The ramblings of a bibliophile.
One of the things that has always disappointed me about the Women of the Otherworld series is the fact that there isn’t a novel dedicated entirely to Aaron and Cassandra. I like this version of vampires and I think that it would be much fun. But, a short story in which they make an appearance leaves me quite happy.
I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. But I was kind of ticked that it gave away a fair bit about the future in the Jane Yellowrock world. Which was kind of annoying when I keep meaning to pick up this series all over again… but, hopefully by the time that I do, I won’t really remember where this story fits into the series, and I’ll be able to be surprised anyway.
I picked up this book because I absolutely adored the movie. Just seeing the title makes me want to watch the movie again and again and again. Which meant that I was seriously hoping that the book would be just as good. I was a little wrong. For starters, the book is so much creepier and horrifying than the movie. For another thing. It was just better.
I’m incredibly disappointed that this novella wasn’t part of a bigger series. I loved the idea of these fae women who rely on sex and death to live. That one of the children of the family refuses to continue in the line that is accepted by all of her family. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved this as a standalone, but I quite possibly would have loved it even more if I knew I had a whole new series to sink my literary teeth into.
I haven’t read many stories about voodoo or hoodoo (I know there’s a difference, I just don’t know what that difference is…). Yet, it’s something that fascinates me. Which of course immediately drew me into this short story. Especially when the lead female voice was so strong and obviously unhappy with her trainer. Unhappy with the atrocities that she is committing over and over again because the elderly woman is asking her to.
I still haven’t yet had time to sink my teeth into the first Signs of the Zodiac novel. Yet, I seem to keep picking up the novellas and thoroughly enjoying them. And this one was no different. Taking the idea of love and polar opposites and twisting it into a story that was both fun and kind of tragic. Especially when JJ is left at the end, clutching a broken heart and forced to face an unhopeful future.
This is one of those short stories that is fun to read, but not overly memorable once you turn the final page. It’s a fun journey and one that I’ll love to read again and again. But it’s also not the kind of story that has left me thinking and reflecting once I’ve turned the final page. It’s just… fun.
Although I gave this story a kind of low rating, I did thoroughly enjoy it. The wording was just so beautifully lyrical and swept me away. Which makes sense, since it was originally written in 1933. It definitely means that this is a short story that I’m likely to go back to and reread. After all, the very lyricality of the wording makes it a fun journey and an intriguingly poetic one as well.
Ideas of time change across the world. It’s an idea that completely fascinates me. So it kind of makes sense that a story about a timekeeper and conjurer finds it’s way into a collection of dark magic stories. Although this one isn’t as dark and twisted as the other tales, there’s still that sense of mystery and brutality that is present in the rest of the stories in this collection.
I understand the pressure and stress of trying to get a ridiculously ambitious project done in a much shorter amount of time than desirable. After all, like the characters in this short story, I too am a PhD student. The fact that this tale of the pressures of being a postgrad student intertwines with murder, mayhem and magic just made me connect all the quicker with the characters and the storyline.
