About the Book
-
Author:
- Kim DeRose
- Genre:
- Fantasy
Cover Story: Fire in the Hole
Drinking Buddy: Strong
MPAA Rating: R (descriptions of sexual assault, language, drinking)
Talky Talk: Wow
Bonus Factor: Witches
Anti-Bonus Factors: Sexual Assault, Victim Blaming
Relationship Status: Coven-mate
Trigger Warning: Graphic descriptions of sexual assault/rape
Cover Story: Fire in the Hole
A non-memorable cover for a great book. Honestly, I can’t really tell what we’re looking at. Love the title, though.
The Deal:
Elliot’s father thinks she attends an SAT prep course once a week. But that’s not true. She goes to a sexual assault survivors’ group. After she packs her knife, Mace, and whistle, and makes sure no one is following her, of course. Finally, after months of talking about her feelings, she decides she’s done playing the victim. Those boys need to pay. And Elliot knows how.
She’s discovered a book belonging to her late mother. A book that describes how to start a coven. How to cast spells. How to get revenge. Recruiting three other girls from the group, they swear a blood oath and are bound together as witches. And now they’ll make those guys pay.
Drinking Buddy: Strong
Elliot is a punk rock girl who now lives with her back to the wall. Chloe constantly second guesses herself (Did I say ‘no’ forcefully enough?). Bea dropped off the soccer team she loved so she wouldn’t have to see him. Madeline feels she failed as a good Catholic girl.
These are all bright, talented girls who had a horrible experience and had to kind of just eat it and move on with their lives. Only one of them was able to confide in their parents. Alone, they feel helpless. But together, nothing can stop them.
I wonder if the author made a mistake by making all of them come from well-to-do families, however. Sexual assault can happen to anyone, and poorer people often have even less recourse afterwards.
MPAA Rating: R (descriptions of sexual assault, language, drinking)
The author doesn’t pull any punches when describing what these girls went though, so know what you’re getting into. None of these stories are the same. And none of the perpetrators were the guy lurking in an alley with a knife. The girls all knew and trusted their attacker.
I often had to set down the book because I wanted to grab a bat and go after these guys myself, until I remembered they didn’t actually exist.
Talky Talk: Wow
While the book is mostly told in Elliot’s POV, we hear from the other girls as well. How their trust was betrayed and how they’re dealing with things. And I like the author’s message that there is no ‘right’ way to cope with tragedy. If you choose to put things behind you, then that’s your right. And if you want curse him with a spell of destruction, we will not judge you.
Bonus Factor: Witches
Like most assault victims, the coven members initially felt helpless. Going to the police isn’t always an option, and few acquaintance rapists are ever convicted. They could meet him in a parking lot with a tire iron, but then they’d be the one going to jail.
Enter the spell book. Elliot has no idea how her mother acquired it, but it works. And unlike some old tomes, there’s no translating from Latin or locating powdered unicorn horn. All of the ingredients are easily obtained with $100 and an eBay account. The problem is that the witch does not choose the spell; the book does. So no casting ‘Dickus Fallsoffus.’ But the spells really work, and each attacker falls victim to a nasty fate. Win, win, eh?
Except you know these things don’t usually go according to plan. For starters, the witches start to feel ill. Nothing horrible, just a cough, a nosebleed, maybe an upset stomach. Probably unrelated. Except they really do start feeling worse.
Also, no one knows these guys are rapists. Hell, they probably believe they did nothing wrong. So when the curses hit, the world actually sees them as victims. And they have people who love them: friends, siblings, parents, even a wife and kids. Is it fair to hurt these people, even though the guy himself is scum?
Anti-Bonus Factor: Sexual Assault
It is what it is. But there are different kinds of assault, and it doesn’t have to include penetration. And Elliot asks the question: why do we train girls how to avoid being raped, but don’t train boys not to rape?
Anti-Bonus Factor: Victim Blaming
Elliot can’t bear to tell her father what happened to her, as he’s still grieving over the loss of his wife. But Elliot’s maternal grandmother, however, does find out. And wonders out loud if Elliot did everything she could to stop it. And how she must protect her father from ‘the unpleasantness.’ And how she should just put it all behind her.
Madeline’s family is even worse, insisting she use her experience in her college application essay. But the thing that really grinds everyone’s gears is when the boy who raped another group member is let off with a very light sentence so his bright future won’t be jeopardized.
The system failed these young women. It’s time for them to get their revenge.
Bromance Status: Coven-mate
Can’t wait to read more by this new author. Though I may need a break to emotionally recover from this one.
Literary Matchmaking
Betsy Cornwall’s Reader, I Murdered Him also deals with gory revenge on handsy men.
Toil & Trouble is an anthology about the power of witches.
Need a less intense revenge book? Try Daphne Benedis-Grab’s I Know Your Secret.
FCC full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, but no money or spells.
