Friday, January 17, 2020

Book Review: The Daughters of Temperance Hobbes by Katherine Howe





This is the sequel to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. I would put it at magical realism rather than fantasy per se.
Connie is up for tenure and her workload is ridiculous, which has already put a strain on her relationship with her live in boyfriend. It’s about to get a whole lot worse. There’s a curse at work and the man Connie loves is in danger. She’ll have to work a spell to save him, but she’s not the only one who has ever worked this spell in an attempt to save the man she loved.
The scenes switch between present day university politics, the frantic attempt to put together the antiquated recipe ingredients for the spell, some of which are very bizarre, and the scenes of yesteryear as an ancestor attempts the same spell.
I really enjoyed the look at academic world politics where people are trying to get their degree and others are making choices based on whether they have tenure or not.
The politics are well described, as is the setting. “The Green Monster had once been a grand Cantabridgian house of the Gilded Age, all dentil moldings and curving oak-railed staircases and marble fireplaces.”

Overall, an engrossing and fun read for the history, the relationships, and the witchcraft. 

No comments:

Post a Comment