I'd honestly forgotten I'd even written anything about this one. But, because I only changed things by going through my list of read books, and not actually opening the page for the book, I never updated the "review" portion, just the star rating. The ratings I gave them (sometimes with a mini-review based on what I remembered) came from how I'd felt about them when I read them.Ī lot of the books I've changed my mind about in the years since I joined GR have updated ratings. The shortest answer to your question is that I read them ages ago, long before I was aware of the issues with them or of better sources for information, and when I joined GR almost 10 years ago, I just started adding books I'd read. I read Silver's books back in the late '90s/early '00s. Thanks for commenting on this, because I probably never would have gotten around to updating that "review." If you don't mind will you explain the reason why you rated so low?" You stated you enjoyed it, but gave only 2 stars. Nigeria wrote: "I am curious about this book. This book, in my opinion, is a very good beginner's book for those studying Wicca and/or witchcraft. As with any other book concerning Paganism in any form, I would recommend that someone learning about Wicca and/or witchcraft at least give her a chance before coming to a conclusion. She offers the same information as any other author on the subject, but in a much more lighthearted and down to earth style. I know that many Pagans do not like Silver Ravenwolf, but I've always enjoyed her books, both fiction and non-fiction. Be critical, do your own research, and if something feels off/wrong/whatever, listen to your gut about it.Īnd here's what still-a-baby-witchling me had to say, before finally gaining access to better sources: Just read it critically and don't take anything any singular author says as "The one true and only way" to do things. You can take something useful away from pretty much anything you read. However.If you did pick this up, don't despair. She also refuses to stop using slurs, despite people bringing it up with her quite recently, which is oh so charming. I'm not sure this is all from TRASB, but what I do remember of skimming through these books a few years ago are: cultural appropriation, racism, saying Wicca=Witchcraft and only Wiccans are real witches, Christian bashing and hatred (I mean.I get where those feelings come from, but get a grip already), crappy history that isn't actually accurate (ex.: she promotes the 9 million dead witches Burning Times thing), etc. (Cultural appropriation is not the only issue with her books, that's just an example search phrase to use.) I don't remember enough of the specifics of this book to detail exactly, point by point with page references, why it's not great, but it shouldn't be hard to find other people's dissections of it by googling something like "Silver Ravenwolf cultural appropriation." That should get you started. (Feel free to send me a message if you want some recs.) There are also different kinds of Wicca out there (a lot of traditional Wiccans, from what I've seen/heard, are not particularly fond of Silver and other authors like her), and even more varieties of witchcraft. There are far better sources for you to pick up if you want to learn about witchcraft and/or Wicca. I didn't have the life experience or anything else to help me articulate what it was that made me uncomfortable, and even now there are other people who can do so better than I could.īasically, I don't recommend this one. Baby-witchling me ate up her words, even the things that made me feel uncomfortable. I picked this one up, and the rest from this series, as well as her teen witch book, waaaaay back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It's been almost 10 years since I wrote my original commentary on this one, which I'm going to leave below the updated version.Ī lot has changed in the world, and for me personally, since I first read any of Silver's books.
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