Day One: Spooky TBR / Day Two: October Releases / Day Three: Bookish Autumn Bucket List / Day Four: Perfect Cosy Reading Nook / Day Five: Top 5 Disney Villains / Day Six: Strong Woman Horror Trope / Day Seven: Reading Snacks / Day Eight: 5 Autumn Reads / Day Nine: Vampires and Werewolves / Day Ten: Spooky TBR Update / Day Eleven: Witches / Day Twelve: Books I Should Have Read
Challenge List – Anniek’s Library
Under My Hat is an anthology, featuring some of the best known voices in fantasy fiction. The stories are all based off the idea of witches, some with the traditional ideas we know but with a slight twist, others with more varied, unrecognisable characters, and each one a delight to read.
There are elements of fantasy and horror in here, but most lean away from horror, focusing on other aspects of witchcraft. The first (Stray Magic) is a really sweet, endearing story about a dog separated from her master. There’s a story about a young woman who has recently joined a wiccan coven, and is searching for her belief. A tale about a cursed girl takes an interesting twist when her dead grandmother is bought back to life to protect her. And a young man in a forest comes across a woman who seems to be half cat, half human.
The anthology is well written, really well put together, and none of the stories blur into the other. Each has its own voice, and its own unique charm, carrying you from one tale to the next and making the book as a whole quite difficult to put down.
Overall, this is a really strong, interesting collection of stories, one that’s perfect for spooky season, and one that takes what could be seen as a stock character, and adds layers upon layers to it, without making the witches completely unrecognisable.
Unwrapping Words 