Reviews

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft by Jessica Spotswood, Tess Sharpe

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uzaii's review against another edition

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2.0

DNF'd p150.

Sadlynot for me, the first story was nice but afterwards I found myself skipping through whole paragraphs.

stbeatrizsoria's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

nwordsmith's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This is an excellent anthology of magical stories. Through the stories are all different I thought they worked well together. Their worlds blended nicely through the plots and characters were all different. The only story I didn’t enjoy was the one about putting on a play. I found the characters and motivations juvenile. With that exception I loved each of the other stories.

polly_ang's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

ali_jenna's review against another edition

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4.0

This is a great book. Read it.

Here is my personal ranking of them
1. Why They Watch Us Burn - Elizabeth May
powerful, well-written, this could have been a full book
2. Daughters of Baba Yaga - Brenna Yovanoff
cute but fierce
3. Death in the Sawtooths - Lindsay Smith
im really not sure why i liked this one so much i just did, it probably wasnt the best but i liked it
4. The Legend of Stone Mary - Robin Talley
mysterious and cool but then the ending was a bit odd
5. Love Spell - Anna-Marie McLemore
cool fairytale-esque style and fun magical realism
6. Afterbirth - Andrea Cremer
just overall well done
7. The One Who Stayed - Nova Ren Suma
very very sad, cool and dark, its a bit confusing until you get to the end and youre like damn
8. Starsong - Tehlor Kay Mejia
cute
9. The Gherin Girls - Emery Lord
nice story, this one is much longer than the other ones, i was a bit confused with the character dynamics
10. The Heart in Her Hands - Tess Sharpe
actually pretty good, but a bit cliché or something
11. Divine are the Stars - Zoraida Córdova
i was confused but i liked it anyway
12. The Truth About Queenie - Brandy Colbert
honestly just kinda boring
13. Beware of Girls with Crooked Mouths - Jessica Spotswood
i didn't care enough about the characters it was just weird
14. The Well Witch
it was just gross, sorry, it was good, but just too much
15. Moonapple Menagerie - Shveta Thankrar
this story is on crack i don't know what happened it was so confusing

okay just read it.

almost all of the stories are very good
the whole book is about womens rights
many of the protagonists are of color
most of the protagonists are lesbian

great for we need diverse books

also magic. magic is cool

mombythebooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Starsong, by Tehlor Kay Meija ⭐⭐⭐
Afterbirth, by Andrea Cremer ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Heart in Her Hands, by Tess Sharpe ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Death in the Sawtooths, by Lindsay Smith ⭐⭐⭐
The Truth About Queenie, by Brandy Colbert ⭐⭐⭐.5
The Moonapple Menagerie, by Shveta Thakrar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Legend of Stone Mary, by Robin Talley ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
The One Who Stayed, by Nova Ren Suma ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Divine are the Stars, by Zoraida Cordova ⭐⭐⭐
Daughters of Baba Yaga, by Brenna Yovanoff ⭐⭐.5
The Well Witch, by Kate Hart ⭐⭐⭐
Beware of Girls With Crooked Mouths, by Jessica Spotswood ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Love Spell, by Anna-Marie McLemore ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Gherin Girls, by Emery Lord ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Why They Watch Us Burn, by Elizabeth May ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐