What I’m Reading Now (Fiction): The Witch in the Almond Tree and Other Stories
Three carefully crafted fantasy tales
I just finished reading The Witch in the Almond Tree and Other Stories by C.S.E. Cooney.
This book contains three stories. All of them are fantasy tales, my personal favorite. The first two also fall into the erotic genre, a genre that normally doesn’t interest me (I’ve read too many poorly crafted erotic stories). But the steamy scenes are so well crafted, so original and interesting, that my faith in the possibility of creating an engaging story that includes explicit sex was renewed.
The Witch in the Almond Tree is a novella about a witch-in-training who must return home to face a family crisis centuries in the making. The protagonist, Mar, is presented with strong character voice. I felt like I knew her well, her attitudes, aspirations, and hesitations. Mar is a fantastic example of a well-rounded character with strengths, flaws, and doubts (a refreshing change after reading several stories with stereotypical and flat female characters). This story will definitely be added to my list of excellent writing craft examples.
Witch, Beast, Saint is an erotic fairy tale. My favorite aspect of this story is the way in which tasty morsels of information about the characters and world are dropped like crumbs down a forest path. There are no long explanations of how this fantasy world works or a deep dive into the minutiae of its inhabitants. Just the info needed to understand the story, while at the same time teasing the reader with little hints of things the characters take for granted.
Braiding the Ghosts is the final story. It’s about a young girl who has lost her mother and must go live with her estranged grandmother. But her grandmother isn’t the type to bake cookies. The girl learns arcane and dark arts under the ruthless hand of the older woman. Again, we’re given the information we need, but not bogged down with details. This was the most difficult story for me, as I have difficulty with suffering (particularly when it’s animals or children), but the suffering presented in the story was required to complete the tale with satisfaction.
As a writer, I’m both inspired and disheartened by the amazing writing skills of Ms. Cooney. Her character voice blew me away. Her ability to spin a good yarn made this book a very easy read. It made me want to jump into my current manuscript to make it better, even though I have much work to do to approach her level of talent.
I’ll definitely be reading more from C.S.E. Cooney.
Have you read any of her work? I’d love to hear about your experience.
