This week we are discussing The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner, Ch. 1-5.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner.
Trigger/Content Warning!!! This book has scenes and discussion of such themes as: drug addiction, alcoholism, blood, vomit, violence, gore elements, and death.
Discussion:
Jacilyn: Hello readers and welcome to our first discussion of The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C. M. Waggoner. I’m finding Delly a little unlikeable but also quite endearing at the same time. I think she’s a good person at heart, but I’m not sure she believes that of herself. My heart breaks for her relationship with her mother, honestly. It’s clear Delly cares for her very deeply, in spite of the ways her mother has hurt her - from Delly’s description of when her mom was clean, the addictions are behind her mother’s behavior towards her. My own mother suffered from addiction, and became abusive and cruel along the way, so I understand how it feels to have memories of a caring mother but not being able to find that woman in front of you. In spite of all of that, Delly still sticks around and does her best to help while her life is kind of a wreck too.
Michaela: I am also finding Delly fairly unlikeable. She just constantly seems insincere and doesn’t take much seriously. However, even in just these five chapters I can feel her changing which is nice and I hope she keeps going. She clearly does have the ability to be a good person with how she cares for her mother. I think first she needs to believe that she’s capable of more than what she's experienced her whole life and I get the feeling she doesn’t think she deserves real love. She calls Winn her prospect a lot, I’m not sure if that’s just the vernacular of this society or not but it feels icky to me.
Speaking of vernacular…not going to lie, getting into this book at the beginning was a full on struggle for me because of the writing style. It does fit the world of the story but it also feels like it’s a bit overboard at the same time. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of how people in this society speak. But now that I am more attuned to it, I’m fully into the story now. I am still confused about how marriage vs. householded works in this world though. Householded?? So confused. Could be I’m just missing something but I’m hoping it’ll become more clear later on.
Jacilyn: It seems to me that Delly saw Winn and thought that she would be a wealthy, likable woman to settle down with - someone who could “household” her and be the provider - and Delly was intentionally pursuing her to that goal, so I do think prospect is an insincere term, but I don’t think that’s really how Delly feels now. She’s seeing Winn as more than just a rich woman who is interested in her, she’s a lot more than that, and Delly is falling for her just as Jok said.
I agree with the vernacular thing, it was difficult to figure out, but context clues helped me at least have an understanding of what they’re talking about. I think householded seems like a more general word for bringing someone into a family, be it a child or a spouse, and the householder is the head of the house, the person who is the provider. It seems like it could be synonymous with specific titles (husband, wife, daughter) but also as a verb. That’s what I’m thinking based on context, anyways.
I also agree that Delly doesn’t believe she’s capable of much with the life she lives. Getting arrested so often that the jailer and his family are familiar with her, gambling, manipulating, blowing her money on booze. It seems like she believes she’s only worth the life she’s seen her mom live and that’s never the case for anyone. The emotion she feels when people show her kindness, like Mrs. Totham healing her, or Winn being concerned about her, makes it clear that she just wants to be loved and cared for, and she’s never had that before.
I think all the different magic types are so interesting. I would love to learn more. There’s fire magic, body science, gutterwitches, illusionists, shapeshifters, and who knows what else! From what I can tell, fire magic doesn’t seem to be as regulated as other magics, but it seems like Delly can wield it with a lot more precision than at least Dok was used to seeing. Personally, I could read a whole book about body science. It seems like necromancy and healing are under the same umbrella here and that’s fascinating but also genius. It makes sense. For both, bodies are integral to the magic, live or not.
Michaela: Delly and Winn’s relationship is really cute. I love Winn, she is so strong and adorable at the same time. Looking forward to reading how their relationship develops. Winn seems to have opposite qualities of Delly in a lot of ways; where Delly grew up with financial struggles, Winn grew up well off; where Delly is insincere, Winn seems to always be sincere. I think that will be helpful to Delly’s character growth later on, it already has been.
I am incredibly interested in the magic system in this world. I wonder how many types of witches there are and if witchcraft is the only magic or if there’s other kinds. Also, in this world trolls are involved in high society and I have never read a book where trolls weren’t represented as bad, smelly, and stupid, it’s a nice change. I’m curious what other non-human beings there are here. We know there’s at least one magic college and that Delly attended it which is cool. I want to know more about everything I guess! I have learned that this is actually the second book set in this world, Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry is not a sequel to it’s predecessor but it is set in the same universe. So maybe I’ll have to look into that book if I enjoy this one.
I find this job proposition that Delly is involved in fascinating. “Seeking Female Persons, of Martial or Magical ability, to guard a Lady of some Importance, prior to the celebration of her Marriage”. Mysterious for sure. But also, what exactly is matrimonial seclusion and why is it a custom? According to the characters it’s not a common practice anymore so I’m assuming the person Miss Wexin is marrying is from a traditional and important family. I really don’t know who to suspect most with these assasination attempts. I immediately trusted Mrs. Totham because she’s freaking adorable but now I’m all conflicted. I am definitely suspicious of Miss Wexin’s sister, conveniently faints every time there’s an attack. But that could be one of those distracting details to make you think it’s them. I really have no idea right now, I’m enjoying the mystery element in this book.
Jacilyn: My suspicions are on Ainette, but like you said, it all seems to lead to her a little too easily. I can’t see it being Mrs. Totham for any good reason, but maybe we’ll be surprised. I feel like there’s another element somewhere that we’re not aware of yet. It definitely seems like the groom’s family is of a more traditionalist mindset, which makes me wonder more about the history of this world. I also find it fascinating that trolls aren’t portrayed in a negative light in this world, and almost seem like they’re more human-like in appearance. I also thought it was interesting that there’s plenty of women in positions of power so far, except perhaps in traditionalist circles - but Winn’s mother is head of their clan, woman are the householders, taught magic - all things that you don’t typically see even in fictional words set in this general “era.” We do see negativity towards cloved women such as Ermintrude though, misrepresentations of who they actually are, so I can’t imagine they are treated well in this society.
The perpetrator must be someone in their entourage, to have created the messed up mechanical spider with the soul of the innkeeper’s cat. Mrs. Totham has the know-how, but I’m wondering if anyone else in the group does as well. Does Ermintrude know more of magic that others aren’t aware of? I don’t know how I feel about Dok yet, is she just there to keep Mayelle under the illusion, or does she have other abilities?? I have so many questions still, and I’m certainly invested. I love that Winn takes the job so seriously and is trying to solve the mystery. I love her and Delly as a team.
Michaela: Dok is the real outlier for me I think, she's really close to Mayelle but something seems off to me about her. I can’t really pinpoint it though. Winn and Delly are such a good team and the fact that Jok could see how much Delly cares for Winn even though Delly can’t see it yet. My heart was feeling the feels. Clearly too attached to these characters already! I’m really excited to keep reading and see what happens next. Bring on more magic battles too, Delly’s fire magic is so powerful that it surprised everyone in the party so I’m interested to see if she gets stronger or show’s different abilities. Let’s get deeper into this mystery assassin situation. Until next time friends!
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