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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A It’s time for part two of the Sweet Dreams Romance Recap Project, featuring The Popularity Plan by Rosemary Vernon. Unlike P.S. I Love You, I hadn’t read this one before, so it’s an adventure for all of us. We’ve got some hefty social anxiety, friends with Plans (and wall calendars as seen on the cover) and some very classic dating tropes. Grab your tea and your comfy hoodie and come hang out with me! … Music: Purple-Planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: I also mentioned: The Dodge Dart! Reddit’s r/Quilting subredd…
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http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/logoBigGayFic-150x150.jpegThis is part two of our crossover episode with The Big Gay Fiction Podcast! Amanda and I connected with Jeff and Will and answered listener questions from our Patreon communities. The Big Gay Fiction Podcast released part one Thursday 4 November so you get all four of us being ridiculous together for two episodes back to back. We’re talking about the first m/m romances we ever read, and we have book recs, food discussions, and some thoughtful conversations about genre and community, too. Don’t miss the Big Gay Fiction Fest, on December 4, 2021! Music: Purple-planet.com …
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A It’s time for another Vintage YA Recap, this week with Laurie’s Song by Suzanne Rand. Prepare yourself for some exhausting friendships, boring boyfriends, social stress, and some absolutely outstanding outfits and POETRY. Oh, yes. Poetry. This is a good one. … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: If you like the podcast, you can subscribe to our feed, or find us at iTunes. You can also find us on Stitcher, and Spotify, too. We also have a cool page for the podcast on iTunes. More ways to sponsor: Sponsor …
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A | BN AC Arthur’s new book The After Party is out, and she joins me to talk about all things friendship, cocktails, murder, revenge, and more. Because it was inspired by the movie 9 to 5, we deep dive into revenge on bad bosses and movie nostalgia, too. … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: You can find AC Arthur and all her pen names at ACArthur.com. I also mentioned the passing of Petra Mayer, editor at NPR Books, and guest on…
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Hey, y’all! A special treat bonus episode for your American holiday week needs. Yup, there will be a regularly-scheduled episode on Friday, but here’s an extra treat! I was a guest on Talking Simulator discussing…romance in video games. Isn’t it weird when a topic puts itself in front of you so many times? Here’s the description and transcript from host Jordan Webber. Enjoy! … Sarah Wendell is the co-founder of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, a website for readers of romance fiction, and host of their podcast Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. When she’s not reading, she loves to play video games, so Jordan invited her on the show to talk about how games approach her area of ex…
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A This is a weird one, y’all. We’re taking a trip back to the early 80s where fiction for teens and pre-teens came with some awful, upsetting messaging, but also some fantastic clothing choices, some excellent descriptions of weird children’s birthday parties, a cute boy and a very good dog. It’s Princess Amy by Melinda Pollowitz! I figured I’d probably have to issue some warnings at some point, re-reading vintage YA, so here we are. TW/CW: assault, jerkward rich bros, disordered eating, and severe anti-fat bias. I want to know what you’d put in the epilogue to this book – please comment or email your ideas because I am desperate to fix this. … Music: purple-planet.co…
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A | BN | KJulia Quinn joins me to talk about The Wit and Wisdom of Bridgerton, a new release collecting quotes about the different characters, plus new commentary from Lady Whistledown. We talk about picking up Lady W’s pen after 20 years, looking back on the original series, her most embarrassing moment from high school, and the joyful romance fans in Brazil. At about 42:00 in, we talk about her recent loss of her father and sister. Thank you to Katerine, Crystal, Rhonda, Katherine, Agnes, Kelly, Laura, and Kate for the questions. … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we d…
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A This week, we have lots to talk about! First, some of y’all wrote fantastic epilogues to the very unsatisfying ending of Princess Amy, recapped in episode 486, and I share my ideas, too. Then, it’s time for Sweet Dreams 5, Little Sister. We’ve got: Big Misunderstandings Plot Points that were in the cover copy so they’re not that dramatic Snarky sister fights Really loving and supportive, thoughtful parents And Drama Kids! Lots of ‘em! Thank you to jfhobbit, Malaraa, and Kara for the epilogues! Don’t miss jfhobbit’s art! Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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A | BN | K My guest this week is Nalini Singh! I have reader questions from our Patreon community and publicist and past podcast guest Erin Galloway about Archangel’s Light, Nalini’s latest release. We cover writing multiple series at the same time. We also talk about fan art, which she absolutely loves, and about reading slumps – and how to escape them. Thank you to Ann, C, Varian, and Erin for the questions! Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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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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Amanda and I are saying goodbye to 2021, and looking ahead to 2022! We talk about exciting things coming in January, including the 17th anniversary of Smart Bitches, plus we talk about books that got us through 2021. Super bonus: we’ve got messages from Tara, Catherine, Sneezy, and Martin who have book recs, wishes for the new year, and lots and lots of jokes. This episode is our New Year’s wish for you: stay safe and happiest new year to you wherever you are. Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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A | BN | K My guest this week is Olivia Dade! We had such a good time talking about fan supercuts, watching shows through gifsets, Game of Thrones spoilers, writing characters with ADHD and learning disabilities. Highlight: we discover a vintage ship we have in common and we exclaim at each other. Thank you to Rachel, Alanna, and Kelly from the Patreon community! … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: You can find Olivia Dade and complete book lists and a newsletter at…
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A Time to deep dive into another classic YA Romance: Sweet Dreams #7, Green Eyes by Suzanne Rand. Julie has a problem with the green-eyed monster, and it lasts for a lot of pages. We’ve got: Insecure teenagers Swim team! Yet Another Teen Hangout with a Fun Name Just Talk to Each Other for Goodness’ Sake Join me as I struggle. Seriously, it’ll be fun. NB: I misread “Chip” as “Chuck” but they’re the same person. (**headdesk**) Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: Thank you to Jennie for sending me this link to a Houston …
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Amanda and I catch up on her “lots of things to look forward to” plan, which now includes things that were done! We talk about anxiety, therapy, angsty books, trimming your own bangs, and we have book and video game recs, plus new year’s wishes from Elyse, Pudding, and Jane B! Do you like angsty books? Are there books that help you feel things cathartically? … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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I follow Vanessa North on Instagram and after she posted a picture of her first completed project of 2022, I had to talk to her about knitting. So of course we also talk about gender, crafting, raising fearless trans teenagers, photography, and writing romance. Plus book recs, as always. LPT: Always Buy Extra Buttons! … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: You can find Vanessa North at VanessaNorth.com. But you’re here for the Instagram links, right? Here…
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A Melody is back! Some of our most popular episodes are our crossovers with Heaving Bosoms, and we have a new one for you! We read The Invisible Goddess by AC Dawn, a retelling of the myth of Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home. We had a LOT to talk about, so I’ve divided this into two episodes. Here in episode one, we’ll recap about half the story, and you’ve got options! You can read the story (it’s not long) before episode two if you like. Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: You can find Melody at Hea…
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A It’s part II of our recap of The Invisible Goddess by AC Dawn, a retelling of the myth of Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home. Have you read it? Did you like it? I have some things to tell you! A NEW PODCAST! I’m co-hosting LoveStruck Daily with Alisha Rai! LoveStruck Daily is a new podcast from iHeartRadio produced by Frolic Media that will deliver a true love story and those HEA feels every weekday. Our first episodes are out – we hope you like them! … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: Goddesses…
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Happy Valentine’s Week! Amanda and I have voicemail messages, updates on tattoos, book and lip balm recommendations, and more! Come hang out with us and nosh on all that half price candy. What candy are you buying? Thank you to Nancy, Claudia, Jimmy, StylinsonBirds, Leslie, and Ann! … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: Images! Links! We got some! IG pic of Amanda’s tattoo AJEM tattoo Donu…
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A Jeff and Will from The Big Gay Fiction Podcast are joining me for the Sweet Dreams Recap of book #9, Cover Girl by Yvonne Green. This cover, y’all. And inside! We have a rather gross boyfriend, and an even worse mom, plus nature nerds! This is undoubtedly one of the greatest Sweet Dreams cover of them all. TW/CW: Chapter 10 is a little upsetting. … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: You can find Jeff and Will at The Big Gay Fiction Podcast! If you like the podcast, you can subscribe to our feed, or find us…
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We did it! It’s episode 500! Amanda and I have email and recommendations, your absolute favorite books, weird questions, and a LOT of mayhem. Plus mini interviews with Shana, Tara, Carrie & Elyse. There are so many great questions, clips, and conversations, you guessed it, there will be two episodes celebrating all the fun. … KEY QUESTIONS: What would you do in the wasp/hair/bus situation? What’s the worst commute you’ve ever had? What would an AI generate for your industry conventions? What book do you love most of all? … Our music in this episode is a custom composition from Sassy Outwater titled, “Rhumba for SB.” Thanks, Sassy! … This episode is dedicate…
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It’s episode 501 – onward toward a thousand! I start with mini interviews with Shana and Elyse, and then Amanda and I have more listener email, questions, recommendations, and many, many jokes. Yay! Thank you for celebrating with us! … Key Questions: What should we do for our next merch opportunity? What SBTB phrases have stuck with you? What is the best kind of French fry? … Our music in this episode is a custom composition from Sassy Outwater titled, “Rhumba for SB.” Thanks, Sassy! … Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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A | BN | AB My guest today is Kate Spencer, author and host of the podcast Forever 35. Her new book, In a New York Minute, is out this week, and y’all, this book was so charming and fun. In this conversation, we talk about: Vulnerability Projecting narratives onto strangers Vintage rom-coms She’s a romance fan, and a rom-com fan, and we had a lot of fun. … What about you? What is your favorite vintage rom com? Or not vintage! What stories have your very favorite portrayal of friendship? What city is your favorite? Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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A My guest today is Jane Buehler, author of The Forest Bride and The Village Maid. I have several favorite parts of this conversation, including our discussion of cozy fantasy, addressing and undoing misconceptions about sex in romance, and sourdough starters and bread making. So fantasy, writing, sex, and bread. Several excellent topics! What about you? What have you learned or unlearned from sex in romance? Do you have a sourdough starter? What’s its name? Do you like cozy fantasy? … 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 | BN | K | AB My guest today is author Farah Heron, whose latest book, Kamila Knows Best, is an updated spin on the Jane Austen classic Emma! Along the way we talk about: Updating a unique, challenging character Addressing the age gap between the characters The importance of hot wet saris Curly hair care techniques Lipstick recommendations What are your favorite Emma retellings? And what are your go-to lip color recommendations? … 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 | BN | K | AB Jesse Q. Sutanto joins me today to talk about the release of Four Aunties and a Wedding, and we talk about all the wedding drama we’ve experienced from behind the scenes and as guests. We talk about weddings with thousands of guests, runaway brides, cultural clashes and the weight of wedding expectations. I would love to know: Do you have a wedding drama story? Did you witness some serious nuptial shenanigans? Please tell me all about it! … Music: purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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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
Another fundamental that makes a whole lot of sense, esp marketing wise. -
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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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