Tome Thursday: Tallow and Bone

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome to tonight's book of choice.

 

It's one I am so very, very excited to be sharing with you!

 

Rhiannon Hargadon is an author you don't just randomly come across on a Tuesday, but that's pretty much what happened to me ...

 

... and it's been the best decision of my life to continue reading every. single. book. she releases.

 

Because they are wonderful.

 

They are glorious.

 

They're special in that, I also have a vested interest in seeing them do well in the world, as I get to be one of the first to read them during the pre-launch era.

 

So I'm not going to wax any more poetic (at this point ...) but instead, hop right into the book itself.

 

Tallow and Bone, everybody!

 

Links to previous related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual.

 

Fair warning: this is a retelling of the Salem witch trials, so if you're thinking to yourself this'll be a cozy, rainy afternoon read ...

 

Don't.

 

It isn't.

 

Amity and her family flee in the night after her earth magic goes a little haywire and kills her would-be suitor (or at least, the poor unfortunate soul she kissed at the time), evading capture by their pursuers and getting separated once they realize one of her younger sisters didn't make it to the shelter they found. Amity's mother goes back out to find her, promising to reunite with the rest in Salem, Massachussets.

 

Yes, THAT Salem.

 

I already warned you where this is going.

 

Amity's father and the others arrive to town and immediately realize something's deeply wrong; her earth magic doesn't respond to her and the entire town seems to be under some sort of curse or something, based on what she can see when she takes a more 'witchy' look.

 

When things get dire, she and her brother go to nab some apples from the only apple orchard in town capable of producing anything, and it eventually turns out that the owner, Mary, happens to be a witch. So is her granddaughter Meg, and so is a mysterious male witch who never gives Amity his name, but she falls head over heels for him anyway.

 

You do you, girlie pop. I personally wouldn't find much of interest in a man whose personality required ten signs for toxic poison but, we're all different I suppose.

 

Suffice to say that he isn't interested, either, or at least he says he isn't, despite the fact Amity begins spending lots and lots of time with Mary to try and learn from her as well as lift the curse that seems to be poisoning Salem from the ground up. From what they can tell, it originates from when one of the native women was hung back in the day, and she cursed them all, so they spend a vast amount of time trying to find an antidote.

 

During all this, Amity's family tries to assimilate with the town, to varying degrees of success. She, certainly, never really does, managing to clash with both the pastor and his son every single time they meet, but the pastor also happens to want to bed her, so I suppose he's got a reason for continuing to sniff around her.

 

Then, after unsuccessfully trying to steal his chicken at night (needed for a potion, of course), George, the town saint and pretty much the most beloved of every single person there, comes to ask for Amity's hand in marriage.

 

Since she's neither as pious as her sister Elizabeth nor as likable as her sister Harriet, this is a WUUUT moment for our Amity, but she marries the man anyway, when it becomes clear as a whistle her witch (whom she's been having romantic rendez-vous with, mind, by this point, after they both decided they don't hate each other too much after all) isn't going to tie the knot, and in fact couldn't be further from that to begin with.

 

All seems to be going well even if she thinks she doesn't even like George, until she finds out she's pregnant.

 

At this time, the hunts are slowly gearing up as well, and if you think this is pretty, think again. The paranoia and the fearmongering are VERY real, especially among the women, and despite Amity's best attempts at dissuading everybody (shit cake baking included, you'll learn this from the book), they've hung Mary, you know, the witch with the orchard who's been feeding everybody and trying to save them.

 

And before I forget - the men have hung Amity's mother, too.

 

Yes, she never makes it to Salem, because a bunch of fools with dangly bits between their legs decide that they're better than her and pull her up into a tree.

 

Men.

 

Back to Amity, who gives birth to a daughter (a fairly traumatic birth, too), and then falls into postpartum depression so severe she's basically non existent.

 

Just when she and George are ONCE AGAIN finally hitting their stride, the witch reappears.

 

I'm going to keep calling him the witch even though you eventually learn his real identity, because I think this has to be something you read for yourselves, by the way.

 

What does he want, you ask?

 

He wants her to run away with him and leave George. By the way, George is his best friend in the whole world, and yes, the daughter Amity gave birth to is actually the witches' but, honestly now.

 

My brother in Hecate: you didn't want her when she was single and actually willing to marry you. Now she's married, a mother, and trying her damn best to avoid persecution, and you've suddenly had the englightening moment that, hey, this girl kinda rocks, Imma tell her we'll leave together and she'll totally abandon the husband who adores her and provides for her every whim!

 

Again: men.

 

Amity says no, but when they come for her with pitchforks in the night, even George urges her to flee with the witch, that they'll all reconvene together at some point in Boston. Having read this story before with her mother, you can probably tell how it's gonna go, but of course our Amity is made of stronger stuff.

 

She leaves the baby with the witch and runs back for George, which of course gets her arrested.

 

She might have even saved herself, despite the fact her own sister married the pastor and has been busily fanning the flames of the witch hunts (how, when it's your family, I will never understand), because said pastor still wants her, if not for the fact she sees a cairn with a human hand sticking out.

 

It's George. They bury him under stones after he refuses to denounce her as a witch.

 

Amity goes a liiittle crazy, and ends up on the gallows, along with Meg, her sister Harriet, a few other women, but she manages to not die and the witch rescues her. She gets her revenge on her sister, but was it even her sister who denounced her?

 

Because she then sees THE WITCH HIMSELF poisoning Salem, and realizes it's been him all along, and has he lied to her about her sister or what??

 

That's one hell of a mystery, but they leave Salem anyway after a confrontation with the pastor that involves no less than a pitchfork, healing magic, and a tree making a living cross for said pastor, deciding to leave the cesspool behind (however, the curse is definitely gone even before they leave, so ... but then again the witch probably would have started it again, blaming the town for doing nothing after his father killed his mother, then made everyone believe it was the witch - but who was it really, and who do you believe at this point? Intriguing ...).

 

Amity gives birth to another daughter, this time George's, and the book ends with forget-me-nots, George's flower (IYKYK) blooming to life when the place they find to settle down in is safe and plentiful.

 

THE END.

 

First and foremost and always: thank you so much to the author for sending me an early copy!

Man.

I have yet to read a book by Rhiannon that I genuinely don't like. Even when I disagree with a main character - often times violently - I end up loving the thing as a whole. It's some sort of magical talent of hers, I swear!

This book does a fantastic job at following Amity and her (mis)adventures upon arriving in Salem right in the middle of mounting hysteria before the trials truly begin.

And boy, is it a MISadventure!

From trying to heal the land to tangling with a witch whose only currency is cruelty, to finding a golden retriever green flag of a human and facing unwanted pregnancy, Amity deals with it all.

Not well, not always wisely, but she does.

This book WILL take you on an emotional rollercoaster. It WILL rip the earth right our from under you. It WILL NOT hold your hand and promise it gets better.

It doesn't.

But it DOES find a conclusion, and that's something to behold in a tangled web that's woven right from the first page.

Buckle up and don't expect gentleness; there was nothing gentle in Salem while everyone saw shadows and witches in every corner. It's a beautifully horrifying rendition of a time that is not meant to be comfortable or neat, and the author's writing is *chef's kiss*

You may end up hating parts of this. You may end up crying over large sections. You may even not like the ending, AND THAT IS ALL OKAY.

Because guess what?

This book will make you FEEL. It will make you experience EMOTION, whatever form it takes for you. And it will put you into the head and thoughts of a witch that is a far cry from beings we're used to such as Morgana, Sabrina, etc.

It's beautiful and rough and gut-wrenching and brutal and emotional. The writing sucks you in and doesn't let go.

So read it. Read it for the chance of feeling something profoundly raw and real. That's the beauty of it. 

 

xx

*image not mine

 

Bloody Black - Lily & Thorne