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Elizabeth's Musings

Elizabeth Reviews: Thorn

6/7/2022

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THORN front book cover. Text reads
 Thorn
by Intisar Khanani
Genre: YA Fantasy, Fairy-Tale Retelling
First published (HarperTeen edition) 2020 (original edition was independently published in 2012)
"Tell me, veria, what is the price of justice in your land?"

I watch his fingers, thinking of Valka, of that day long ago and the sapphire brooch. "Justice in my land is very similar to the king's law here--it is to be had for the rich and held against the poor. True justice"--I glance up to meet his eyes--"that would be priceless, I expect."
​                                                -p. 352
Content Warnings for Thorn include: domestic violence, identity theft, reference to (but no direct depiction of) sexual assault, emotional and physical abuse, animal death, murder, slavery

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Elizabeth Reviews: White Tears/Brown Scars

5/7/2022

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Front Cover of White Tears/Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad, featuring the outline of a woman's face on an orange background with a scar-like smudge over one cheek
​White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color
by Ruby Hamad
Genre: Non-Fiction
First published 2020
No analysis of any form of oppression in a Western context is complete without an analysis of the role played by whiteness. To put this another way, every form of oppression that exists in the Western world--yes, including class--is an oppression of white supremacy and its zealous ambition to scale the peak of human civilization and evolution. The white women of history have been given a pass for their role in colonialism and the institutionalization of white supremacy. We say they were "of their time" and didn't know better, or assume they acted out of either fear or ignorance. The truth is that calling them women "of their time" can be a legitimate excuse only if there were no serious challenges to their racist worldview in their time. Of course there were such challenges.
                                                 - WT/BS

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Retrospective of My Second Year

4/28/2022

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​It has officially been two full years since Mary and I first started Briarbook Lane, and once again a lot of things have happened, both of the planned and unplanned variety.

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Elizabeth Reviews: Echo North

3/8/2022

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Echo North
by Joanna Ruth Meyer
Genre: YA, fairy-tale, fantasy
First published 2019
The wolf looked at me impassively. We stood in a quiet meadow, tall grasses waving among the flowers, bees buzzing in lazy air currents. The wood lay leafy and ordinary behind us, not even a hint of snow in sight. Ahead rose a lone hill, sharp and brown against the sky. It was midmorning, or a little past.

"Where are we?" I whispered, my voice hoarse and my lungs aching. The enormity of what I had done threatened to overwhelm me. All I could see was my father, hurtling away on Tinker's cart.

"The house under the mountain," returned the wolf. "My house."

And he stepped toward the hill.

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Elizabeth Reviews: Cinderella's Dress

2/14/2022

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Cinderella's Dress
by Shonna Slayton
Genre: YA, fairy-tale, historical fantasy
First published 2014
They had waited long enough. Perhaps he had given too much credence to the magic. . . . . Though Adalbert had ruminated on the plan a hundred times, a small twinge of guilt pierced his thoughts.

Elsie bumped into him, the way she used to when they were dating. "Stop it," she said scolding. "You are too old. Your first allegiance is to the legacy of the queen. We cannot help Poland tonight. They are coming and we cannot stop them. God be merciful."

. . . The queen's legacy had never been moved such a great distance.
​                                          - chapter one

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Elizabeth Reviews: Small Favors

1/31/2022

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Front cover of book Small Favors by Erin A. Craig. Cover image is flowers and smoke, with honey and bees around the title of the book. At top, quote reads:
Small Favors
by Erin A. Craig
​Genre: YA, fairy-tale, fantasy
​First published 2021
The flowers woke me first, quietly tiptoeing into my sleep and casting a sweet floral filter over everything. I felt myself smile, breathing in the soft bouquet.

Then came the smoke.

Black, burning, and unforgivably present, it wafted in with an acrid bite, curdling my dreams into nightmares. My eyes flashed open and instantly watered as I stared into the rafters.

Was that shouting?
​                                                      p.116

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Elizabeth Reviews: The Raven and the Reindeer

12/14/2021

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The Raven and the Reindeer
by T. Kingfisher
Genre: YA, fairy-tale, fantasy
First published 2016
"I don't know much. She controls the frost, or the frost controls her, or they're the same thing. They say she made a deal with the dark powers, that love would never hurt her again. . . . The devil took her heart and turned it cold. Now she loves however she likes, and when she's tired of them, she wraps them in ice. She keeps them in her palace in the farthest north, they say, all pretty boys like frozen flowers."
​                                                       p. 96 

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Haunted Harrowstone

11/9/2021

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A Themed Drink for Severed Fate: A Dimension Door Podcast

Last Halloween saw the release of the first episode of Severed Fate: A Dimension Door Podcast​. This sister podcast to The Dimension Door is similarly a Pathfinder 1st edition actual-play production. Where The Dimension Door Podcast is playing Paizo's Reign of Winter adventure path, Severed Fate is playing Carrion Crown. This adventure is horror-themed and has thus far featured the very-much-haunted remains of a high-security prison named Harrowstone. Thus, to commemorate the first anniversary of the launch of Severed Fate, I created the Haunted Harrowstone cocktail.

Skip to the recipe or keep reading for details regarding my inspiration for this cocktail.
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Blood and Fire, Smoke and Ice

11/6/2021

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A Themed Drink for The Dimension Door Podcast, Season 1 Episode 15

This is a throwback to a cocktail I created last year for S1.E15 of The Dimension Door Podcast: "Return to Heldren From Whence You Came." While this cocktail was inspired by this particular episode, it speaks to themes common to the entire story so far. 

Skip to the recipe or keep reading for details regarding my inspiration for this cocktail.
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Concluding My Challenged Books Challenge

9/24/2021

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Back in April, I read the American Library Association's list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020, and I decided that I was going to read and review all ten of those books. As I made my way through these books, I took the time to think deeply about each of them; I considered why people have had concerns about and made complaints against each book, whether any of these concerns or complaints were worth consideration, and just what goes into selecting books for suggested or required reading. These 10 books encompass a wide variety of literature: children's, adolescent, young adult, and adult are all represented; fiction and nonfiction; old and new. The only completely unifying thread across all of these books is that they were challenged heavily last year--individuals and groups lodged formal requests or demands to remove them from curriculums or libraries.
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    Elizabeth Wilcox. Writer, Avid Role-Player, Amateur Mixologist. Survivor.

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