The Wednesday Witches Book Club
Sarah Beth Durst
A little mystery/joke that does everything it’s supposed to
Sarah Beth Durst‘s The Wednesday Witches Book Club is my least favorite of the mysteries in the Amazon Original Magic and Mystery series. Durst is a serious and successful fantasy author with more than 30 books under her belt. Thus I was surprised at the amateurish feel of this story. It’s not that she does anything wrong. In fact, that is exactly the problem. It is as if she went through a Creative Writing program, listed every piece of advice given, and checked each one off. For instance, Creative Writing courses (yes, I have taken a few) like to get their students to write detailed, richly sensory descriptions. Here is how Durst describes one of her characters
Genevieve Durand was one of those put-together people who looked as if she’d never, ever dripped marinara sauce on her shirt. She wore a cream-colored silk blouse and had rich, brown, extremely well-moisturized skin and black hair that was braided with mathematical precision.
Here’s another
...a tanned man with flecks of gray in his trimmed beard and a full head of fluffy, hair-sprayed hair. He wore the kind of flannel shirt that looked as soft as a rabbit, an expensive shirt cosplaying as casual. “Marco,” he introduced himself.
I guess some people believe descriptions like that are Good Writing -- can’t imagine why Creative Writing courses would promote them, otherwise. If you are such a person, then you might like Durst‘s style.
I am not. To me, a description like this feels like compulsion or bullying, or at the very best a homework assignment. It feels as if I’m expected to pull out an identikit and use Durst‘s description to construct a sketch of the character, then keep it around for reference as I read. (I am, to boot, aphantasic.) I would much rather a writer simply describe Marco as “a dignified older man” and leave it to me to imagine him.
Well, no author can please every reader, and it would be churlish to ding a writer for doing things in what the experts say is the right way. The problem is that, when you check all the boxes, less room is left for imagination or creativity. (A great artist must break some rules, I believe.) I found the story of The Wednesday Witches Book Club dull -- it is essentially just a 50-page cat joke. I was also bothered by what felt to me like a subordination of character to plot. Durst‘s characters behave in ways that feel to me inconsistent with their natures, as if she, Durst, doesn’t really know them well.
So, no, I can’t recommend this one.