#sarah gailey

a-witches-brew:

When we write witches into our stories, that is what we’re writing about: power. When we write witches, we are writing about our expectations of women, and what we hope—and fear—they would do if they had access to power. Fictional witches act as ciphers that help us understand something that seems at once mysterious and brilliant and sinister: a woman’s ultimate, unlimited potential… realized.

–“Why We Write About Witches” by Sarah Gailey

“And you’ve only ever read stories about people like you, right? You’ve never met one of your

kind before now. Well, except for Beatriz,” she added. “Ain’t that so?”

“Yeah,” Esther answered reluctantly. She sensed a trap coming, but she couldn’t figure out how to step around it.

“All those stories you’ve read,” Amity said softly, pulling her hat back off her eyes by a few degrees. “Who gave ’em to you?”

“The Librarians,” Esther said.

“And who gave ’em to the Librarians?”

Esther thought hard about that one. The things the Librarians brought weren’t subject to the Textbook Approval and Research Council, since they only worked on schoolbooks, and they weren’t subject to the Media Review Committee, since they mostly did film and television. “The Board of Materials Approval?” she guessed.

Amity nodded. “And what do you think that Board wants you to believe about yourself?” She paused, but it wasn’t the kind of pause that wants an answer. “You might not have a happy ending coming to you, Hopalong. But if you come to a bad end, it won’t be on account of what kind of person you fall for. I’ve seen a lot more of the world than you have, and I can tell you upright: I’ve seen as many good ends as bad ones for your kind of heart.”

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey starts off a yarn about a dystopian fascist United States where resources and tech are so consumed by war effort and maintaining hegemony the country’s living standards have reverted to looking like something out of the Old West. In one dusty corner of Arizona, Esther Augustus has run away from a fiancé and the death by hanging of her best friend and more Beatriz at the hand of Esther’s father no less. Stowing herself away with the Librarians, who travel from town to town caring for and dissemination the proper books and other state approved materials, it’s a group of the upright sort of women Esther thinks she needs. And she’s right, about one thing. She’s found her kind of people.

Generally, I like queer westerns, be those takes on the past or speculative futures. Transgressive librarians likewise are golden. Though, Upright Women Wanted if I might use a quaint phrase, as this novella has a seemingly endless supply of them, feels rather like a lick and a promise.

Readers are left flat in the middle of personal and national events. As the latter is given next to no exposition (so many questions), character driven this tale is. Two of the Librarians Leda (from an organized crime family in the Northwest) and Bet (from the military Central Corridor), truth be told in a long-term relationship, by all outside appearances don’t come off seemingly as anything more than Librarians who ride together. Plus turns out a good quality Librarian has parcels that include smuggled materials and people as part of the resistance. Though when it comes to the goods on a guilt-stricken Esther, her dad’s powerful as a Superintendent, the fiancé Silas is little more than a name, Beatriz a memory barely cold in the ground and there’s more life-threatening situations and death to be dealt. Yet, the immediate focusing subject is Esther’s attraction to an Apprentice Librarian Cye (from the manufacturing Northeast that uses child labor). Cye tasked with acclimating Esther on the road has a direct personality, as they also make it clear to Esther:

 “I’m they on the road and she in town. You can take time getting used to they on the road, but if you forget about she when we’re in town, you’ll have to learn how to think around a bullet.”

People cope with issues and trauma differently but, Esther’s attraction to Cye coming up at once and permeating even as chatter in certain situations had me so off kilter reading. I further double checked this title’s categories to make sure I hadn’t missed romance mentioned. Not that expecting such a strong element may help much what with the way the pacing is more a stampede.

Of course, there is a connection between death and desire in the text. Esther, the pansexual protagonist, is convinced by all the stories, education, deeds, and principals she knows that there’s only one sort of end for anybody who is somebody different. Breaking out, finding real refuge, yourself and community, those steps towards making a genuine life, and resistance even under long shadows is where the heart of this story really rests. Such is where I bet readers can feel and love this little book and its mere existence (weaknesses though it may have) too.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey is available in print and digital (including audio) from Tor Books

i don’t think you understand, When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey is about a girl gang of teen witches (diverse when it comes to skin color, religion, sexuality and backgrounds btw) involved in the magic murder of a guy at prom - this is all in the first pages and I’d love for you to know he died because his d*ck exploded - and i just wish more people knew about it and read it /even though it’s fairly new/ so we can make a fandom and have discussions and draw fan art and write fanfics and stuff

AAUW Book Haul: Part 3

I visited the local AAUW Used Book Sale where I bought 21 books! I divided my haul into 3 parts, so here are the last 7 books!

Pictured from top to bottom: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas, The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige, My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, The Inexplicable Logic of my Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins.

Part 1,Part 2