reading notes

by Trinie Dalton
ISBN: 9780982525432

One of the first four single short story/novella books published by Madras Press in December, all I knew about this book was that it featured a sugar addicted witch named Candy.

Of course I put it on my Christmas list.

I figured it would be fun and weird and I was not disappointed. The book is a hundred little square pages of awesome. It’s funny, ridiculous, and kinda hot. (Who knew Death was a woman with killer heels? No, not literally killer heels, but… you get the point.) Okay, fine, there is a vampire too, but his name is Chad. Chad. Not to spoil the fun, so I’ll just say there is no ridiculous pining, tragic unrequited love, or sparkling in the sun — it’s about the witch, not the bloodsucker.

Hansel and Gretel do not show up. Evil does make an appearance, but not before a mutilated Pinnocchio. There’s also hitchhiking. Candy winds up in the small city of Oblivion, where she opens a bank account and keeps the pen she uses because it says Trust in Oblivion on it. At one point, she muses that “there are so many powers we don’t even use” — though using powers doesn’t always mean or bring what is expected. Expectations are a bitch.

Dalton’s magical world makes absurd sense, and in that way we recognize it as being like our own. Highly recommended.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 11:51 pm and is filed under fiction.