Hopecore at its finest.

Continuing on where Psalm left off, we follow Mosscap and Sibling Dex through Panga. Tea making takes a back burner to helping Mosscap get an idea of humans, society and the answer to their question "what do you need?".

Chambers asks the important questions through conversations between Sibling Dex and Mosscap - do we avoid difficult things, and risk not learning anything? Why do I feel unworthy of rest? Can we stay here for a bit and play? Although the questions aren't all answered, the fact that they're being posed is nice.

I love Claire Keegan's short stories, but maybe not her shortest of short stories. This didn't hit as hard as her other works unfortunately.

If anything her ability to transport a reader to another time, another place is most prevalent in this story.

The short stories weren't dull and didn't feel re-used, but I needed a bit more time with the characters; each time I was getting somewhere with them, the short story ended and new characters were introduced.

An interesting listen! Starting off with the actual witch trials, and going into all aspects of women's lives that are still witch trials in their own way (so all aspects), this book proves to be a great feminism 201, for a bit more depth and a list of secondary literature to keep any interested book worm happy.

I wanted to DNF for the first 100 pages, I am not good with ghosts. but Baker says it herself - knowing defangs. After the defanging I could at least read more than 10 pages, and even at night...

Not my usual read in some ways - horror is not my thing - but definitely my usual read in other ways. The depiction of racial violence throughout the story was at least as strong as the ghost story. An important insight in recent history that could be easily ignored when it doesn't harm you. My hoping is that it wasn't as bad as Baker wrote, but I think that hope is futile.

The characters were realistic in the sense that they were still really looking for themselves, had a past, as well as their own demons. It made me like them more.

This is also one of the first Covid books that I've read and I really appreciated the depiction of that as well.