The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

The Gale family is an interesting one. Things seem to work in their favour more often than not, you could even call them special... Or witches, same difference.

Alysha Gale is a 24-year-old who, after losing her job, is forced to move back home with her extended family. Her family is large and in each others business and runs on something of a coven-like structure. The women rule the roost, and power increases with age. Things are normal, if depressing for Alysha, until the day when she receives a letter from her eccentric grandmother, stating that if she is reading this letter, her grandmother is dead. This is concerning news because it takes a lot to kill a Gale woman, and if you attack one you attack them all. Her grandmother's letter instructs her to go across the country to manage a store she was running there, and to settle any affairs she had outstanding. When she makes her way to her grandmother's store, she finds that the store is not as ordinary as your normal junk shop may be, nor are its patrons, and not is the town. On top of the everyday weirdness, she discovers that a sorcerer (not a friend to witches) has sent his apprentice to keep an eye on Alysha to make sure she doesn't interfere with his... plans. There's a big threat coming to town, and if the sorcerer's afraid, it's definitely something powerful and not good. What will Alysha do about the apparent danger in the city, not to mention some... interesting characters she comes across.

I enjoyed this novel, though it took a while to get off the ground. The author sort of just throws the reader into the culture of this family without really taking time to explain the rules or behaviours. In a way it's interesting because that is how a stranger would approach a culture like that, learning bit by bit along the way. On the negative side however, a more effort is spent at the beginning of the book guessing at what's happening and trying to figure out just who this family is and what they are than your average book requires. This writing technique also subliminally adds to the clannish nature of the family and the difficulty one would have actually getting to know them as an outsider. That said, once you are introduced, the family culture it is pretty intricate and fun. I liked Alysha as a main character. She was lost and unsure of who she was or where she was going pretty much throughout the entire book, but despite that, she always took challenges head on and ultimately had the spirit of a leader and a fighter. That spirit grew stronger as the novel progressed. There was good character development throughout the book. Most of the main characters and even some of the minor characters showed various levels of growth over the span of the story. Both the plot as well as the character development were well thought out and provide the reader with a lot to pay attention to. She also has a lot of fun with the dialogue, letting her characters be both bitingly sarcastic and comfortable with some puns, which can be fun in moderation. Overall this was probably not the best contemporary fantasy I have ever read nor the most gripping, but it is a fun read with interesting characters and an engaging plot.

The author is Canadian and the story takes place in various Canadian cities, so there is a bit of Canadiana that the author plays around with throughout the story, so if you know something about Canadian culture you'll be slightly entertained or annoyed, but if you don't then you might be slightly confused at times.  A disclaimer for younger readers is that there is suggested sexual content. There are no explicit scenes but there is plenty of suggestion, and sex is linked to how the witches manage their power and how the family dynamic works. It's a good in between books book.

La Belle Endormie (2010)

This is a beautiful film. It's the story of Sleeping Beauty told in modern times. The story opens with three fairies loosing track of time, making them late to the birth of their god-daughter. A powerful fairy casts a spell saying that the girl will die at 16 by pricking herself on a spindle made of yew wood. The fairies are upset by this news, but are not strong enough to lift the curse. They instead make modifications to the curse. The first fairy says that the princess will not die when she pricks herself, but will merely sleep for 100 years, the second says that the princess could sidestep her fate by living her life in a dream, and the third says that she could make it so the princess pricks herself at 6 and awaken at 16. And so begins the adventure.

We fast forward to the princess at 6 years old. She's an active girl who does not like 'girly' things. In fact, she wants to be a knight herself. She and her family are well aware of the curse and she tries to arm herself against sleep with countless alarm clocks. Her mother also gives her a necklace with a key on it. She puts this key in her mouth periodically when she faces obstacles throughout the film, and after that act a window of opportunity opens. The fateful day of her 'pricking' comes on the day of her ballet recital and she accidentally stabs herself on a hair ornament. She then travels to some underworld place where she must beat a boil-covered gatekeeper at some skull bowling, which she of course does and progresses on to a house with a mother and a son living in it. The mother takes her in, clothes and feeds her, and essentially adopts her for a time. The son is enamoured of her. He seems so fascinated by her and wants to always be near her, until he meets the ice queen who fills his heart with ice. He then seems to hate the very sight of her and eventually runs away. The princess goes on a journey to find him and comes to a kingdom of small people. After some initial danger, she meets with the king and queen of the land, who have unfortunately not seen her friend. They wish her well and send her on her way in a carriage dressed up like a little princess with some treats from the land. Unfortunately, the carriage is attacked by a group of gypsys. Before anything bad happens, a young gypsy girl comes forward and halts the attack, claiming the young princess as hers. She takes the princess home and they bond. Once understanding that the princess is looking for her lost friend, the gypsy girl gives the princess a deer to ride and tells her where she might find her lost friend. At this point in the story, the princess comes to a teepee in a barren winter plain with a mystic in it. The mystic tells her that her friend is a prisoner of the snow queen, but is very happy. The princess is unhappy with this and asks if there is anything that can be done. The mystic says no, but tells her how to get to a bush with red berries on it, saying that here her friend will return to her. The princess finds this bush with poisonous berries and, reasoning that to die in a dreams means to wake up in the real world, she eats the berries. She then wakes up at 16 to find a young man near her bed. We find out that this young man in the great-grandson of the friend she was looking for, and they develop a sort of relationship, but he leaves the castle where she lives periodically and does not take her with him. Her gypsy friend also finds her there and they... explore their relationship further. When her prince charming returns and they have relations, she asks to be taken out into the world with him, but he refuses. So, as in the past, she takes matters into her own hands and leaves by herself.

The princess in this story played a much more active role than other variations of this story. She was a very strong protagonist, and constantly refused to be the girly stereotype people assigned to her. In fact she puts herself to sleep by pricking her own hand because she doesn't want to be in the girly ballet. And never mind a prince, she wakes herself up too, by killing herself in her dream world. She actually takes it upon herself to go on a quest to save the prince. She is fearless and heroic and just what I would want my sleeping beauty to be. She takes matters into her own hands and doesn't take nonsense from anyone. This story is almost reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, as she's going through a dream world, and really, the two stories are quite relatable. Actually now that I think about it, I don't know why this connection hasn't been made sooner.

I really loved this film. It is beautiful to look at and engaging all the way through. There is some nudity at the end, but for the most part it's an innocent tale of discovery and adventure. If you can see it I recommend that you do.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

I was really skeptical about watching this movie. I always like watching a good fairy tale, but Kristen Stewart... not so much. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, though not completely proven wrong on the Stewart front.

The story is pretty much your classic Snow White story. Girl grows up with loving parents, mom dies, dad remarries witch, witch tries to kill her, she escapes, etc. They didn't really change the essentials of the storyline much, but they did change the roles of the characters slightly.

Snow White was given a harder edge in this story. Instead of living a comfortable life until her attempted homicide, the queen locked her in the castle prison for years and the first visual we get of her after she grows into a young woman shows her to be an unwashed, grimy, sheltered creature. She doesn't stay that way for the duration of the film, but she does have more of an impulse to stand and fight when danger arrives than do some of the other Snow White renditions. She also rouses and leads an army to fight the queen in a Joan of Arc like charge.

There is also an increased sense of an everyday magical world. That magic is normalized in this world, still to be wary of, but a normal occurrence. The queen is a witch of sorts. She made a sacrifice in her youth and must suck the life force out of young women to stay beautiful and powerful. Despite her girl hunt however, it is not this fact that she wants Snow White... or I should say not the only reason. Snow White is said to have a purity and a strength that is the only thing that could stop the queen from achieving true power and is what makes her weak, so she wants to consume Snow White to ensure her power doesn't wane. Snow White's ability is not as manifested as the queens, but she seems more to have a oneness with nature, to be the physical representation of life, and this is demonstrated in her interactions with non-human life forms.

What is really enjoyed about the film was the visual landscape of the forest. It was very magical and lush at times, and held that latent expectation and light. I thought that overall the characters were well cast as well. The queen was glacial, but you could see how someone would submit to her. The huntsman was running from his own demons, but was strong enough to put them aside to do what needed to be done. The only character I didn't enjoy was Snow White herself. I wasn't bothered enough not to enjoy the movie, but her voice showed too little emotion and was almost flat at times when emotion needed to be shown. Also, she does not seem to be able to display more than a handful of facial expressions, which really limits the character development and believability.

Aside from that however, I enjoyed this film. It was a pleasure visually and the storyline was gripping, as well as were the rest of the cast.

 

Phineas and Ferb

This is a great show. It's a cartoon about two brothers and what they do over their summer vacation. We aren't talking scouts and basketball here though, these two boys are brilliant engineers in the making and build outrageous creations. Roller coasters, time machines, pet translators are only the tip of the ice burg, a running joke in the show is that the delivery person who delivers the parts they order asks 'Aren't you a little young to be ...' And they always answer, 'Yes, yes I am.'

Phineas and Ferb also have a sister named Candace. All siblings take a perverse pleasure in telling on each other, but Candace takes this to the extreme, especially because her brothers are doing extremely outrageous things. However, she never seems to be quite able to complete this task, because whenever she gets her mother to come see what her brothers have created, it mysteriously disappears.

This brings us to the other portion of the show. Phineas and Ferb have a pet platypus named Perry. Little do they know however, that Perry is a secret agent working for the government! Every day he disappears and gets his mission to go stop the evil Dr. Doofensmirtz from doing... Whatever it is he's doing. As with all evil villains, Doofensmirtz wants to take over the world, or more specifically, the Tri-State area, but he tries to do this in wacky ways, most involving some 'tragic' back story, like how his parents made him be a lawn gnome. He also creates a machine for every episode and ends it with -inator. He also feels it necessary to explain how and why he's doing what he's doing to Perry after he captures him, and if he cannot do that he can't go through with his evil scheme. He's just a really hilarious villain with a chivalrous heart and a burning desire to rule the world because of his past disappointments.

One thing I don't really like about the show is that every episode there is this really bad song scene. I know this is Disney... but that doesn't necessarily mean a requirement for bad music. Other than that however, one of the better shows on tv!