bloodygranuaile

I read H. A. Clarke’s The Scratch Daughters and it was basically everything I wanted; i.e., it was super gay and had lots of Mr. Scratch in it. The story picks up several weeks after the end of the first book, and things are not going well for Sideways. Not having her soul is fucking her up. The rest of the Scapegracers are trying to balance helping Sideways get her specter back, not getting their own specters stolen, and Chett-hexing local assholes on behalf of the women they have hurt. This balancing act is not working for Sideways, who is in basically a constant dissociative state and keeps getting phantom thoughts and feelings of what Madeline is doing. The girls descend into some pretty bitter fighting and Sideways goes off half-cocked all on her own (or sort of on her own, she’s got her stolen bike and Mr. Scratch, after all) to hunt down Madeline Kline, and separately, Madeline Kline’s specter. Various things go entertainingly wrong but Sideways survives and eventually pulls it out of the bag because, while the world is full of awful people, it’s also full of good ones, and Sideways has some of the good ones on her side—in addition to her coven, she’s got her fantastic dads Boris and Julian, and a stray queer kid that she finds in the woods whose identity would be a massive spoiler. Much like the last book, the plot is eventful and witchy and fun enough, but the real fun of the book is in the characters and the general vibes. There is some very cool creepy magic and Sideways continues to lick her teeth a lot (they are her favorite bones). I had a great time and hope the third book happens in a timely fashion!