Quite at random — because we seldom agree on anything to watch — Bertie and I watched Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story after we finished the second series of The Gentlemen. Both have a lot of blood flowing, or rather spattering. The screen and characters are frequently awash with red. Very wince-worthy! Ryan Murphy and…
Category: reviews
Hookland Fragments
Re-enchantment is resistance. I think it fortunate (fated?) that my initial order of the Hookland book was returned for ‘unknown’ reasons — at one point there were claims of damage en route, but no substitute was suggested. This allowed me to instead order it from lovely Treadwell’s and receive in addition the much-desired Right to…
Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton
After finally watching The Wicked Lady I decided I really needed to read it, too. Finding that it was cheaper to get the annotated copy was just a bonus because there were all kinds of notes and a good introduction. Magdalen King-Hall is not as well known as other historically-inspired novelists of her era like…
Review: Savage House
Wondering where to begin in recapping my travels — this past week has been a WHIRL of course — The Fall: Futures and Pasts was amazing and Tarot Cultures was magical and then there was more Leonora (even more than expected!) and friends and good meals and so much — so I need to get…
Mold, Moss, and Fungus
I am always grateful when Carol Borden of The Cultural Gutter tells me I should check something out. She knows my tastes pretty well and when she said I had to see Rabbit Trap, I knew I would need to do so (see her write up at the link). It hits a lot of my…
Review: The Conjuring of America
THE CONJURING OF AMERICA: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic Lindsey Stewart Legacy/Hachette, 2025 I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Stewart carefully builds up the history of Black Women’s Magic from its African roots to the Americas and Caribbean, through the years of enslavement and then the Great Migration, right…
Review: The Conjure Man Dies
Rudolph Fisher’s 1932 novel The Conjure Man Dies evokes both the Harlem Renaissance and Golden Age mysteries as well as embodying in important ways the more authentic voice of the streets that Dashiell Hammett had begun to make sing. Of course Fisher’s voice remains distinct from all of these: a polymath who studied to be…
Recent Reads
I have been diving into eighteenth century France for some reason (…circumspice) and my reading has veering into the historical, albeit through fiction. No surprise: I learned most of my history from fiction — books, television, films — because Americans are not generally taught history so much as a narrative of Manifest Destiny. Which is…
Recent Reads
ZOFLOYA, OR THE MOOR (1806) – I am sure this was bookmarked due to something or someone (if not Sam herself) over at Romancing the Gothic; while a poor reproduction, this is the version I read with that Fromentin painting (peak orientalism, yes–which is rather the point). I have been dipping into unusual gothics of…
Witches, Devils & Theatre of Cruelty
I was talking with Chloë about keeping track of reading, which I do badly, my memory palace not being what it used to be when life was more regularly paced. I bought this novel by Jane Parkhurst (Nancy Smith?) back when I was first diving into Isobel Gowdie a few years ago, but this one…