Saturday, September 15, 2007

"You are not allowed to blog. When you blog, you give yourself away, your most private details, for cheap, for free."


This is according to Yvonne, descended from Gypsies, and one of a coven of three white witches in Kelly Easton’s new young adult novel White Magic: spells to hold you, a book i picked up on a whim.

Some of Yvonne’s other rules:

  • You are not allowed to use drugs. Drugs are like running a race on broken legs and not knowing it.

  • You are not allowed to smoke, because (Yvonne) can’t stand the smell of cigarettes. (She) made her dad quit too. It was very hard on him.

  • Alcohol is okay, but only one glass of wine or beer. Being drunk takes away your power~i always included alcohol and cigarettes in the whole drug category but i guess that’s just me

  • Go easy on technology. Turn off your cell phone before meetings. Try to talk on the phone to each other instead of e-mailing; it’s too impersonal.

  • Limit all forms of media and technology, because it removes you from nature.

  • Have faith. If you have the right intention, the universe will take care of you.

  • Our coven is secret. You can tell people you are a witch, but not about the coven. Secret is sacred.

The other members of the coven include Chrissie, newly transplanted from Vermont, missing the snow, her dead father, and her best friend Jason; and Karen, boy crazy, misguided, and misunderstood. A character named Jimmy (Karen's current crush) who is going through some home turmoil of his own also gets some narrative space (is this the trend of the moment~this constant switch-up of point of view~or just the books i seem to be reading?)

Anyway, all in all, i wasn't entirely thrilled with White Magic~i suppose it was alright~i certainly whizzed through it (but is speed of reading any kind of criteria on which to judge a book?) Perhaps my adolescent girlhood is lacking. It wasn't terrible, but that's about the best i can say. I was also left unimpressed by Easton's research (or seeming lack thereof) into the whole metaphysical, wicca, witcherly (or whatever~i guess it sounded good) realm.

So there you go. My own opinions. For cheap. For free...

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