Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Bringing you the famous and cheeky SBTB blog for romance enthusiasts. If you're into the romance genre, this is where you want to be. If you're not, avoid at all costs to preserve your sanity. Ha ha. We're just kidding. There are some good things happening in the genre. Stay Golden, Horny Girl!
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The Lord of Stariel RECOMMENDED: The Lord of Stariel by AJ Lancaster is FREE! Ellen gave it an A: I adored this book and I NEEDED to tell the Bitchery about it. This is a whimsical, fun, sweet fantasy mystery with wonderful characters and a healthy dollop of romance. The Lord of Stariel is dead. Long live the Lord of Stariel. Whoever that is. Everyone knows who the magical estate will choose for its next ruler. Or do they? Will it be the lord’s eldest son, who he despised? His favourite nephew, with the strongest magical land-sense? His scandalous daughter, who …
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http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Bestof2021-213x300.jpgNB: This week, we’re taking a look back at 2021. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading. … We’re counting down the best of our 2021 reviews, which I’m sure you’re all curious about. Counting down from ten, these are the first five reviews in terms of page views. There are some familiar faces in this top ten when compared to last year. Let’s get into it! … A | BN | K | AB10.Bo…
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Wild Rain RECOMMENDED: Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins is $1.99! This is part of today’s Kindle Daily Deals. Catherine wrote a Lightning Review for this one and gave it a B+: I enjoyed this story a lot. It contains many of the elements that feel like a traditional Western to me – scenes of blizzards and horse-breaking, confrontations in the local saloon, slick shysters from out East come to take advantage of the locals – but the central characters buck the stereotypes in numerous ways. The second novel in USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins’ compelling new Wome…
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http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Bestof2021-213x300.jpgNB: This week, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite and our most popular pieces of writing this year. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading. … This one is new to the Best Of roster! Since we feature other things outside of reviews like HaBOs, Rec Leagues, and general opinion pieces, we wanted to look at what y’all really engaged with the most. I kept out sale posts and our r…
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Circe Circe by Madeline Miller is $4.99! This is a Kindle Daily Deal and it’s being price matched. I know $4.99 is a little higher for books we feature on sale, but everyone and their mom has been loving Circe. I want to say that most of my book group has read it by now. Have you read it? Does it live up to the hype? In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child–not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers th…
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NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite and our most popular pieces of writing this year. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading. … Say hello to the top five Cover Snark posts of 2021! These are the most viewed Snark posts from last December to now! It’s such a joy to put these together and I hope you all get as much joy from reading them. Let’s count them down! http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/image-41-202x300.p…
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http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ElyseBachelorette-150x125.pngIt’s time for the finale of this season of The Bachelorette, and the next season of The Bachelor starts 1/3. ABC is not giving me a break this year. I’ve slammed a cold brew, taken two Ibuprofen, and Pudding and I are cuddled under our softest blankies and ready to do this. Pudding is the only cat I’ve had who wants to be tucked in and it’s adorable. http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image0-5-rotated-e1640539609578.jpeg So we open with Michelle’s parents and sister arriving in Mexico. Brandon arrives with flowers and a gift for Michelle’s dad. W…
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Christmas is over and let’s all take a restful week before the new year. Is it just me or does this weird post-Christmas, pre-New Year time always feel a little bizarre? Here are a few titles I’ve recommended quite a bit in the lead up to the holidays. I honestly love it when people come into the bookstore and need recommendations for their loved ones. It’s a mix of matchmaking and a scavenger hunt. Which books have you recommended lately? Did you get any books for the holidays from friends or family? A Peculiar Combination …
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Last Night at the Telegraph Club Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo is $2.99! This was mentioned in a previous Hide Your Wallet and is a lovely YA historical fiction with a F/F romance. It was also a staff pick at the bookstore where I work! I’ve heard nothing but really good things about this one. Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the 1950s. “That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then…
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http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/bigstock-Christmas-Wooden-Mansion-In-Mo-270655558-e1544122079206.jpgIt’s our last Whatcha Reading of 2021! And it falls on Christmas this year. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Next week will be our Best Of posts and we’ll cap it with our end of the year podcast episode. Thank you all for keeping us company this year and being a kickass community. See you in 2022! Sneezy: In preparation for the holidays, I’m listening to the audiobook of The Narcissist in Your Life. ( A | BN | K ) While the book starts off with listing the official symptoms of narcissism, it quickly moves into examining the more c…
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http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/themes/smartbitches/images/podcast/header_05c.jpg The transcript for Podcast 490. Sweet Dreams Romance Recap: California Girl by Janet Quin-Harkin has been posted! This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks. ❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast → View the full article
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When We Left Cuba When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton is $2.99! This one features a character from the first book in this series, Next Year in Havana, but I believe you can manage this one as a standalone. If I’m wrong, though, chime in below! Here’s what Sarah had to say: When We Left Cuba is beautiful and fascinating. Better recommendation comes from my house sitter earlier this year who very timidly asked if she could read my ARC of book three because she loves the series so so much and was so excited that a preview copy was in her vicinity. In 1960s Florida, a yo…
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A It’s time to recap Sweet Dreams #6, California Girl by Janet Quin-Harkin, also known as Rhys Bowen! Jennie is a swimmer with her eyes on the Olympics, and Mark is a grumpy loner on crutches who sketches Jennie one day in the cafeteria. We’ve got: Overbearing sports parents Snark about Texas drivers Homesickness Lots and lots of swimming Learning to set boundaries Dreamy grumpy artist hero! Alas, CW/TW for ableist language and anti-fat bias in the book, which is very lightly skimmed over in the episode. … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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A Game of Fate A Game of Fate by Scarlett St. Clair is 99c at Amazon! I feel like St. Clair has a huge following in the self-pub circles. I also believe this one is a retelling of her popular series starting with A Touch of Darkness, a Hades and Persephone retelling, but told through the eyes of Hades instead. Hades, God of the Underworld, is known for his inflexible rule, luxurious night clubs, and impossible bargains. Use to control, he is not prepared to discover the Fates have chosen his future wife and Queen—Persephone, Goddess of Spring. Despite her attractio…
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http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/cover-207x300.jpegDating with a Tail centres around Yunha, who woke up on her 29th birthday with a stupid itch on her ass that wouldn’t stop…because she’s grown a tail. After attempts by Yunha and her grandma to yank it off result in only great pain and fur everywhere, grandma reminds Yunha about the old tale passed down in their family. The tale is about a fox who fell in love with a woodcutter and wished to the mountain spirit to make her human so she could be with her love. It wasn’t meant to be in that life, which broke the fox’s heart. Taking pity on the fox, the mountain spirit gave her ten chances, m…
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http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Depositphotos_52671211_original-1024x682.jpgWelcome back, everyone! Settle in! It’s the last Links before Christmas. If you’re celebrating, I hope it’s lovely and exactly however you imagined it. But even if it’s not, that’s okay! Be gentle with yourself, especially as 2021 ends and 2022 begins. Sarah and I recorded a podcast yesterday for an end of the year chat. I can’t wait for you all to listen to it! As the title suggests, all of today’s links are related to the holidays or Christmas. Enjoy! … When I read this, it wasn’t behind a paywall yet, but I may have used up my free articles. I know The Holi…
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Romancing the Past Romancing the Past is 99c! This is a historical romance anthology of 10 stories and notes it’s around 2100 pages. Roughly 210 per story, give or take. I believe some of these have been published on their own (if not all?), as I recognize Erin Satie’s The Lover’s Knot. 2100 pages of Swoony Historical Romance, featuring USA Today Bestselling author Darcy Burke. Tropes include: friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, fake relationship, marriage of convenience, and second chance. A Duke is Never Enough – Darcy Burke Sparks fly between a seductive rake a…
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B+ Silent Night by Lily Seabrooke November 14, 2021 Contemporary RomanceLGBTQIANovellaRomance http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/themes/smartbitches/images/posts/lightning-reviews3.jpg Brooke Carston is a country-pop star who’s heading home for the holidays for her first extended visit in almost a decade. Brooke wants to reconnect with her family and spend some time recharging, so romance is the last thing on her mind. And yet, when Brooke sees her childhood best friend, Nicole Livingston…
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Neon Gods Neon Gods by Katee Robert is $1.99! I don’t think this has been on sale before, but has a ton of buzz. This is close to the top of my TBR pile and I’ve heard so many good things. Are you a fan? He was supposed to be a myth. But from the moment I crossed the River Styx and fell under his dark spell… …he was, quite simply, mine. Society darling Persephone Dimitriou plans to flee the ultra-modern city of Olympus and start over far from the backstabbing politics of the Thirteen Houses. But all that’s ripped away when her mother ambushes her with an engagement…
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This HaBO comes from Aizee, who is looking for this historical romance series: The hero and heroine were both part of a pirate “family” (I want to say in the Caribbean) where the head pirate was the father of the heroine. Heroine is beautiful, headstrong, blah, blah, blah and much younger than the hero, who looked after her because he had had a crush on her mother (head pirate’s wife) who died young (in childbirth? murdered by other pirates?). For some reason I don’t remember, the pirate family has to give up the business and move to England where it turns out the head pirate/father is also a nobleman with an estate where they will be safe. Possibly part of a series ab…
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A | BN The holidays are being VERY good to us tarot deck collectors. The Disney Villains Tarot Deck and Guidebook is from the same company and author that published Jim Henson’s Labyrinth Tarot Deck and Guidebook. This publishing company has had hits and misses with their decks and this one is a hit. For some Tarot 101 check out this review which explains terms like “Major Arcana” and “Court cards.” This deck has gorgeous Disney-style artwork by Ellie Goldwine in a palette that includes a lot of lush purple and green. The Major Arcana consists almost entirely of images of major Disney villains, although a few objects show up. If you are going to make a Disney deck, I su…
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Accidentally Engaged RECOMMENDED: Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron is $2.99! Kiki reviewed this one and gave it an A-: I cannot emphasize enough how hungry this book will make you. Accidentally Engaged might be my top pick for “don’t read while hungry.” Between our heroine Reena’s bread baking (there’s rye, there’s challah, there’s an ongoing battle with a sourdough starter) and her Indian and East African cooking, I was craving a feast pretty much the whole time I was reading this book. Reena Manji doesn’t love her career, her single status, and most of all, her…
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Hannah emailed me about some absolutely gorgeous gowns and models on the cover of some Harlequin Desire novels, and collectively, we agree: she is Not Wrong. Amanda: The Desire line still reigns supreme for best wardrobe. Sarah: We could do a whole post of “which gown on a Desire cover is the greatest?” Amanda: Everyone submits their own contender. Sarah: YES. The Desire Gown Throwdown! Who’s in? Shana: Meeeeee! Amanda: We must use this gif and I’m in! Show Spoiler http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/aretha-franklin-aretha.gif Amanda: I have a real wild card and I can’t wait for you all to listen to my TED talk Maya: I’m in and …
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Battle Royal RECOMMENDED: Battle Royal by Lucy Parker is $1.99! This is part of today’s amazing set of Kindle Daily Deals, as are all of the books featured today. Catherine gave this one an A-: I loved Battle Royal. While it did have minor flaws, it more than made up for them with humour, tenderness, and food porn. Beloved author Lucy Parker pens a delicious new romantic comedy that is a battle of whisks and wits. Ready… Four years ago, Sylvie Fairchild charmed the world as a contestant on the hit baking show, Operation Cake. Her ingenious, colorful creations capti…
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B A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske November 2, 2021 · Tor.com Science Fiction/Fantasy A Marvellous Light is a slow-paced, M/M fantasy romance set in the Edwardian Age, and is the first of a trilogy. I thought the writing was lovely in terms of describing the use of magic and the romance development, but I kept drifting away from the story. A great deal of the charm and fun of the book is the opposites-attract format of both the world-building (magic meets bureaucracy) and the main characters, Robin and Edwin. Rob…
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ALGONKIAN SUCCESS STORIES
WTF is Wrong With Stephen King?
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The Usherette (Historical Fiction). Meeting Orson Welles
Scene: Chapter Four. Jo returns to New York from visiting Madeleine in Florida after receiving a telegram from Orson Welles asking to meet. He wants to premiere "Citizen Kane" at the Palace Theater and needs someone to show him around. The scene captures Jo's passions and core decency - and why the movies matter to her. He wanted to meet at midnight.docx -
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Demystifying the Blog Tour: A Powerful Marketing Tool for Your Book Launch and Beyond
A blog tour is a marketing campaign that involves coordinating a series of blog posts and online promotions to create buzz and generate exposure for your book. It typically involves collaborating with bloggers and influencers who have an audience that aligns with your target readership. These bloggers will read your book, write reviews, host author interviews, and feature guest posts or excerpts from your book on their blogs. The goal is to reach a wider audience and generate interest in your book within their established community. The Blog Tour Framework Here's a breakdown of the framework for a typical blog tour: Identify and contact bloggers: Research and compile a list of relevant bloggers who cater to your book's genre or niche. Reach out to them via email or through their website's contact form, expressing interest in collaborating on a blog tour. Provide review copies: Offer a digital or physical copy of your book to the interested bloggers, allowing them time to read and review it before the tour begins. Create tour schedule: Coordinate with the participating bloggers to create a schedule for the tour. Each blogger will have a designated day to feature your book on their blog and share their review, interview, guest post, or any other agreed-upon content. Create content: Prepare author interviews, guest posts, or excerpts that you can provide to the bloggers to publish on their respective blogs. These pieces of content should be engaging and relevant to your book, enticing readers to learn more about it. Promote: As the blog tour progresses, actively promote each blog post across your own social media channels and any other platforms you use. This will help generate more visibility and encourage your existing followers to visit the blogs hosting your content. Engage with readers: Throughout the blog tour, make an effort to engage with readers who leave comments on the blog posts. Responding to their comments and answering their questions will help build a connection and potentially lead to more interest in your book. Blog Tour Benefits The benefits of a blog tour can be significant for your book launch or generating interest long after your book has been released. Some potential advantages include: Increased exposure: By leveraging the established audiences of bloggers and influencers, you can reach a wider audience that may not have been aware of your book otherwise. Social proof: Positive reviews and endorsements from bloggers can lend credibility to your book, encouraging readers to take a chance on it. Networking opportunities: Collaborating with bloggers and influencers can expand your network within the literary community, opening doors to potential future partnerships or opportunities. Enhanced online presence: The blog tour generates online content related to your book, increasing your online presence and searchability, which can have long-term benefits for your author platform. When to Plan a Blog Tour Determining the best time to have a blog tour for your book largely depends on your specific goals, timeline, and the nature of your book. However, there are a few general considerations to keep in mind when planning the timing of your blog tour: Book launch date: Ideally, you'll want to schedule your blog tour around your book's launch date. This ensures that the tour generates maximum buzz and attention during the critical period when your book becomes available to the public; however, a book tour can also help reignite interest in your book long after it’s been published.. Pre-launch promotion: Consider starting your blog tour a few weeks before your book's official launch. This gives bloggers and influencers ample time to read and review your book, and it allows you to generate buzz and anticipation leading up to the release. Pre-launch promotion can help build excitement and generate pre-orders or early sales. Availability of review copies: Ensure that you have review copies of your book available and ready to send out to bloggers well in advance of the blog tour start date. This allows sufficient time for bloggers to read the book and prepare their content for the tour. Consider providing digital copies for ease and quick distribution. Audience availability: Take into account the preferences and availability of your target audience. If your book caters to a specific season, genre, or holiday, it might be beneficial to align your blog tour with that theme or timeframe. For example, a romance novel might benefit from a blog tour around Valentine's Day. Other marketing efforts: Consider coordinating your blog tour with other marketing initiatives you have planned. This could include social media campaigns, advertising, or other promotional activities. A coordinated approach can amplify your book's visibility and impact. Blogger availability: Reach out to bloggers and influencers well in advance to secure their participation and confirm their availability for the tour. Keep in mind that popular bloggers may have busy schedules, so it's beneficial to plan ahead and be flexible with scheduling to accommodate their availability. Ultimately, the best time for a blog tour is when you have everything in place, including review copies, promotional materials, and a solid plan for engaging with bloggers and readers throughout the tour. Take the time to strategically plan and execute your blog tour to maximize its impact on your book launch or relaunch. Did you know WOW! Women on Writing offers blog tours as part of our marketing services? If you're interested in exploring professional assistance for your blog tour and other book marketing endeavors, check out WOW! Women on Writing's book marketing packages. We offer comprehensive and tailored solutions to help authors like you navigate the world of book promotion. Our team of experts can guide you through the process, provide valuable insights, and connect you with influential bloggers and reviewers in your genre. By leveraging the expertise and network of WOW! Women on Writing, you can enhance the effectiveness of your blog tour and ensure your book receives the attention it deserves. Learn more here or contact blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com with questions. (C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Enter the Quarterly Writing Contests. Open Now![url={url}]View the full article[/url] -
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Whatcha Reading? May 2023, Part Two
It’s time to wrap up May with our second Whatcha Reading! It’s also Memorial Day weekend in the States, which seems like a perfect excuse to get even more reading done before the month is over. Sneezy: I’m reading Right Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin. She takes no prisoners. Sarah: What’s that? The library has the next Veronica Speedwell audiobook? Don’t mind if I do! Currently listening to A Murderous Relation ( A | BN | K | AB ) and having a splendid time. The audiobook performance by Angele Masters is terrific. A | BN | KShana: I just finished a YA romcom that gave me the biggest book hangover, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert. So much banter and sweetness! I’m now reading The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older, and liking it so far. Elyse: I just finished The Daydreams. ( A | BN | K ) Some of it was how awful tabloids were to young female stars in the aughts (Lindsay, Britney etc), but each of the main characters does something really shitty to another so it’s hard to really like any of leads. It was meh. Lara: Elyse recommended Loreth Anne White’s The Maid’s Diary ( A | BN ) and I’m hooked. No romance, but the suspense is phenomenal so far. Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments! View the full article -
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Book Lovers: Know Your Tribe
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Writing Hot Sex Scenes - Saints Preserve Us!
I've been trained. It works! -
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Crucial Self-Editing Techniques - Don't be Hostage to a Line Editor
If you knew how many writers this has positively impacted, you'd say, it's no wonder. Fundamentals like this are too often neglected. -
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Podcast 564, Your Transcript has Bunny Ears
The transcript for Podcast 564. Bunny Aliens in Space: Cover Design with JL Logosz has been posted! This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks. ❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast → View the full article -
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Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener Doesn’t See the Forest for the Trees
Master Gardener is the third in Paul Schrader’s “God’s Lonely Men” trilogy, in each film of which a weary middle-aged man who has previously experienced alienation from mainstream society contends with his haunted past and hazy future, reflecting on these things, and his rote daily existence, via diary-keeping—a technique that suffices until his world is challenged by knowledge of something greater, and tested by a newfound bond with a distressed young person. Via these characters, the films in this trilogy tend to pair and interrogate the relationship between two normally unrelated topics: religion and climate change (First Reformed, 2017), gambling and the War on Terror (The Card Counter, 2021), and horticulture and racism (Master Gardener, 2022). Schrader is an accomplished, highly literary storyteller and his interests (particularly the the masculine-coded concepts of destruction and violence) have produced some of film’s most fascinating inquiries into the ills of modern society, from Taxi Driver to Affliction to American Gigolo, to First Reformed and The Card Counter. First a film critic and then a screenwriter (responsible for classics like Raging Bull and Obsession and famous for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma), Schrader’s later work as a director is epitomized by the triad of films about “God’s Lonely Men,” three anti-social anti-heroes in crisis: a self-loathing pastor, a troubled gambler, and a secretive gardener, all reckoning with the sudden collision of themes, lives, selves once kept at a distance. Many of his protagonists, but especially these three, can be read as homages to Alain Delon’s Jef Costello in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 film Le Samouraï: cool, reserved, highly-competent professionals whose whose adherence to rituals and observances leaves them unprepared to confront unforeseen cataclysms. It’s almost never useful to compare films in a director’s oeuvre to one another; despite similarities, each is its own discreet contribution. But Schrader’s films are designed to reference each other—or, really, The Card Counter and Master Gardener are designed to reference First Reformed—so please forgive me while I place them all side-by-side for a moment. In First Reformed, Ethan Hawke plays Ernst Toller (no, not that Ernst Toller), a cheerless reverend at a small antique church upstate who keeps a diary of his own stark life the year he happens to encounter a distraught climate activist who opens his eyes to the ravishment of God’s green earth by greedy corporations, as well as the ways God’s own church is influenced by corporatization to the point of disregarding the stewardship of the planet. That film, a simmering hagiography of a soul in turmoil, provides the blueprint for Schrader’s subsequent two films, not only thematically, but also stylistically, in the terms I mentioned in the opening paragraph. The films are dark, lonely meditations into their protagonists’ natures, told via their floridly-written, allusion-rich journal entries, as they finally confront aspects of their lives and their worlds they have kept at bay for so long. The Card Counter inherits the framework of First Reformed, but reworks it enough for it to feel distinct; Oscar Isaac plays William Tell (no, not that William Tell), a former military interrogator and now card-counter, who carpetbags from casino to casino, living out of austere motels, until he meets a young man who informs him that he knows his true identity, as a soldier who served jailtime for his role in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and asks for his help committing an act of revenge against one of Tell’s military superiors. This film slowly explores the human capacity for both empathy and cruelty, teasing out the relationship between “keeping one’s cool” and “losing it.” I don’t have as conclusive a reading of the forces at work Master Gardener, arguably the film in this trilogy with the toughest conceit. Joel Edgerton plays Narval Roth, a taciturn head gardener of Gracewood Gardens, a privately-owned estate with gardens that are open to the public. Narval manages a team of polo-clad young people, overseeing their work but also instructing them in the history, philosophy, and science of horticulture. He answers to no one, except Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), the wealthy owner of the estate, who throws his carefully cultivated world out of order when she demands he take on an apprentice, her grand-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell). Maya is biracial, the daughter of the “wayward” daughter of Norma’s sister, who left the family and “fell in with a bad crowd,” as Norma purrs. Maya seems to be her only relative left, so she is eager to draw her into the family—but not enough that she doesn’t insist that she work on the family’s land, first. Maya is a curious, intelligent twenty-something, surprisingly accepting of the fact that she’s a minimum wage worker on her great aunt’s estate. Norma wants Narval to educate her, teach her about the maintenance and culture and theories of horticulture, so that she might be able to pursue a career in the field in the future. Maya takes kindly to this earthy finishing school, especially because she appreciates the softspoken and passionate manner of Narval, her teacher. The movie appears to take place in the South (it was filmed in Louisiana), and the house looks like a plantation estate, so it seems like there might be some interesting explorations into contemporary white supremacy, the way Norma insists that Maya be fashioned into a more refined version of herself in order to be welcomed into her family tree, and simultaneously wants this self-improvement to take place as a farm-worker beneath her, and literally in the dirt. But the film wobbles from here on out, mostly because we learn about the haunted, Narval’s past as a soldier of a Neo-Nazi army, before turning state’s evidence against them and going into witness protection. Under his clothes, he is covered in White Pride and Hitler-fandom tattoos, which he looks at disparagingly in the mirror. He likes his current life as a peaceful caretaker of the Gracewood Gardens, is glad to have distanced himself from the silo of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and violence in which (he explains) he was raised. That Maya and Narval form a bond, while he also has flashbacks to things that his proud boy/hillbilly cult leader told him about how his job is to “pull out the weeds,” suggests that Master Gardener will become a thriller about the insidiousness of white supremacy, juxtaposing it with a reading of gardening as a kind of fascism (or at least, a way to disguise it). In other words, perhaps Narval’s solitary salvation in gardening for a racist white lady becomes an outlet for the very impulses that allowed him to thrive in a fascist cult in the first place. Master Gardener doesn’t till this ground, though, which is fine, but it also doesn’t do anything else productive with all of these rich, ripe, and (productively) thorny thematic concerns. What begins as an incredibly fruitful plot soon wilts and shrivels into a wandering love story; and the kind of discipline and restraint that Narvals brings to his gardening becomes, exactly, the element missing from the story itself. Master Gardener quickly forgets its powerful portrayals about white supremacy and racism when it becomes interested in whether or not its protagonist can be redeemed, can be saved, and, in giving him some way to carry this out, represents Maya as needing to be saved by someone, too. If this narrative shoot were to blossom into a meaningful development (unlikely as it is), we would need a clearer understanding of Narval’s life or background, a focused explaining of how he has come to be changed in the first place. But more importantly, this whole angle not only misses out on saying anything thoughtful about race in America, but also robs Maya of the opportunity to be more than a plot device, perhaps (especially in light of Swindell’s elegant performance), the greatest sin of all. What results is a confusing film, overgrown in some areas and under-seeded in others. Instead of becoming as thoughtful and risky an exploration as The Card Counter, Master Gardener becomes like a game of 52-card pickup. It’s as if Schrader has a deck of cards and instead of laying them out strategically, throws them all in the air and lets them come down where they will. Instead of become the focused sermon of First Reformed, Master Gardener becomes one of those themed themed refrigerator poem packs. It has a lot of terms on the table, but shuffles them around until they say almost absolutely nothing. View the full article
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