#moonapple

[mariaseelie]

If someone believed me

They would be

As in love with you as I am

[pineappledraw]

OMG THEY ARE ARCHERS

[just0nemorepage]

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft || Jessica Spotswood & Tess Sharpe || 405 pages ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top 3 Genres: Short Stories / Fantasy / Young Adult

Synopsis: 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.

Finished: August 20th, 2019.

Progress: 2 / 15. 13.33% complete.

My Rating: ★★★★★. [5/5]

My Review: [Under the read more - NOT SPOILER FREE]

I've been working on reading this book for 8 months. 8. MONTHS. It didn't take me so long because it was bad – HELL no. The complete opposite. This is one of the best books I've read in my entire LIFE, and I wanted to make it last.

The intersectionality and diversity among women. The unapologetic strength and friendship and love and spirit and power and RAGE they each had in their own ways. Ooooh, my god. This SPEAKS to me.

I wish I had enough skill to put how this made me feel into words. I wish I was left with more coherency than reeling with emotions and my own strength of will. I wish I could say flat out what very important discovery about myself this book led to. But alas.. words have never been my strongest suite when I'm feeling highly emotional, and it's not about to start now. And that's okay.

Just know that this book is an instant, high-ranking, top-five lifelong favorite and I will continue to praise it as such for as long as I hold righteous anger in my soul.

As I do with short stories, I reviewed each individual one and provided comments for each one. Out of 15 stories, my average rating for this one is –4.82.– I hope you realize exactly how rare that is for a book of short stories, to rate nearly ALL of them a good and solid five stars.

With no further ado: I present my ratings.

Starsong ; Tehlor Kay Mejia - ★★★★★. 5/5. #SHRIEKING

If this story is a promise of what all the others in this book are going to be like, then SIGN ME THE FUCK UP, I am SO GLAD I picked this to read next. Who cares that it’s not around Halloween. Not only is the representation spot on, but the AESTHETIC. OH MAN. Oh man oh man oh man.

I LOVED THIS ONE. To BITS AND PIECES. And found myself heartily disappointed that this is in fact only a short story, and not a full length novel. Because I’d read the SHIT out of a full length novel that stems from this. It is SO cute and pure and full of new love and promise and hope and optimism and the shit I’ve been shaping my life around lately and just, oh my god. I am on a cloud. This story is pure sunshine on my cloud, gold lined and full of wonder, and I REALLY TRULY HOPE the rest of the stories in this book are going to be anything even close to this.

I mean, look at me. IT ROMANTICIZED MY REVIEW WRITING.

Real thoughts: I wish to hell and back that this girl was real, and her social media accounts were real. I’d follow her EVERYWHERE. Her attitude and confidence is the kind of inspirational glow-up shit I need in my life on a daily basis.

Afterbirth ; Andrea Cremer - ★★★★★. 5/5. I didn't love it as much as the first one, but it's still well deserving of 5 stars. A much more traditional setting in terms of witchcraft – 1650s New England – with a single traditional plot point – the midwife convicted of witchcraft is hung. The differences are in her relationship with her apprentice, someone who discovers her true magic and seeks to learn more and take the lessons upon herself, rather than think of it the way the rest of her village would. The spell book and the magic lives on in Deliverance and the new baby girl birthed at the beginning of the story, and the positivity, loyalty, love and acceptance in Deliverance and Miriam's relationship spoke worlds to me in the short pages it got to live on.

I am only unsure about the presence of the "monster" birthed right after the girl was. It didn't really seem to serve any purpose, and it was never fully explained what it was or how it came to be, or why it was there. It seems more like a plot point that was just entirely dropped, or only used to further Miriam's accusations for witchcraft.

OTHERWISE though. The strength, resolve, determination and resiliency in this story did things to me.

The Heart in Her Hands ; Tess Sharpe - ★★★★★. 5/5. Oh man, another one that did things to me.

I've NEVER seen this kind of shit in a story before, let alone in a full-length novel. AND I REALLY WANT TO NOW. Sign me the eff UP for a full length novel of this cause SHIT, I never knew how relieving it is to read about someone who truly says "fuck you" to fate, deals with the consequences, and then learns to accept them. Someone who truly goes "my family and community are toxic and unhealthy for me, regardless of the fact that "they're my family" or whatever, so I am going to leave and never come back."

And just.. the depiction of a kitchen witch, and a whole community of witches living together, and the second gay couple in the book (we're on two out of two for relationships here!), and the pure fury and spitfire in Bette's soul and spirit, and the complete and utter "yeah no" spitting in the face of the supposed soul mate Lady Fate had picked out for her… I can't tell you how REFRESHING it is that she said "yeah no" and STUCK with it, and nothing caused her to face it or regret it, since there's nothing to face or regret. She made a decision and he never cropped up again and just oh my god. I am HERE for this shit.

I wonder if her soul mate being a guy indicates that she's bisexual, or that Lady Fate only pairs people up heterosexually.

I don't know, I just LOVE THIS WHOLE THING. Young people going "fuck you" to the system and breaking out on their own when they don't fit inside it, the old magic of the mountain, writing your own destiny, Auggie coming for Bette, and honestly right here is where my train of thought was interrupted for 15 minutes so I forget what else I was going to say. BUT YOU GET THE IDEA.

So far I need full-length books of every one of these stories, and I'm only three into this collection.

Death in the Sawtooths ; Lindsay Smith - ★★★★☆. 4/5. This one loses a star just for the accents of the people, and how much it grated on my nerves. But there is a poetic nature to this one that I'm not entirely sure I can articulate that well. Just, the idea of a priestess of death who still tries so hard to do what is right, even when the dark urges of revenge tug at her own heart, even when she herself is treated like shit, even when she has every reason to react with anger.. I don't know, there's something beautiful about it. Just as much as the idea of Mattie actually relating to the kid who was responsible for stealing people's souls, and the idea of a childhood bully apologizing for their actions as an adult and meaning it.

Now, granted, I'm not one for mercy or forgiveness. I'd be more likely to become the boy than to become Mattie – though perhaps, I'd become someone else in between. I'd give in to my anger, but not in ways that would prove all the stereotypes against me right. I'd find some other way. But I can appreciate the idea of someone sticking it out and doing the right thing, even if it makes people hate you. And for the most part, as long as it doesn't give shitty people a pass for being shitty, I'm all for doing that exact kind of thing.

I'm not really sure what else to say about this one. This one's more food for thought, than something that I can easily translate into a readable review. It was fascinating, thought provoking, and very well done, but I'm glad to be moving on to the next one.

The Truth About Queenie ; Brandy Colbert - ★★★★★. 5/5. Not as strong as a five as the other fives, but STILL A FIVE. I actually finished this one yesterday and I've been basically just sitting here nodding in appreciation since.

Notable points – a family of black witches? YISSS.

How supportive all the family is of each other, despite being mostly ashamed of being witches? Yissss.

I LOVE how Blythe and Queenie support each other, EVEN THOUGH Queenie's totally head over heels in love with Webb. I'm not here for any of that girl hate bullshit. This was REFRESHING.

AND. How Webb admitted he doesn't have feelings for Queenie, and let her down honestly and cleanly, and kicked a love triangle in the face. How the friendship still stands strong. How he stays loyal to Blythe. How Queenie STILL heals Blythe – and actually does it!! – and accepts herself fully and stands proud on her own now that she's clear-headed after not trying to do things for Webb anymore.

Just.

YASSSS.

YOU GO GIRL.

I am SO HERE for this independent lady gloriousness.

The Moonapple Menagerie ; Shveta Thakrar - ★★★☆☆. 3/5. This one seemed of significantly worse quality than the others. There are still bits that really did it for me – the Indian mythology and culture! humanizing the churel (if reluctantly – I would have liked to see everyone be much more accepting of her from the start)! the idea of weaving spellcraft into performing arts in such a way that mundane humans don't notice! the much more fantastical use of magic! the normalized disabled character!! – but quite honestly, it was the main character and the completely unrealistic dialogue and character interaction throughout that turned me off of this one. I couldn't follow Shalini's plight at *all*, and even though I can relate to that level of writer's block, coming up with ANYTHING AT ALL truly is not as hard as she made it sound. And the fact that her story didn't have any conflict in it at *all* AND that the churel critiqued all the parts that she did write tells me that honestly Shalini may just be a terrible writer. So, I had a hard time empathizing with this one. I kind of wanted her to leave the coven, by the end.

The other parts that I still really loved are what kept this at a three. And honestly my favorite character is probably the churel. No joke. My favorite part was right at the end when she says she's going to deal with her "husband."

FUCK HIM UP, GURL. MAKE HIM PAY.

The Legend of Stone Mary ; Robin Talley - ★★★★☆. 4/5. This one loses a star, since it didn't really give me a chance to get to know or like much of any of the characters, it all happened a little too quickly to have much emotional depth, and I don't really agree with the idea of forced forgiveness.

Also, Wendy's grandmother seems like the HBIC in terms of local curses and I wish she was a more prominent part of the story.

But I *did* enjoy the normalized lesbianism, as well as the message of doing what you feel is right no matter what anyone around you may think.

Plus like… how friggen powerful do you have to be to stop a generations-long curse. That was pretty awesome.

The One Who Stayed ; Nova Ren Suma - ★★★★★. 5/5. TW: Rape, for this one. Though never explicitly described, or even directly named.

I'm going to have to keep my thoughts about this one short. But I absolutely adore the embracing of female anger and rage, the implications that these things happen to everyone all around you, that you have no idea who it could have happened to – or who could really be a witch, for that matter – and I absolutely 100% feel sisterhood with these women who so badly want revenge.

The power of feminine anger, man. Righteous and furious anger. I am so here for this shit. I would seek out this circle in a heartbeat, if only I could.

I only wish I knew how exactly they would make Jayson and his friends pay for it. But I know the possibilities, and I know they're taking it into their own hands, and that they aren't above death. That is satisfactory enough for me.

Divine are the Stars ; Zoraida Cordova - ★★★★☆. 4/5. This one gets four stars mostly because I feel like a lot of it went over my head.

Excellent symbolism and representation though. 👌👌👌

It was very short, and yet it still felt like it got across the feeling of death and renewal and finding oneself, and I heavily enjoyed how easily and simply they got rid of Enrique. Casual murder? Sure, why not! He had it coming anyway.

Personally, I, too, would like to turn into a tree when I die.

Honestly though it felt like it moved a little too fast, as soon as Marimar successfully found her way inside the house. I know the story was only some 12 pages long, but, still. It felt pretty rushed, and that's likely why it felt like a lot of it went over my head.

I still enjoyed it well enough, though. I still appreciated the Hispanic (Latinx?) family, the connection between Marimar and her cousin, the message of female power passed on from daughter to daughter. It just didn't necessarily resonate with me, personally, is all.

Daughters of Baba Yaga ; Brenna Yovanoff - ★★★★★. 5/5. Okay, THIS one is more like it. This is the kind of shit I came to this book for, and the kind of shit I live and breathe for. If I could give this beyond five stars, I ABSOLUTELY would.

I absolutely adore the friendship between two very different types of girls who both extract revenge in their own very different ways – one is sweet and threateningly kind and devastates you with the truth. The other… well. I think a curse of 50lbs of pig guts stuffed inside 15 different lockers says enough.

This kind of vengeance on those who deserve it is the kind of thing that gives my life purpose, and let me tell you, this bad bitch is MY KIND OF BITCH and I'd be BFFs with her if I could and I want a whole novel of nothing but her fucking wrecking people who have had it coming.

I aspire to be more like Stony. We need more women like her in this world.

P.S. The sweet poetic irony of a girl named Harmony sweetly doling out the worst kinds of truths on this story's shittiest people has not escaped me.

The Well Witch ; Kate Hart - ★★★★★. 5/5. Awww yeah. Nothing like sweet, sweet revenge to asshole men.

It's damn well implied that those two men are left for dead, and good riddance for it.

Also, I am in love with the fact that Elsa decided to go look for Zeb on her own, rather than continue waiting in the conditions the other two men had her trapped in.

AND that she took all the water with her and left them to watch their shelter and supplies burn into nothingness.

There's not much else to say about this one, really. The historical accuracy of it seems pretty spot on, Elsa is described as a WoC, and there was just the right amount of pace and development to be interesting. Also – Zeb is a good man. He gives me hope. One out of three actually being decent sounds about accurate for the ratio of good to shitty men lol.

But this one's a good one. I heavily enjoyed it, and GOD I am loving this book overall.

Beware of Girls with Crooked Mouths ; Jessica Spotswood - ★★★★★. 5/5. Wow. That was not the ending I expected at all.

It was all so dark and creepy and powerful and scary and holy shit I loved the feminine power in this story.

And open bisexuality in a historical fantasy!! That wasn't frowned upon, and nobody blinked an eye!!

Also. Can I say how much I ADORE that the sweet, gentle thing that is Georgie is the one who has the affinity towards fire, and is filled with utter RAGE? Holy w h a t. And Elle's open, unembarrassed sexuality? I am HERE for the unapologetic attitude ALL these girls have.

I really feel like I should say more about this, but I'm still just reeling, and at this point (it's July seriously wtf), I'm feeling kind of anxious to finally finish this book rofl.

Love Spell ; Anna-Marie McLemore - ★★★★★. 5/5. It's August now and I am DETERMINED TO FINISH THIS BOOK, goddamn. So I finished this one all in one sitting lol.

ADRIAN IS TRANSGENDER. Oh man that was the first thing that popped out at me.

And that someone can be Catholic AND a witch?? That's something I've seen surrounding the witchy community in real life, always in heavy debate, so it's quite nice to see it addressed in story form!

Plus like – the underlying tone of women supporting other women, and the disobedience of the typical Catholic fear, and religions accepting other religions, and I just – this one was a good one. It was a great one to come back to after a month of no reading.

And it's multi-cultural!! I will admit, I'm uneducated enough to not know if it's Mexican or Spanish culture – I –think- it's Mexican – but, STILL. So wonderfully done!!

The Gherin Girls ; Emery Lord - ★★★★★. 5/5. Goddamn. If I could give this one more than 5 stars, I would.

Sisterly support through an abusive relationship, and the VERY REAL feelings that come with trying to recover from it. In both the abuser's and the witness's points of view. Oh, man. I've never seen abuse and the trauma that follows captured so well before. I wasn't going to read this story in one sitting, but I had to – it nailed it so well, it reminded me of my own abused past and I couldn't set it down without knowing how it ended.

And the note of magic is so subtle and unique and wonderfully well done – and the sexuality of all three of the sisters are different! and they all have their own happy endings! and everyone is SO SUPPORTIVE of each other – god, no one was shitty. (Except for Wyatt, but, yanno.) This one speaks to me. On a very, very deep level. I just.. wow.

I felt the very same fire burning in myself as Rosie did when the story ends. I recognized it, and feel connected to her in a way I don't feel with most people I'm actually close to in real life.

This story sobered me. It reminded me of all I've been through, and just how rough the road to recovery was. But it also reminded me of how far I've come, and where I'm at now. What I've made for myself. What I've become, who I've curated myself into. And that.. no much can make me feel more strong or powerful than remembering that.

Why they Watch us Burn ; Elizabeth May - ★★★★★. 5/5. Well. Fuck.

THAT was a powerful ending to this whole anthology.

And left me feeling ALL KINDS OF PISSED OFF, let me tell you. Holy shit. The retribution at the end was implied and powerful, but I wanted it to be more explicit. I wanted to see those men SUFFER.

I don't even have words for this story, other than that it spoke to me on a deep, crushing, soul-igniting level. EVERYTHING about it – the unfair misogyny, the suffering, the sisterhood, the strength. The embracing of the very thing they were accused of. The pure love between the MC and her lover. The spirit, and the STRENGTH, I've already said it but oh my god, the strength. I feel as they did at the end. I feel powerful and unbreakable and full of rage and the need to make somebody pay, because I, too, have suffered at the hands of men and I would tear apart anybody who ever touches or treats ANY woman like that with my own bare hands.

The message of power this story gives for anyone who calls themselves female… I can't describe it. I don't know if it can be described.

But I would treat this story, and this whole book, as my bible, if I could.

[darlinglilwitch]

“Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft” Edited by: Jessica Spotswood & Tess Sharpe

What’s the best way to end 2019, hellfire of a year as it’s been? With an anthology about witches of course!

Now, this is going to be different from the other book blog posts I’ve made; firstly, I’m not including the names of the authors in my main header or in the hashtags. There’s too many and I will be doing honest reviews of all the stories, which means an author may be tagged in a negative review. No one wants that. Secondly, these are short stories, so I will be doing a blurb on what I thought of them without my usual summary. If you want to learn what it’s about, you’ll just have to read it~ Thirdly, I identify as a witch, so some of these stories speak to me more than others. With that, let’s begin.

1. “Starsong” by Tehlor Kay Mejia: I really enjoyed the more modern take on witchcraft. It’s relatively rare to hear astrology described as magic, and how the protagonist came across her abilities was definitely something of a surprise, if not totally uncommon.

2. “Afterbirth” by Andrea Cremer: I have a fascination with witch trials, as most of the people tried were actually innocent. The fact that witches exist today only proves that the magic survived, even if our ancestors didn’t. Also, the judges were biased and cruel.

3. “The Heart in Her Hands” by Tess Sharpe: Revenge and rebellion is the best way to call on magic, in my honest opinion. And let your lesbian daughter love who she loves. I’ve never been a follower of Fate, but if She acts like this then I welcome her curse.

4. “Death in the Sawtooths” by Lindsay Smith: Death has always seemed less glamorous than life, kind of like a dark reality check. And honestly, if you treated your funeral directors in real life the way the protagonist was treated in this, your dead wouldn’t have a fancy coffin to lie in. Just saying.

5. “The Truth About Queenie” by Brandy Colbert: This is the first one I have to be critical of; I felt as though the pining and unrequited love business overtook the magic and witchcraft. In fact, I didn’t know what kind of magic they could do until halfway through the story. I suppose that might have been the point as the protagonist was supposed to hide her abilities, but it felt more like I was reading a slice-of-life novel instead of a magical one.

6. “The Moonapple Menagerie” by Shveta Thakrar: This story made me insanely happy and is definitely one of my favourites. There was so much magic, so much lore, and so relatable as someone wanting to become an author (the deadlines are scary), that it easily won me over. If you don’t read any of the others (though you should), you should 110% read this one.

7. “The Legend of Stone Mary” by Robin Talley: A dead witch in a forest? I’m sold. Again, not a whole lot of magic mentioned here, but the curse was intriguing and the ending got me good.

8. “The One Who Stayed” by Nova Ren Suma: Ah yes. This one. For more sensitive readers, I want to add a trigger warning about rape. It’s clear throughout what’s going to happen without being overly dramatic about it, but it’s still something you may not want to read if you’re not good with that kind of stuff. And while I do get the sisterhood compared to covens thing, the comparing rape victims to witches thing... I’m not even going to touch that subject.

9. “Divine are the Stars” by Zoraida Córdova: Nothing is more important than family, unless that family member is a literal pile of dung that just wants your money because than screw that family member. This is an even bigger deal when the thing being passed down is love and magic, not a house and property. Of course, I’ve never had so many family members get together in one place, but I still got a warm fuzzy feeling of home when reading this (which was perfect since I was stressed about the holidays).

10. “Daughters of Baba Yaga” by Brenna Yovanoff: Another favourite! I’m a sucker for anger and people getting what they deserve. And this story threw me back into my own high school days, which only made karma that much better. I really felt like I could relate to both these witches, even if my methods weren’t quite so elaborate and our ancestral backgrounds were different.

11. “The Well Witch” by Kate Hart: Men treated witches really badly back in the day, huh? And not just witches either, but women. And some still do. But I’m getting off track. I’m not usually one for Westerns, especially since the white guy has to save the girl or help the POC or whatever. The protagonist didn’t deserve what happened to her, yet what she did made me actually clap out loud. Another favourite.

12. “Beware of Girls with Crooked Mouths” by Jessica Spotswood: I don’t know if it was the author’s intention to make the sisters like the characters from “Little Women”, but that’s how I read into it. So, right off the bat I had a strong personal bias against this novel (don’t force kids to read books they don’t want to read ESPECIALLY if they won’t understand most of it). There was a moment one of the characters did something really out of character that seemed more of a method to push the plot forward, but outside of that I don’t have much to say about this one.

13. “Love Spell” by Anna-Marie McLemore: This one made me very, very happy. I’m not usually into a lot of romance stories, but this one got me hook, line, and sinker. And the fact that it was direct defiance against the church made this even sweeter.

14. “The Gherin Girls” by Emery Lord: The three sisters each having their own different form of magic and a toxic relationship that twists their abilities? Yes, please. Nothing is better than magic directly helping to solidify a character. And showing how nothing is stronger than when you’re together, even when the distance is far? The best.

15. “Why They Watch Us Burn” by Elizabeth May: This story was definitely inspired by the MeToo movement. Again, there are moments when it becomes very clear what has happened to the protagonist and her friends, which may be too much for some. Strength of will and the power of owning your name influencing magic was the perfect way to end this anthology. Never let anyone steal your identity and screw the people who blame the victims.

Rating: 9.5/10

[riniapple]

ミ☆ 01 -31-2019 :: I’ve been a little obsessed with photographer/model Dylan Sada. I hope you all like it 

MoonApple

[leaveittochance-blog]

So I picked this up at goodwill the other day for $3 and decided that I wanted to repaint it today and this was what I came up with. "The Moonapple Tree" - It only blooms at night and when the new moon comes the apples descend from the dead flower heads and light up a bit like will-o-wisps to attract bats, deer, and other night creatures. #painting #fantasy #fantasynature #thrift (at Rutland , Vermont) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoEuAIzgZOa/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=dm110b1oxu2n

[moon-apple-blog]

behold; a shroom blossomed upon my arrival 🍄✨ #moonapple #faerieblessings

[annie-quill]

Blue and Green/MoonApple aesthetic requested by @tmntmoonkitty

[nefariouscryptid]

Moonapple