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.
** I received this ARC copy of Toil & Trouble edited by Tess Sharpe from NetGalley. I want to thank NetGalley and the publishers for approving me to get this fun anthology! However, this does not affect my opinions or thoughts whatsoever and this is an honest spoiler-free review**
Look at this cover, it is gorgeous. For readers who are looking for more short stories with queer characters and romances this is definitely one I would recommend to pick up. Especially if you're into witches, witchcraft, or just want something a little spooky and atmospheric to read. If you're someone who thinks we need more queer stories in more supernatural/fantasy worlds than this could be right up your alley. It will be published August 28, 2019 so definitely go pick it up if it sounds like your kind of book!
Another note: the edition in my ARC had a Tristina Wright story. I do not plan on reviewing this short story because of a few reasons. The most important being that the story is being removed from the anthology so I don't think it would be fair to let it affect my overall review of this collection.
3.5 STARS
I want to quickly point out that although 3.5 seems low, I REALLY loved some of these stories and those stories alone are worth picking up this anthology. This is just the rating that I came up with after putting together my individual star ratings for each story. I think that is what is hard about reviewing and rating anthologies.
Let's jump into the individual reviews! Like I said earlier, my reviews are all spoiler free so I will keep each short and sweet with overall feelings of each one.
STARSONG by Taylor Kay Mejia
5/5 STARS
I loved this story a lot. It's super charming and sweet. I liked that social media plays a prominent part in the story and it felt authentic. The main character was funny and endearing and I liked the romance that plays out. Also the familial issues that are revealed were really well done and easy to relate to.
AFTERBIRTH by Andrea Cremer
1.5/5 STARS
Unfortunately this one just wasn't for me. It wsn't anything new or something we hadn't seen before especially tied in with the era of Salem witches (ie: Crucible). I love when I read witch stories in that time period but this one didn't stand out.
THE HEART IN HER HANDS by Tess Sharpe
5/5 STARS
I LOVED this one. I need a full novel. I need a Netflix original movie or series. I need Hulu special. I need SOMETHING more. It was such a unique idea and I fell head over heels for the characters. I wish I was an artist because I'd be drawing pages and pages of fanart just about this story alone.
DEATH IN SAWBONES by Lindsay Smith
2/5 STARS
I really liked the idea of this story but I wasn't a fan of the writing style. This may just be a preference when it comes to me and this author's style because I've read stuff by her before and also had issues with the writing style. However, the story itself is super creative and I think if you like the writer's previous work (or even if you haven't) I'd say give this a try!
THE TRUTH ABOUT QUEENIE by Brandy Colbert
4/5 STARS
This one was really sweet but also sad. I enjoyed this story for the most part but for some reason there was this barrier between me and the characters which made it hard to connect. I think it may have been the lack of explanation or details about the Big Queenie/Little Queenie aspect of the story. I think if I had a better idea of what that was all about the ending would have been more powerful. Overall though I thought the story was entertaining and bittersweet. I love Colbert's writing style.
THE MOONAPPLE MENAGERIE by Shveta Thakrar
2/5 STARS
This one is another one that had a really cool idea but I didn't like the writing style so I found myself distanced from the story and characters. I don't have too much to say about this one without spoiling anything but this one just didn't do it for me.
THE LEGEND OF STONE MARY by Robin Talley
4/5 STARS
This one started off a little slow but once I got into the story I was hooked till the end. It's about forgiveness and compassion. I think if this was a longer story it could easily be a 5 star read. I felt the urgency and desperation as the story progressed and with the vivid descriptions I was on the edge of my seat.
THE ONE WHO STAYED by Nova Ren Suma
tw: sexual assault
3.5/5 STARS
One thing about Nova Ren Suma's writing for me is that I am always confused until a certain point and then everything clicks. But before it clicks I get kind of frustrated. I think it's the love/hate relationship I have with magical realism in general. I enjoyed this one a lot and although I was frustrated in the beginning I ended up really liking the ending.
DIVIDE ARE THE STARS by Zoraida Còrdova
3.5/5 STARS
This one is filled with beautiful imagery and a large family reunion getting together to take care of an elderly member. I really loved the culture and authentic familial relationships the characters had with each other. Whether that being close or estranged. However, there are so many character names in this story that it was hard to remember who was who. I think this story would benefit so much more as a full story! Especially with how emotional the short story is.
DAUGHTERS OF BABA YAGA by Brenna Yovanoff
3/5 STARS
It started off slow but it didn't take long to pick up and I found myself incredibly invested in the story. But then the ending was overall kind of unsatisfactory and a bit boring. It seemed like the kind of themes you'd see in generic witch stories where the main character is known for being unpopular. I would have liked for the writer to take more risks. However, there are a lot fantastic comments on what women go through on a daily basis, the expectations that are put on women, and other feminist themes that were done really well.
THE WELL WITCH by Kate Hart
1.5/5 STARS
This was just not for me. I liked a few aspects but overall I found it to be slow and typical. I don't have too much to say about this one. I almost DNFed it or even started skimming it but I decided against it because I wanted to give the story a full chance. I probably should have just skimmed it, because it wasn't worth it in the end. I think it's a preference thing for me and not a writing/storytelling thing but I am not entirely sure.
BEWARE THE GIRLS WITH THE CROOKED MOUTHS by Jessica Spotsood
4/5 STARS
Wow this one is so heartbreaking. I wish we had more because this could be SUCH a powerful and well done story. I am in love with so many of the aspects and themes this short story had. It could easily be a 5 star story if we had more but in the end I felt unsatisfied. I wanted more not only for selfish reading reasons but because I felt like I didn't get the full story. The writing is so well done and the characters were all so interesting.
LOVE SPELL by Anna-Marie McLemore
3.5/5 STARS
This one was really cute. I have read McLemore's book Wild Beauty so I already knew that her writing style was gorgeous and she definitely didn't disappoint. I think my issue was that I didn't have any sort of emotional connection to any of the characters or the plot which made it hard to fully lose myself in the story.
THE GHERIN GIRLS by Emily Lord
tw: domestic abuse
5/5 STARS
I teared up while reading this one. I am a sucker for a great sister bond and women helping build other women up, whether that be family or not. I loved the sisters and how connected they all were but also that their protectiveness of each other never crossed any weird possessive lines that I feel like happens a lot with families being protective. The writing was something I really loved, I had heard amazing things about Lord's other works but now I am more motivated to pick up one of her books. I want more of this story and I loved the strength each of the women possessed.
WHY THEY WATCH US BURN by Elizabeth May
5 STARS
I loved the imagery and the format this story was written in. I know I already brought up how I am a sucker for strong women stories already but I want to just reiterate how much I love stories like this one. Women banding together to help each other get justice is a theme that if I hear a book has it I will immediately want to pick up and read. I really admired the strength of the main character and I liked reading from her perspective. This is another one I feel like I just need in some other form fleshed out and long.
Overall I highly recommend this collection of short stories. So many of them are queer stories and all of them involve women being strong and powerful and I am here for all of that. If that sounds like something you'd want to read I think you should definitely pick it up. I think it would be a perfect read for this Autumn and there is such a variety of writing styles that you may just discover a new favorite writer.
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