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(SFF Bingo): The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst
Aug. 4th, 2025 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primeidealI wasn't really sure what to do for Cozy SFF, so I found this on a rec list and semi-impulsively threw it in to get "free"-ish shipping on another order. The name stood out because I had greatly enjoyed Durst's "Race the Sands," which features a mix of well-rounded POV characters, thoughtful extrapolation from a couple basic worldbuilding premises, nuanced romantic relationships that felt realistic even if they weren't always happy-ever-after, and plotlines that zoom forward rather than wasting time with foreshadowing. Unfortunately, "The Spellshop" has basically none of these things.
Kiela is a librarian in the imperial capital who's happy to live away from people, secluded in her nook, and having food brought to her on a lift. But revolutionaries storm the palace, defenestrate the emperor, and the library is set on fire in the disorder. With a few volumes of spellbooks she's saved from the chaos, Kiela flees to the rural island of Caltrey where she was born. She doesn't really have a plan, but maybe she can sell jam, supplemented by "herbal remedies" (aka magic spells but don't call them that because the books are technically contraband) to heal the islands' suffering flora and fauna?
The inside cover flap describes the book as "a lush cottagecore tale" and "like a Hallmark rom-com." For some people, these may be selling points. For me they weren't. I don't want to make this a culture war thing, but the descriptions of cooking, cleaning, gardening, and hacking through magically-accelerated bramble did not sound like fun escapism, they sounded like hard work. There's a lot of mention of "Kiela's parents didn't really like the island, they wanted to live in the big city," but we never really get any description of why. Kiela seems extremely naive at times: were you really just going to stay secluded in your cottage forever? As much as you might dislike socializing, one needs food, and money, and some way to earn a living. But for all the worries about "oh no, how will I support myself independently," pretty much all the Warm-Hearted Island Folk are bending over backwards to give her food or help fix her chimney. In the case of the love interest, maybe it's because he treats everyone that way, or maybe because Kiela was nice to his animals when she was a small child and doesn't remember it. There's one Token Grumpy Guy, but even the scary outsiders eventually come around via the power of friendship.
Kiela's one friend from her library life is a magical Cholorophytum comosum named Caz. Caz is a worrywart and frets about all the things that could go wrong. Except when Kiela is away from him and it's her turn to worry about all the things that could go wrong for him without her. The magical creature could have been an opportunity for a unique POV or character voice, but I felt like they just took turns being the designated worrywart. (Towards the very end, Caz makes an important speech about his backstory, which was different and appreciated, but it took a long time to get there.)
Kiela and Caz conduct research with their magical spells, varying the ingredients or pronunciation to see if they can get different results. In an amusing twist, the goal is not to improve the spells but make them less effective or obviously magical, so no one gets suspicious. I liked this idea of "controlled experiments." However, in keeping with the low-stakes premise, there are basically no setbacks. An apple tree gets transformed into a bird, and Kiela freaks out everytime she sees it because oh no, what if the villagers realize I'm a book smuggler?! She accidentally creates a talking cactus, who can only say one word out loud. But don't worry, the cactus establishes a telepathic link with Caz in order to communicate their preferred pronouns. For me, the absence of conflict was tiresome.
The island is full of magical creatures like cloud bears and mermaids and unicorns, but they can't help the human villagers with their problems or vice versa. Until Kiela comes along, fixes everyone's problems, and gets rewarded with glimpses of the unicorns, because her books are the most special. Hard to get a sense of scale.
Similarly, the overall premise is that "things are falling apart on Caltrey because the emperor and nobles don't send around sorcerers to fix the weather or deal with magic problems anymore." Why? Because they're just...corrupt, and power-hungry, and want to hoard knowledge instead of sharing it with the people? Which is what causes the rebellion at the beginning. But again, "Race the Sands" set a really high bar for "one fundamental worldbuilding premise and a bunch of second- and third-order ramifications," I felt like Durst could have done so much better here.
There are some humorous moments:
Bingo: Using it for Cozy SFF. Was a previous readalong. Case could be made for "Stranger in a Strange Land" although she was...born there.
Kiela is a librarian in the imperial capital who's happy to live away from people, secluded in her nook, and having food brought to her on a lift. But revolutionaries storm the palace, defenestrate the emperor, and the library is set on fire in the disorder. With a few volumes of spellbooks she's saved from the chaos, Kiela flees to the rural island of Caltrey where she was born. She doesn't really have a plan, but maybe she can sell jam, supplemented by "herbal remedies" (aka magic spells but don't call them that because the books are technically contraband) to heal the islands' suffering flora and fauna?
The inside cover flap describes the book as "a lush cottagecore tale" and "like a Hallmark rom-com." For some people, these may be selling points. For me they weren't. I don't want to make this a culture war thing, but the descriptions of cooking, cleaning, gardening, and hacking through magically-accelerated bramble did not sound like fun escapism, they sounded like hard work. There's a lot of mention of "Kiela's parents didn't really like the island, they wanted to live in the big city," but we never really get any description of why. Kiela seems extremely naive at times: were you really just going to stay secluded in your cottage forever? As much as you might dislike socializing, one needs food, and money, and some way to earn a living. But for all the worries about "oh no, how will I support myself independently," pretty much all the Warm-Hearted Island Folk are bending over backwards to give her food or help fix her chimney. In the case of the love interest, maybe it's because he treats everyone that way, or maybe because Kiela was nice to his animals when she was a small child and doesn't remember it. There's one Token Grumpy Guy, but even the scary outsiders eventually come around via the power of friendship.
Kiela's one friend from her library life is a magical Cholorophytum comosum named Caz. Caz is a worrywart and frets about all the things that could go wrong. Except when Kiela is away from him and it's her turn to worry about all the things that could go wrong for him without her. The magical creature could have been an opportunity for a unique POV or character voice, but I felt like they just took turns being the designated worrywart. (Towards the very end, Caz makes an important speech about his backstory, which was different and appreciated, but it took a long time to get there.)
Kiela and Caz conduct research with their magical spells, varying the ingredients or pronunciation to see if they can get different results. In an amusing twist, the goal is not to improve the spells but make them less effective or obviously magical, so no one gets suspicious. I liked this idea of "controlled experiments." However, in keeping with the low-stakes premise, there are basically no setbacks. An apple tree gets transformed into a bird, and Kiela freaks out everytime she sees it because oh no, what if the villagers realize I'm a book smuggler?! She accidentally creates a talking cactus, who can only say one word out loud. But don't worry, the cactus establishes a telepathic link with Caz in order to communicate their preferred pronouns. For me, the absence of conflict was tiresome.
The island is full of magical creatures like cloud bears and mermaids and unicorns, but they can't help the human villagers with their problems or vice versa. Until Kiela comes along, fixes everyone's problems, and gets rewarded with glimpses of the unicorns, because her books are the most special. Hard to get a sense of scale.
Similarly, the overall premise is that "things are falling apart on Caltrey because the emperor and nobles don't send around sorcerers to fix the weather or deal with magic problems anymore." Why? Because they're just...corrupt, and power-hungry, and want to hoard knowledge instead of sharing it with the people? Which is what causes the rebellion at the beginning. But again, "Race the Sands" set a really high bar for "one fundamental worldbuilding premise and a bunch of second- and third-order ramifications," I felt like Durst could have done so much better here.
There are some humorous moments:
Kiela wished she had the power to disappear. Or to turn herself into an apple-blossom bird and fly away. She would have given up several books to not be here right now, obviously depending on which book--perhaps the virtually incomprehensible Thoughts On the Ineffable Behavior of Half-Moon Caterpillars by scholars Mimay and Liy or the insufferable Arguments for Moss by that puffed-up half-scholar Wilgafort or...
She knew there were fish and crabs out in the cove, but she didn't know how to fish or...crab? Was that what it was called? She didn't even know what the verb was, much less how to do it.
But ultimately, while I love cinnamon rolls (if not jam) as much as anybody, this was too treacly for me.She knew there were fish and crabs out in the cove, but she didn't know how to fish or...crab? Was that what it was called? She didn't even know what the verb was, much less how to do it.
Bingo: Using it for Cozy SFF. Was a previous readalong. Case could be made for "Stranger in a Strange Land" although she was...born there.