“That story is totally incredible and decidedly improper!”

109. Broomstick in the Hall – Jane Blackmore

Camilla fled England after her relationship with her stepbrother Adrian didn’t work out…only to get the message that her younger sister, Julie, will now be marrying their stepbrother Adrian to cover up her pregnancy by the town vicar’s son. Writing that out, well, it makes no sense as anything but a 1970s Gothic. Somehow, Camilla’s New York City therapist does not point out to her that her stepbrother is maybe not a good choice to have a relationship with, considering the sheer number of menfolk who are not her stepbrother in the world. And to be honest, I didn’t realize Adrian was her stepbrother until his father died, who I did know was her stepfather. So that weirdness is not really at the forefront.

Also, the witch element, despite being a big part of the kind of story the title is projecting, is misdirection. The torch bearing townfolk leave without much issue, for instance. The blame on Camilla for being a witch is based on her writing fiction about a witch as well, which is unreasonable, and then it’s just coincidence that she’s in any place to be fake-blamed and if the shop lady is really scared Camilla is a witch, why does she invite her over for cake to talk about the town’s suspicions? Wouldn’t she just be cowering or looking away whenever she sees Camilla?

There’s also a character who maybe is Julie and Camilla’s stepsister named Felicity who is not present at Julie’s “Camilla has to return from the US” wedding, but is brought up a couple times, and I do not know why she didn’t have to come to the wedding and why is she in the story at all? Is she dead? Did she die because she didn’t want to marry her stepbrother/maybe her brother? Did she even say she was going out for a pack of cigarettes before she never came back? Did the oddly petty and vengeful Julie do something to her? I want to know why a short book with super petty sibling rivalry and witchcraft between two of them over their stepbrother needs some random sister who is never seen again. I didn’t know that was a trope.

The one thing that did not confuse me was Camilla’s serious grief over the death of her dog, King. It’s one thing to give her envious spinster sibling rivalry vibes that make her feel like it’s super not fun to be at the wedding of her ex/stepbrother and her sister, which is somewhat relatable and it can be super isolating to be the not fun single person who still has to go to these events. But! It’s way more relatable to me that when she returned home and saw the spot where her best friend and companion who didn’t let her down or accuse her of witchcraft died in a horrible way, it made her feel way worse than the whole wedding thing. There really isn’t enough depiction of how important animals are and how their deaths affect us in fiction and how that can influence other aspects of our lives. Somebody needs to be reliable and in Camilla’s world that somebody is her former dog and then Adrian’s current dog who is a descendant of her dog and also didn’t think Camilla was a witch or judge her for not being keen on the whole coming home thing.

 

That fake owl just accused Hen Wen of being a witch and look what happened to it.