Buggy's Book Reviews: The Old Mountain Spellbook
Well well well, look who has returned after a long hiatus while life kicked my ass from here to Sunday.
Let's get started with a bang shall we?
TW: Slavery mentions, appropriation, generalized frustration at the writing space currently with the rise of ghost writers and AI.
This is: The Old Mountain Spellbook by Alda Dagny
Rating: 1/10
Buckle up. This is gonna be a bumpy ride. Prepare to be shocked, horrified, and gobsmacked.
For context the cover art of this book caught my eye and then I read the small blurb of a subtitle for it and cringed so incredibly hard that the moment it showed up in my Spotify audio book list, I had to give it a listen for a measly 3 and a half hours of my life while at work.
I regret this decision so very hard.
For further context:
This “author” Alda Dagny has also written books on…”The Secrets of the Nile” a three part series called “The Old Norse Spellbook:”, and “Secrets of Mesoamerica”.
My head hurts from thinking about the gall to “write” on such a wide variety of topics in a seniority form. But before I get ahead of myself let me go back into my proper format for these reviews.
Pros: SOME of the information is right. The mentions of planting by the signs and how the signs works was very accurate. The generalized description of grannies, while very surface level and focused far too heavily on the midwife aspect, which don’t get me wrong is super mega ulta important! Was right if not very generalized. That’s about all I’ve got.
It does mention that Hoodoo is a closed practice that stems from African Dispora/the Trans-Atlantic slave trade which good for this “author”. You will understand why that term is in parenthesis later!
This book also included a Bell Witch mention twice which made my Tennessee heart hopeful for like two seconds.
Cons: Gods help me. For starters, I know this was likely not a choice this “author” made, but why in the seven hells did the publisher pick an AUSTRALIAN PERSON to do the narration for this book? The mispronunciation of Appalachia and Asfidy are now burned into my brain for life. I do not appreciate it. The MINIMUM a narrator should do is glance through for proper pronunciations.
My gripes with the audiobook out of the way let’s get into the meat of this review: The book’s contents and why I believe this was ghost written/stolen from other places and put forward by an ai generated “author”.
The second entire chapter of this book, a whopping 40 minutes of the audiobook, is all about Hoodoo. The real thing that got me was it SAYS that Hoodoo is a CLOSED PRACTICE stemming from Africa Diaspora. And what does this book do anyway? Break Hoodoo down into stupid candle magic and mojo bags and tell you how to do “it”. I was surprised it got the origin of Hoodoo right! It was RIGHT! And then it shits on itself.
Examples: Hoodoo shares similarities with wicca. Tarot is incredibly important to the practice. And it is a religion and not a practice. The practice is “rootwork”. Did I mention that Hoodoo focuses on “doing no harm”? Oh and the third eye is important too, especially to Hoodoo despite it being a Hindu concept. I cannot make this up.
The wording of this book is also incredibly strange. I don’t have a ebook version to double check but I am positive the words Furthermore and However are included at least 50 times. EACH. The book also repeats itself numerous times. A good example is with the Furnace Ghost story it tells in the 4th chapter I believe? Where it repeats the same end of sentence with just slightly different beginnings within the same paragraph. There’s also other phrases used at the end of chapters to usher in the next that just read…weirdly? Examples:
“Let me set the stage” “You are not going to want to miss this.” What are you writing a script or a book?
Now for the proper “Appalachian Magic” side of the book. It consistently uses the term Granny Witch, and states numerous times that witchcraft was just fine! Appalachia did not care and the “fear” of witches never penetrated the mountains. But yet a “granny witch” would use faith not as a proper form of healing, oh no! It was “to keep doubters at bay”. So faith healing was a cover up and not the actual practice itself.
This book also has two whole chapters on legends and myths, which is fine, if it didn’t focus on the ones everyone knows like Bigfoot and Mothman only. Like it doesn’t cover any of the smaller localized things or spirits at all. Just the things you could easily find if you googled “appalachia spooky”.
Hmmmmmm. Strange isn’t it?
This book also stated that tarot and black tourmaline was ULTRA important to Appalachian magic. Like where does that come from? There’s another chapter dedicated to the phases of the moon and “spells” which they mean in a modern new-age witchcraft way and definitely not Appalachian, although I will give it props for saying the moon phases and astrology are different here. Because they are.
Tiktok was mentioned twice; it appropriates dreamcatchers and other Hoodoo items in the “non-Hoodoo” sections of the book. Hell, it even said, accurately mind you, that Mothman has even “spawned fanfiction”. It even got the information on where Roanoke was…wrong. Roanoke is in Virginia. This book claims it is in North Carolina.
The most damning thing however, and I use that however in a very sarcastic tone, is the “author” herself. I painstakingly typed in some text from the book and was surprised to see it come back as “human written”. I don’t think that’s quite true, if it is then they text portions must be stolen from other sources and shoved into a book form. Because this author? A bot.
Her profile image used on Amazon, which is the ONLY SOURCE of information on her, no socials, no google, nothing. Is AI generated. Proof is here:
And a blurb from the book I wanted to include as well. The first of many furthermores used.
The author's Biography, which again is the ONLY SOURCE OF INFORMATION on this supposed person, says as follows:
"Alda Dagny has always been drawn to history. Growing up in Scandinavia, history has always been all around her, gods and goddesses, pagan rituals and spells. Ancient ruins that dot her homeland captivated her from an early age, giving her a lifelong love of all things history. "
That's all I can find. That's it. Just AI and or ghost writing/theft has officially found itself in the AFM space. I hate this society.
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One Piece Characters as AI quotes !
Luffy: Society without socks is not a real society
Zoro: Are current erotic thoughts less good than vintage erotic thoughts ?
Nami: Rich people are NOT infectious
Usopp: If people tell you that you can't win , lie down and die.
Sanji: There is no correlation between play and hypnosis
Chopper: Do NOT allow shitheads to take away your birthday
Robin: Don't disturb somebody when they're burning trash in their backyard
Franky: You are a bitch. If you require to change your life , you have to be offended
Brook: Be proud of your intestines
Buggy: Why mansplain when Im in mans pain
Dragon: Make the government sad
Shanks: Public speaking should feel like being eaten alive by baldness
Mihawk: Please say no to synthesized cheese
Law: Having a panic attack ? Stop it.
Kidd: A blood sacrafice might just be the solution to all of your problems.
Killer: Blood in urine is actually a message from God telling you to buy a car.
Doflamingo: Confront your ego. Befriend white noise. Lie to weaklings.
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