The first in Juliet Blackwell’s Witchcraft Mystery series, Secondhand Spirits reminded me a lot of a cluttered antique shop–appropriate since the main character runs a vintage clothing store in San Francisco. There were a few quality pieces, a couple of unexpected treasures, and a whole lot of random crap that it made it difficult to find what I was looking for. What’s it about? Lily Ivory (I just can’t with that name) is a powerful witch with a troubled and lonely past. After years of […]
Comfy with Puns and Magic Stuff
Myth-Fits really reminded me of Jasper Fford’s YA series about a magic-user employment agency (The Last Dragon Slayer), although I don’t know which one was actually published first. The other big thing I noticed was that jumping into a series not in order (again- although this time, I was already aware before I started) is not terribly problematic. There are certainly references and nuances I know I didn’t understand, but overall I could follow things pretty well. The only thing I don’t know is what […]
Well, It’s Obviously Not a Vampire
There is a great mystery at the heart of Dreamcatcher, and it is this: I have no idea how it ended up on my e-reader. I didn’t buy it. Nobody gifted it to me. I’m not a King aficionada so it’s not as if it got lost in my enormous collection. But anyway: there it was, and for reasons that are entirely beyond me, I decided to give it a try. Let me preface this by saying I’d never read a Stephen King novel, […]
Joe Hill is the Best Thing Stephen King Has Created
After reading the underwhelming Rooms, and with the real life horror of the inauguration yesterday, I needed a sure thing to scratch my supernatural itch. Enter Joe Hill. Ever since Locke and Key, I’ve been a fan, and this is from someone who read too much of his dad’s coke-fueled 80s novels to be charitably inclined toward the family. Joe Hill had to win me over at first, but there’s no true believer like a convert. 20th Century Ghosts didn’t disappoint; a collection of short […]