Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales Of Women & Witchcraft

By Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe

From good witches to bad witches to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a diverse collection of feminist authors. TOIL & TROUBLE delves deep into the wide-ranging mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view to create modern and unique ideas about witchery that have yet to be explored.

Scorn the witch. Fear the witch. Burn the witch.

History is filled with stories of women accused of witchcraft, of fearsome girls with arcane knowledge. Toil & Trouble features fifteen stories of girls embracing their power, reclaiming their destinies and using their magic to create, to curse, to cure – and to kill.

A young witch uses social media to connect with her astrology clients – and with a NASA–loving girl as cute as she is sceptical. A priestess of death investigates a ritualised murder. A bruja who cures lovesickness might need the remedy herself when she falls in love with an altar boy. A theatre production is turned upside down by a visiting churel. In Reconstruction–era Texas, a water witch uses her magic to survive the soldiers who have invaded her desert oasis. And in the near future, a group of girls accused of witchcraft must find their collective power in order to destroy their captors.

This collection reveals a universal truth: there's nothing more powerful than a teenage girl who believes in herself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Sep 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781489264657

Jessica Spotswood

Jessica Spotswood is the author of the historical fantasy trilogy The Cahill Witch Chronicles and the contemporary novels Wild Swans and The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls. She is the editor of the feminist anthologies A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers, & Other Badass Girls and The Radical Element: 12 Stories of Daredevils, Debutantes, & Other Dauntless Girls and co-editor of Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft. Jess lives in Washington, DC, where she works for the DC Public Library as a children's library associate. She is a feminist, a Hufflepuff, and an INFJ.

Reviews for Toil & Trouble

[mutantpudding · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good short story collection with woc (in this case, witches of color) and queer rep in many of the stories.

[sumisbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's always difficult to write reviews for anthologies but this one is very good almost all the way through. It has its ups and downs. I must say, the first story really had me going because it reminded me of back in California when the Santa Ana winds used to blow. It brought back good memories. All in all a very good compilation and I would recommend it.

[thereadingmermaid · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's always difficult to write reviews for anthologies but this one is very good almost all the way through. It has its ups and downs. I must say, the first story really had me going because it reminded me of back in California when the Santa Ana winds used to blow. It brought back good memories. All in all a very good compilation and I would recommend it.