Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft edited by Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe
Published by Harlequin Teen on August 28th, 2018
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Pages: 416
Goodreads
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A young adult fiction
anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and
futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race,
class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.
Are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Glinda
the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle.
The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three
weird sisters from Macbeth.
History tells us women accused
of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried,
unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.
Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.
A
bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s
healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores
her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are
captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch
among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three
orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the
present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a
hurricane.
From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a
bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a
collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of
women working together—magically or mundanely--has long frightened
society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated
against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves
deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures
and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of
witchery that have yet to be explored.
Oh my god, this was fantastic. I don't usually like reading anthologies at all. I usually find that the stories are just too varied in quality and only one or two work for me. I also think a lot of writers struggle with writing a true short story; so much of the time the stories end too abruptly and feel like a first chapter. So I was apprehensive when I picked this up. But it actually blew me away! I don't know if it was just the subject matter that pulled me in immediately, or if this really is the best YA anthology ever, but this was so, so great. It blew me away.
Starsong by Tehlor Kay Mejia: This was the perfect start to the collection. I knew after reading this that
Toil & Trouble was going to be such a good reading experience.
Starsong has the perfect blend of magic and spirituality with technology and modern teenage-ness. The texting and flirting were adorable; I shipped the two girls big time and would have gladly read an entire novel about Luna. I can't wait to read Mejia's debut!
Afterbirth by Andrea Cremer: Not gonna lie, this was pretty gross at first. The descriptions were, well, descriptive. I loved the format; it reminded me of reading a play, especially The Crucible. This story definitely served to make me angry about the Salem witch trials all over again. And even though it was bittersweet, I really, really liked the ending.
The Heart in Her Hands by Tess Sharpe: This was really good! There was so much world packed into such a short little story. I always loved stories about girls forging their own paths and Bette was a trailblazer for sure. I do wish we got to see more of her magic, though. There was one scene where a witch was using a skillet as a wand, which REALLY pulled me out of the story. It was just so endlessly silly.
Death in the Sawtooths by Lindsay Smith: This was not my thing. If it had been a full-length novel, I probably would have picked it up, but as it stands, there just wasn't enough time to establish the world and the history between the two main characters. We didn't even know the villain, so his impact was entirely diminished. And he gave one of those long, ridiculous monologues.
The Truth About Queenie by Brandy Colbert: I really loved the voice of this one and it makes me want to pick up the rest of Colbert's work. That said, I didn't love this as a whole. I wish there was a bit more magic. I also felt the ending was very rushed; there simply wasn't enough time for Queenie to naturally come around and find herself on her own. I really, really liked the best friendship though.
Moonapple Menagerie by Shveta Thakrar: This was a total case of "it's not you, it's me." I just don't click well with stories when I know there's going to be a heavy-handed lesson to learn by the end. Plus, the story itself was just plain weird and I couldn't get a handle on the setting at all. What I did love was seeing all these creatures and gods and goddesses from a culture I know nothing about; there was a lot of further reading on my end once the story finished.
Stone Mary by Robin Talley: This story had such a strong sense of voice, which pulled me in right away. Plus, a story about small-town legends, family secrets, and bloodlines is sure to be my kind of thing. I do think it went a bit off the rails with the whole witch-hunter thing, and the story would have been just fine without it, but it was still really good.
The One Who Stayed by Nova Ren Suma: Right off the bat I have to say, content warning for rape. It's not graphic or described at all, really, but it's there. That being said, this was still fantastic. I always love Suma's writing and the worlds she creates right inside our very own, very familiar world. I do wish it was longer; the story was just getting started.
Divine are the Stars by Zoraida Cordova: So good. I liked the main character, Marimar, a lot, and her relationship with her cousin Chuy. Cordova packed so much love and history into one small story. I found the magic to be absolutely beautiful, just the kind of magic I love to read about. Another one that started and ended well, but I would have gladly read 300 more pages.
Daughters of Baba Yaga by Brenna Yovanoff: This was also really good! I'm not at all used to this type of magic or this culture. I really, really enjoyed the writing and the revenge. I do think it lacked focus a little bit, and there should have been more time devoted to developing the friendship between the two girls. But still a very solid, fun read.
The Well Witch by Kate Hart: I wanted to like this, but it really wasn't for me. While I enjoyed Elsa, I didn't really love anything else. I didn't believe the romance at all. While the ending was kind of sad, I just found the whole story altogether pointless.
Beware the Girls with Crooked Mouths by Jessica Spotswood: This is the story I'm most bitter about. It had so much wonderful potential, but it felt like I was thrown in halfway through a book, and the ending was just as abrupt as the start. For a historical story with an arranged marriage between two women, a trio of magical sisters, betrayal, heartbreak, and poison, I was left cold at the end. How pointless and unresolved! This absolutely should have been an entire book, with enough time to flesh out the characters and the relationships. Short fiction was just not the right medium for the story.
The Gherin Girls by Emery Lord: So this one is a bit slice-of-lifey, which isn't my favorite thing, but I still ended up enjoying it. I loved the relationship between the two sisters, and their bond and the way they supported one another made me a bit teary at one point. That said, I really wish it had been more witchy.
Why They Watch Us Burn by Elizabeth May: This is one I really wanted to love but it felt like there was a wall between me and the story. I couldn't get a handle on time and place at all. At one point it seemed like the girls weren't actually witches at all, but just punished for being women, which is fine with me, but then everything changed and they were performing magic later on. I like the sentiment, but the elements all together as one just didn't come together for me.
So while I wouldn't say
Toil & Trouble is the perfect short story collection, it comes damn close. Not every story was magical for me, but they all came together to form one wondrous whole. This was perfectly witchy, amazingly queer, with almost every story featuring an f/f romance along with other wlw side characters. I absolutely loved reading this and was so sad when the ending came; I want to read witchy little stories for the rest of my life, please.
