Part 2: The Catch Up

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

“I realized that my impression of myself has been someone who could look for, and find, the upside in any situation. I had believed in the logic of popular songs. I had looked for the silver lining. I had walked on through the storm. It occurs to me that these aren’t even the songs of my generation. They were the songs, and the logic, of the generation or two preceding my own. The score for my generation was Les Paul and Mary Ford, ‘How High the Moon,’ a different logic altogether.

It also occurs to me, not an original thought but novel to me, that the logic of those earlier songs was based on self-pity. The singer of the song about looking for the silver lining believes that clouds have come her way. The singer of the song about walking on through the storm assumes that the storm could otherwise take her down.”

I had studied excerpts of Didion’s writing throughout my time at university, and had always loved the way she made real life fiction, in a sense. She exuded this brutal honesty and grit of a journalist, but also a poetic beauty of an artist in everything she wrote. So finally, I decided to read The Year of Magical Thinking, thinking that it would help me get through a time in my life that I was in a sense, grieving.

Her writing didn’t disappoint. This book was an in-depth self analysis of her own battle with loss. Loss of her husband, and then tragically, the loss of her daughter. It documents from the moment her husband collapsed at their dinner table to after her daughter passed away, and the reader is left with a sad sense of calm. As she states, “I know why we try to keep the dead alive: we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us,” which is exactly what this memoir explores. The act of grieving and not wanting to forget, the tragedy of trying to go back to before and the slow acceptance of moving forward.

I feel like I would have gotten much more out of this novel if I had experienced a grief like hers. Sure, I’ve experienced pain and loss before, and I’ve dealt with it a lot of times as if I were merely in a dream. But hers is much deeper, at least to me. It’s not only a person that she has lost, but a life with them. Luckily, I have not had to experience that, but I do think I will keep this one on my shelf for a time when I will, and will need someone who deeply understands what we all eventually go through: the loss of living love.

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

“Good people don’t bow their heads and bite their tongues while other good people suffer. Good people are not complicit.”

This one had a lot of hype, and for me it didn’t live up to it.

Though I enjoyed the concept and the world Henderson brought us into, I felt like some of the messaging took me out of the story. While some were clever and well integrated into the story, others seemed like pandering to a social agenda.

I understood what Henderson was trying to do, I just wasn’t invested enough in any of the characters for it to really make an impact on me. My favourite parts were her awesome description of the three witches every time they appeared; haunting, disturbing but also greatly intriguing.

Henderson’s strong suit was these scenes, especially the final one, and it really reflected in how entranced I was at these moments. This was the only time however. Otherwise I could take or leave the book.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great read for Halloween. Some of the more well-integrated messages about the hypocrisy of religion and the strength of women, were awesome. I just thought that with a little more fleshing out of the world, and even some characters, these messages she was trying to get across about feminism, diversity, strength, love, etc. would be able to be integrated more smoothly into the story.

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

“He was a grim testament to a truth I knew but refused to acknowledge: that it was possible to suffer devastating, incomprehensible loss and continue to live, to breathe, to pump blood around your body and supply oxygen to your brain.”

Okay, can we talk about THIS COVER? Absolutely gorgeous. Little did I know that was just a small inkling of the joy I would be getting from this single, beautifully written young adult read.

It had been a long time since I read a YA novel and boy has this plunged me back into the genre. Immediately you are cast into this atmospheric, pungent and intricately weaved story of three sisters who disappeared, only to be found a month later in the same exact spot they went missing, not a day older. The mystery of their disappearance and miraculous retrieval casts fame in their direction, and soon the Hollow sisters are known for their strange beauty.

So when one of them goes missing (again) but this time leaves behind confusing clues for them to follow, we get to follow them into a world of darkness, rot and dangerous beauty.

Talk about the supernatural, talk about dark fantasy, talk about diverse and intriguing characters. So. Amazing. I don’t know how to describe it any other way. Just go read it, right now! It’s my favourite read of the year so far!

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke

“I used to tell myself that I regretted the choices I’d made in my life. But every choice, including the wrong ones, made me who I was. And the same applied to you, Luna, and you, Saffy, and you, Clover – both the good and bad experiences strengthened you, shaped you. We are not just made of blood and bone – we are made of stories. Some of us have our stories told for us, others write their own — you wrote yours.”

I seem to be drawn to a certain theme – dark and moody, with a hint of fantasy and a splash of strong female characters.

Well, this one fits the bill.

Set on the remote Scottish island of Lon Haven, Cooke introduces us to Liv and her three daughters, Luna, Saffy & Clover (talk about the NAMES) who have just moved there in the dead of night. Liv is there on commission to paint a mural on a historic lighthouse, but much more than that happens on this island, and she and her girls are about to find out.

Marvellously moody, with intriguing characters and a splash of witchery and the fae, this book was perfect for a rainy spring. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, and found myself even terrified at some points. Perfectly spooky for Halloween season, this also is just a great mystery read. This one lived up to the hype for sure!