Tag: fantasy

A Song Below Water | Book Review by Felicia

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About:

This book is all about Black Girl Magic. Two really close friends are living in a world that despises and discriminates against Sirens. As young black girls growing up one must discover a way to find her voice and the other needs to discover who is her authentic self. Along the way they must deal with the traumatic current events that tell black girls they do not matter.

Review:

A Song Below Water  Review: 

Ranking: 2 Stars for this one. It was rough to get through this book. I almost didn’t want to finish it at all. The concept of the book is wonderful. It involves the essence of Black girl magic mixed with social justice. But, the execution fell through. In the end, the book felt like it was doing too much. 

This was a short and impactful read. The best aspect of the book was the main characters’ love and support for each other. I love to see young Black girls who are unified and well connected. I was rooting for the main characters to discover their confidence and find a way to be their true selves. However, that is all the only thing I  loved about this book. There were too many elements to this book that made the writing and story go all over the place which caused me to not enjoy reading this novel. As a fantasy novel I felt very overwhelmed and confused by the magic system in this world. I am left with many questions but without any desire to discover the answers. I felt tired and over the concept of the book by the end. Unfortunately, I was not enthralled by the overall storyline or writing. 

Podcast 13 Show Notes

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 For episode 13 we read Bethany Morrow’s A Song Below Water

About the Author

Bethan C. Morrow is a California native, she graduated from University of California with a Bachelor’s in Sociology. Morrow is an accomplished writer with several other books, and the sequel to A Song Below has been released, and is titled A Chorus Rises. 

Book Look

A beautiful and eye-catching book cover. The book cover played into the fantastical and fun theme the sisters were looking to read around Halloween.

Bookmark

  • “My voice is power. Awaken” p. 277
  • “I’m talking about things like illumination and warmth – things that help me see more clearly and feel more comfortable in my own skin and he’d talk about how those are things that bring “growth” p. 30

POV

Sam and Felicia enjoyed the overarching theme of Black women as magic in A Song Below. Although a fantasy novel, there are common themes that an everyday Black girl would identify with such as natural hair and sisterhood.

Deep Dive

In A Song Below Water, mythical creatures are known to the human world. However, sirens are considered dangerous and they are exclusively Black women. There is something mysterious going on in the lives of Tavia and Effie. Tavia is realizing her true power as a Siren. Effie is learning about the truth of her mythical powers. Even in a mythical world racism is alive and well and the girls will have to learn who is truly on their side and recognize they can accomplish far more than they think.   Ultimately the sisters felt like something was missing and there wasn’t enough for them to go off of to really fall in love with the story. 

Like Water for Chocolate | Book Review by Sam

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About:

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is a Mexican magical realism novel that follows the life of Tita and her powers through cooking. Each chapter opens with a recipe and then we learn why the meal was so impactful in Tita’s story. Like Water for Chocolate is an intricately woven story of love, family, and betrayal.

Review:

This Mexican story details the life of Tita who is the youngest daughter of a traditional Mexican family. The way in which we are introduced to Tita should warn us that her story will be tragic. She comes into the world crying in the kitchen. This will be significant throughout the novel as we realize that Tita’s emotions are imparted into the meals she makes and Impacts the emotions of the other characters when they eat it. The characters become overcome with anger or lust.

This novel is full of romance, drama, food, and magic. As the youngest daughter, we learn that it will be Tita’s responsibility to take care of her mother. That means that Tita will not be permitted to marry until her mother dies. This is the first major problem as it becomes evident that Tita has already fallen in love with Pedro. Let me just say that Pedro is a menace. When he cannot marry Tita he marries her sister, Rosaura, under the guise that at least he will be able to stay close to Tita. How heartbreaking. One sister has to watch her love be with someone else and the other sister has to live with knowing she will never be loved fully by her husband. 

As the chef of the family, Tita is tasked with making food for the wedding, including the cake. The strong emotions that Tita has and her cooking skills are interwoven throughout the story. Esquivel has given Tita a great gift, but ultimately it is used to influence everyone’s emotions but it does not ever lead to where I would like. I would have loved for Tita to realize she is too good for the world on the ranch (specifically Pedro and her Mama Elena) and move on from them. 

Not all of the characters were likable, but you know a story is intriguing when you haven’t necessarily fallen in love with the characters, yet you just have to know what happens – so you continue reading. There are moments that give us a peek into what freedom or love could be like. In the end we get not a perfect story but what I would call a human story on what it would be like if we gave into our every desire or emotion. 

Overall the novel was magnificently engaging. Sometimes, I don’t enjoy magical realism because I’d just like the author to choose to have a fantasy story or not. However, this story kept me captivated from beginning to end and I finished it within two days. Tita’s story is tragic (to me), but absolutely worth the read.  

 

Wings of Ebony | Book Review by Felicia

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About:

Rue discovers that she has powers and gets separated from her younger sister. On her sister’s birthday Rue returns home no longer caring about following magic rules. Rue ends up having to save her sister and community and now people are after her to stop her from exposing the truth about magic.

Review:

Wings of Ebony by J.  Elle is filled with action, magic, and drama.  Rue is a young girl on a mission to save her sister and her community. After a year of learning about magic and following the rules Rue has had enough. She is ready to return to her true home and be with the people that matter the most to her. This book had a few unclear parts and in the end I felt that the readers needed more information. I didn’t feel any real closure or a good setup for a second book. I will read the second book because I am a fan of fantasy novels but I am not completely locked into this new world yet.