet), so while you get two POVs, you mainly only get Audra’s.

However, and it PAINS me to say this as someone who fell in LOVE with the cover, helped with the cover reveal and looked forward to the release — this book didn’t do it for me.

I loved the author’s previous work (Lore of the Wilds and Lore of the Tides) but this fell flat for me. While I appreciate the beginning of the story, it’s like her “previous” life / backstory doesn’t matter as the story went on.

There was a TON of inner dialogue that made me feel like the pace of the novel was very slow and dragged along. While I appreciate going on Audra’s journey, I failed to be wholly captivated.

The romantic element seems lackluster to me. I do NOT need smut to enjoy romance, so that’s not the problem, I feel as if their “attraction” happened so late in the book that it didn’t get much attention to be fleshed out (Read: I was not given enough interactions to be invested or believe in this unconventional romance).

I almost DNF’d but after seeing SO MANY people enjoy the advanced copy, and from encouragement from friends, I decided to press through. Unfortunately, by 50% I really wasn’t interested and I never gained a spark back as I completed the book (no seriously, this pains me more than you know to say this but I have to be honest and probably be the odd person out).

I do STRONGLY encourage those who are interested to pick up this book ASAP. I think I am an anomaly in my thoughts. Many of my mutuals were OBSESSED and absolutely GAGGED at the end (I was not).

Thank you Harper Voyager, Analeigh Sbrana (and NetGalley platform) for allowing me to read this advance copy. I appreciate it and will still recommend this book to the right reader.

Our Sister’s Keeper Review

Our Sister’s Keeper is a wonderfully woven  historical fiction that shows the impact on women for the sake of men’s peace and to lessen their burdens. Specifically, Black women, (known as carriers) taking on the burdens of Black men to give them the same opportunities as white men. 

This story not only highlights racism but also patriarchy. It feels as if in this world to be a Black woman you have two strikes against you. You’re less than to the whites and to the men. 

Dual POV — Marah and Thea 

Timeline jumps — at first seems irrelevant but plays an integral part in storytelling. 

Overall I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend everyone to read it! I am honestly surprised it took me so long but I am so glad I got to it 

A few things that stuck out to me and will stay with me long after the read: 

There there, I’m here. 

Let YOURSELF go. 

Husband > You 

Women who want more die, there’s safety in settling. 

The earth carries our burdens 

We sowed our pain into the soil 

Hey, y'all! We were able to file the LLC today, so one step closer to being able to list our own books on our own website!

If you'd like to contribute to the assumed business name filing (which is approximately $250), please do so by visiting the link our home page!

It'll take 10 business days for the secretary of state's office to process the LLC application, but we're getting there!

Till next time!

-Ryn

Hello everyone! It's time to vote for our October book of the month, for the "Season of the Witch". Thank you for all of your suggestions, and we can't wait to see what the community chooses!

The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman

Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam’s first wife—banished for refusing to do as she was told.

By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way—the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship, and love.

While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

From the moment powerful men started falling to the #MeToo movement, the lamentations began: this is feminism gone too far, this is injustice, this is a witch hunt. 

In a laugh-out-loud, incisive cultural critique, West extolls the world-changing magic of truth, urging readers to reckon with dark lies in the heart of the American mythos, and unpacking the complicated, and sometimes tragic, politics of not being a white man in the twenty-first century. She tracks the misogyny and propaganda hidden (or not so hidden) in the media she and her peers devoured growing up, a buffet of distortions, delusions, prejudice, and outright bullsh*t that has allowed white male mediocrity to maintain a death grip on American culture and politics-and that delivered us to this precarious, disorienting moment in history.

West writes, "We were just a hair's breadth from electing America's first female president to succeed America's first black president. We weren't done, but we were doing it. And then, true to form-like the Balrog's whip catching Gandalf by his little gray bootie, like the husband in a Lifetime movie hissing, 'If I can't have you, no one can'-white American voters shoved an incompetent, racist con man into the White House."

We cannot understand how we got here-how the land of the free became Trump's America-without examining the chasm between who we are and who we think we are, without fact-checking the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and each other. The truth can transform us; there is witchcraft in it. Lindy West turns on the light.

Bindle Punk Bruja by Desideria Mesa

Boardwalk Empire meets The Vanishing Half with a touch of earth magic in this sexy and action-packed historical fantasy set in the luminous Golden Twenties from debut author Desideria Mesa, where a part-time reporter and club owner takes on crooked city councilmen, mysterious and deadly mobsters, and society's deeply rooted sexism and racism, all while keeping her true identity and magical abilities hidden--inspired by an ancient Mexican folktale.

Yo soy quien soy. I am who I am.

Luna--or depending on who's asking, Rose--is the white-passing daughter of an immigrant mother who has seen what happens to people from her culture. This world is prejudicial, and she must hide her identity in pursuit of owning an illegal jazz club. Using her cunning powers, Rose negotiates with dangerous criminals as she climbs up Kansas City's bootlegging ladder. Luna, however, runs the risk of losing everything if the crooked city councilmen and ruthless mobsters discover her ties to an immigrant boxcar community that secretly houses witches. Last thing she wants is to put her entire family in danger.

But this bruja with ever-growing magical abilities can never resist a good fight. With her new identity, Rose, an unabashed flapper, defies societal expectations all the while struggling to keep her true self and witchcraft in check. However, the harder she tries to avoid scrutiny, the more her efforts eventually capture unwanted attention. Soon, she finds herself surrounded by greed and every brand of bigotry--from local gangsters who want a piece of the action and businessmen who hate her diverse staff to the Ku Klux Klan and Al Capone. Will her earth magic be enough to save her friends and family? As much as she hates to admit it, she may need to learn to have faith in others--and learning to trust may prove to be her biggest ambition yet.

The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Magic & Murder by Kiri Callaghan 

"For all intents and purposes, we are still blissfully separated from the mortals, but there have been…complications."

When a rise in London's supernatural crime puts Fey society at risk of discovery, the Winter Council turns to an unlikely solution: Avery Hemlock, the changeling they sentenced to 500 Years of Nightmares. Inherently lacking social grace and missing approximately two centuries of world knowledge, Avery must find a way to acclimate and solve the case or lose her probationary freedom.

After being left at the altar and dropping out of medical school, Saga Trygg attempts to rekindle her faith in life, humanity, and witchcraft. But when her new neighbor, Avery, accidentally reveals the Fey that have been living among humanity all along, Saga realizes magic is far more than prayers, intention, and candles.

Each faced with navigating an unfamiliar world, the two form an unexpected partnership—but shortly into Avery's investigation, they discover the threat might be closer to Saga than either of them imagined, and Avery will do anything to protect the first friend she's had in more than two hundred years.

Witches of America by Alex Mar

When most people hear the word "witches," they think of horror films and Halloween, but to the nearly one million Americans who practice Paganism today, witchcraft is a nature-worshipping, polytheistic, and very real religion. So Alex Mar discovers when she sets out to film a documentary and finds herself drawn deep into the world of present-day magic.

Witches of America follows Mar on her immersive five-year trip into the occult, charting modern Paganism from its roots in 1950s England to its current American mecca in the San Francisco Bay Area; from a gathering of more than a thousand witches in the Illinois woods to the New Orleans branch of one of the world's most influential magical societies. Along the way she takes part in dozens of rituals and becomes involved with a wild array of characters: a government employee who founds a California priesthood dedicated to a Celtic goddess of war; American disciples of Aleister Crowley, whose elaborate ceremonies turn the Catholic mass on its head; second-wave feminist Wiccans who practice a radical separatist witchcraft; a growing "mystery cult" whose initiates trace their rites back to a blind shaman in rural Oregon. This sprawling magical community compels Mar to confront what she believes is possible-or hopes might be.

With keen intelligence and wit, Mar illuminates the world of witchcraft while grappling in fresh and unexpected ways with the question underlying every faith: Why do we choose to believe in anything at all? Whether evangelical Christian, Pagan priestess, or atheist, each of us craves a system of meaning to give structure to our lives. Sometimes we just find it in unexpected places.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when the Eastwood sisters -- James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna -- join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote -- and perhaps not even to live -- the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.

Witches by Brenda Lozano

The beguiling story of a young journalist whose investigation of a murder leads her to the most legendary healer in all of Mexico, from one of the most prominent voices of a new generation of Latin American writers. 

Paloma is dead. But before she was murdered, before she was even Paloma, she was a traditional healer named Gaspar. Before she was murdered, she taught her cousin Feliciana the secrets of the ceremonies known as veladas, and about the Language and the Book that unlock their secrets.

Sent to report on Paloma’s murder, Zoe meets Feliciana in the mountain village of San Felipe. There, the two women’s lives twist around each other in a danse macabre. Feliciana tells Zoe the story of her struggle to become an accepted healer in her community, and Zoe begins to understand the hidden history of her own experience as a woman, finding her way in a hostile environment shaped by and for men.

Weaving together two parallel narratives that mirror and refract one another, this extraordinary novel envisions the healer as storyteller and the writer as healer, and offers a generous and nuanced understanding of a world that can be at turns violent and exultant, cruel and full of hope.

Initiated: Memoir of a Witch by Amanda Yates Garcia

An initiation signals a beginning: a door opens and you step through. Traditional Wiccan initiates are usually brought into the craft through a ceremony with a High Priestess. But even though Amanda Yates Garcia's mother, a practicing witch herself, initiated her into the earth-centered practice of witchcraft when she was 13 years old, Amanda's real life as a witch only began when she underwent a series of spontaneous initiations of her own.

Descending into the underworlds of poverty, sex work, and misogyny, Initiated describes Amanda's journey to return to her body, harness her power, and create the magical world she longed for through witchcraft. Hailed by crows, seduced by magicians, and haunted by ancestors broken beneath the wheels of patriarchy, Amanda's quest for self-discovery and empowerment is a deep exploration of a modern witch's trials - healing ancient wounds, chafing against cultural expectations, creating intimacy - all while on a mission to re-enchant the world. Peppered with mythology, tales of the goddesses and magical women throughout history, Initiated stands squarely at the intersection of witchcraft and feminism. With generosity and heart, this book speaks to the question: is it possible to live a life of beauty and integrity in a world that feels like it's dying?

Declaring oneself a witch and practicing magic has everything to do with claiming authority and power for oneself, of taking back our planet in the name of Love. Initiated is both memoir and manifesto calling the magical people of the world to take up their wands: stand up, be brave, describe the world they want, then create it like a witch.

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

Métis millennial Lucky St. James is barely hanging on when she learns she’ll be evicted from the tiny Toronto apartment she shares with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella. But then one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. She burrows through a wall to find a tarnished silver spoon, humming with otherworldly energy, etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM.

Lucky is familiar with the magic of her indigenous ancestors, but she has no idea that the spoon connects her to a teeming network of witches across North America who have anxiously awaited her discovery.

Enter VenCo, a front company fueled by vast resources of dark money (its name is an anagram of “coven.”) VenCo’s witches hide in plain sight wherever women gather: Tupperware parties, Mommy & Me classes, suburban book clubs. Since colonial times, they have awaited the moment the seven spoons will come together and ignite a new era, returning women to their rightful power.

But as reckoning approaches, a very powerful adversary is stalking their every move. He’s Jay Christos, a roguish and deadly witch-hunter as old as witchcraft itself.

To find the last spoon, Lucky and Stella embark on a rollicking and dangerous road trip to the darkly magical city of New Orleans, where the final showdown will determine whether VenCo will usher in a new beginning…or remain underground forever.

A wildly imaginative and compulsively readable fantasia of adventure, history, Americana, feminism, and magic, VenCo is a novel only the supremely gifted Cherie Dimaline could write.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

A rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family’s magic. The problem is, she’s never been in love—she’ll have to find the perfect guy before she can kill him.

After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.

Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her? 

With mounting pressure from her family, Voya is caught between her morality and her duty to her bloodline. If she wants to save their heritage and Luc, she’ll have to find something her ancestor wants more than blood. And in witchcraft, blood is everything.

Wicked Endeavors by Kamilah Cole

Perfect for fans of The Shadows Between Us and Powerless, this high-stakes romantasy follows a vengeful teen who cons her way into an elite society of tyrannical witches. But her warring feelings for two people—an enemy prince and a childhood friend—could ruin everything.

Caya lived a charmed life under the protection of Coventry’s royal family…until the three witch Houses seized power and wiped them out.

 Now eighteen, she’s ready to take revenge. With the help of a mysterious benefactor, Caya slips into the witches’ glittering world under a new identity: Marisol Vinyet, a disarmingly beautiful aristocrat. As Marisol, she’ll attend the annual Coronet, the witches’ cutthroat social season designed to strengthen their power. Even the prince of neighboring Domingo—Tomás Castellan—will attend, just in time for “Marisol” to kill him.

 After all, his family set the witches upon Coventry in the first place.

But Tomás is more charming than Caya anticipated. Worse, the prince is protected by her estranged childhood friend, Bas Arroyo, who stirs up frustrating feelings that waver between attraction and hatred.

 To destroy the witches from within, Caya will have to keep her identity hidden, her heart in check, and her mission front and center. Because even though she’s made herself a weapon, she might be the one to bleed.

Death Card by Jasmine Smith

On an ordinary Monday morning, eighteen-year-old Mikaela Broussard receives the shock of her life. During a customer’s tarot reading at her family’s occult shop, she turns over the Death card and envisions the beautiful stranger stabbing her in the heart.

In order to determine why the girl, Joelle, wants to kill her, she’ll have to keep her close. But the more time Mikaela spends with her soon-to-be murderer, the more irresistible she finds her.

As if imminent death isn’t worrisome enough, witches are turning up with their magic stolen. And it’s clear some very dark magic is at work. Mikaela, as the next Witch Queen of her coven, is tasked with figuring out who’s behind the horrific acts—a mystery that will put her and her power to the test.

Death Card is a dark, pacy, and romantic fantasy about one witch’s journey to find the strength to fight for herself, her future, and her beloved community.

The Southern Sorority of Superstitious Witches by Katie Ortiz

In this spellbinding Southern Gothic novel, three women weave together old Southern folklore and magic to fight sexism and educational discrimination in post-Civil War Alabama, perfect for fans of Hester Fox and Louisa Morgan.

When Lucille, Catherine, and Victoria are invited to participate in a trial semester for women at Alabama’s most prestigious university, they each have their own reasons for accepting. Lucille wants freedom from both her father’s control and reminders of her traitorous first love. Catherine wants to escape an arranged marriage meant to halt her attraction to women. And Victoria wants to run from the guilt that haunts her after the death of one of her fellow mill girls.

The trial semester will determine whether or not women across the state will be allowed to attend other universities. But the enrolled women quickly learn that success is not guaranteed, and some of their male cohorts are determined to see them fail. When the men’s pranks go too far, Lucille, Catherine, and Victoria form a coven under the guise of a sorority and call upon witchcraft steeped in the traditions of southern folklore to fight back.

As they gather their fellow witches, they discover there is something darker at work at the university, a force that is determined to expel all the women at the university, and they’ll need all the allies they can get if they want to succeed.

For fans of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls and Weyward, this historical speculative novel explores the darker side of human nature and the ways in which women navigate—and survive—oppressive, male-dominated societies.

The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

A fearless fortune teller in 1920s Paris must use her powers to divine who she can trust—and even more importantly, learn to trust herself—in the searing new gothic novel from the author of The Haunting of Moscow House .

Spirited twenty-something Zina and her secretive grandmother, Baba Valya, own a tearoom on rue Daru in Paris, where they have lived quietly since Zina’s mother’s untimely death. By day, the women serve tea, mostly to members of the bustling Russian émigré community, but when dusk falls, they divine fortunes and perform séances for their loyal clientele.

Then the charming Princess Olga and her brother arrive, searching for answers about the disappearance of their father, the Grand Duke and cousin to the murdered last Tsar of Russia. Zina, eager to learn more about the spirit world and her powers, performs the séance. She is able to summon the Grand Duke, but to her horror, he starts to haunt the shop, and he seems to know something sinister about her mother’s death.

As Zina delves into her family’s hidden past, dark secrets are unearthed, threatening Zina and her grandmother’s found family, home, and tearoom, not to mention their very lives.

Startup Hell by Caitlin Rozakis

Morgan Blackwater’s mother is a kickass, world-saving, demon-slaying Shadow Council wizard. As for Morgan? Morgan’s a junior salesperson at a tech startup that can’t even decide what its product is. But with magic dyslexia and a disinclination to kick ass, Morgan is doing her best carving out a niche for herself in the mundane world.

Leaving work late one night, she discovers her boss dead from the effort of summoning a demon to trade his soul in order to make his quarterly target. The disturbingly-attractive demon, Lucareoth (Luke for short), is trapped here until he finds someone to sell their soul. While trying to sneak Luke out of the building, Morgan runs into her infamous mother. Apparently, someone has been summoning demons and she’s here to get to the bottom of it.

Trying to protect Luke from her mother, Morgan gets sucked into the Infernal Plane and discovers hell really is a corporate nightmare. She only gets back home with a promise to deliver a human soul of her own. While her coworkers are really annoying, she’s not willing to sacrifice their souls. The company’s tech bro CEO, though, is another story.

Never have I ever related more to a character 💜

Matilda loves logic and order. She works at a bookstore, dream job right 😉
But when chaos enters, it's not just from one direction. There is a new annoying colleague, a legal case and a controversial author.

I loved the way Susan Coll describes Matilda's life and the gradual shift towards accepting her creativity. The incorporation of Rutabagas is clever and hilarious. It is a good comedy of manners. I would have liked a little bit more focus on Matilda's ability to see colors in the first half.

Thank you @booksparks , @susan_keselenko_coll
and @harpermusebooks 💕

The book is already published early September. So hurry and get it!!

#wordsaladreviewtour #bookrecs