For the Men Brave Enough to Read This Book

Triggers warnings: This blog post will discuss SA, DV, and violence against women and children. It will avoid graphic detail, but please take care of yourself in choosing to read or not read.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline:

1-800-799-7233  (SAFE) or visit the website to chat with an advocate. For immediate danger, please call 911.

Someone recently asked me if I thought about my male readers at all when writing THE BANE WITCH, as there were parts that were very uncomfortable for them to read. The question took me aback because the very notion of me having male readers, especially for this book, takes me aback. I very clearly don't write for men. I think that's pretty obvious.

My answer went something like, No, I didn't because I didn't expect men to read the book. And Yes, I recognize lines in the book may be taken as sexist, but they are written from the perspective of women characters who are daily coming up against the worst men society has to offer, and so of course they are going to be a little jaded. And then I went on to say, I do have a wonderful son and wonderful husband and I intentionally wrote positive male characters into the book as well, who are safe and beneficial to their communities and so on.

But I've had some time to think more about this question, and I think there is more to say.

First off, the question is valid. There is nothing inherently wrong with noting that this book might be an uncomfortable read for men. But let me make two points here (or maybe three or four or five). Would anyone even ask this question if my protagonist was a man, or better yet, if I was? Is the problem that the bad guys are men... or that the good guys are women? Where exactly does the discomfort lie? How many gratuitously violent movies have we seen where a cis male hero guns down a ridiculous and frankly implausible number of cis male villains that are not only acceptable, but openly praised in our society? I don't recall any questions of discomfort for Keanu Reeves when he made John Wick one or two or four. I'm not shaming. I watched them too. I love a little vigilante justice (which should go without saying if you read the book). But I do find the disparity striking.

Moving on... This book is not written to make anyone comfortable. Women are also going to squirm through certain scenes. Nonbinary people will also find aspects of it hard to read. Trans people, queer people, old people, young people... There isn't a person on the planet who shouldn't be at least a bit uncomfortable with the things I write about in this book. Because human beings in general should be uncomfortable in the face of violence, injustice, and predatory behavior. If you are reading THE BANE WITCH and feeling no discomfort whatsoever, I might be a little concerned for you.

Comfort, I think, is precisely the problem. For women, it causes us to normalize what is an absolutely unacceptable experience. We are resilient. We persist. We pick ourselves up and heal what we can and we carry on. We whisper the transgressions we've faced to one another in tender moments and times of need and support and solidarity. And then we go on living our lives. Because we are strong. Because we have to.

When I say I know very few women (like, maybe one) who don't have a story like the ones in the book—sexual assault, domestic or partner violence, and other acts of aggression against women—myself included, I'm not exaggerating. They may not all be as dramatic as what Piers experiences, but some of them are. And they are all unacceptable. And in many cases, they have more than one story centering more than one predator. And most of those men faced zero consequences for their actions. Many were never even confronted. It took me years to understand just how ubiquitous these stories are. And I realized that while I talked about my own experiences to other women in my life, I didn't share them with the men—my husband, my son, my father. And that does us all a disservice. This book has opened a dialogue in our family, and it has opened eyes.

But where I think comfort does the worst damage, is among men. Because in that comfort is seeded the potential for culpability. If you don't hear women's voices, if you don't believe their stories, then you are effectively part of the problem. You are culpable in allowing violence against women to continue. You may not be the active aggressor, but you are a passive one. And yes, some of that's on us if we aren't telling you, but there are incredibly valid reasons for that, including a long and traumatic history of shaming and blaming (and worse) the victim, that still persists today. So comfort, in my humble opinion, is serving no one. And it was the last thing on my mind when I was writing this book.

And let's give the book its due. THE BANE WITCH does not villainize men. It villainizes predators. Men who are already villains in their communities. Who are already hurting people, doing damage, causing destruction. Destruction that I believe ultimately harms us all. There are good men in this book too. Men who want to keep people safe. Men who listen to the women in their lives, who are willing to put their comfort aside to help another. I love those men. I am so, so grateful for men like that. For anyone like that. They are heroes big and small.

But I think it's okay if men are made to feel uncomfortable for a change. Men should be uncomfortable when other men do horrible things to women and children, to people more vulnerable than them in this society. Women have pulled up a chair for countless movies and books and stories that depicted violence against women in a glorifying way at worst and a simply unrealistic way at best. And our culture has suppressed women's anger for generations, to the point that none of us seem to know what to do with it when it inevitably arises. If seeing a woman's anger makes you uncomfortable as a man, all I can say is, yeah, me too. It took me a long time to learn to own my anger and to make space for the anger of other women. We get to have and express that experience. It is a natural part of the emotional spectrum and a valid reaction to the things we are going through and witnessing. And we are human fucking beings.

And a final word on comfort. None of my books are meant to be comfortable. Not a single one. That has never really been my aim as an author. I like to speak the unspoken. I like to point out the elephant in the room. It is not my goal to make my readers comfortable. There are other authors and other books for that. Beautiful, cozy books that wrap around your shoulders like a soft blanket and a warm hug. I've read a few of them. And more power to them. They hold a valuable space in the world. I know many readers who love and are grateful to those books. But that's not what I'm here for.

I thought I made that abundantly clear in RESURRECTION GIRLS. Or at least with THE WITCHES OF BONE HILL. I do want readers to enjoy my books, but not because they bring them comfort. I want them to feel fear and rage and vindication and validation and curiosity and wonder and titillation and a whole spectrum of other sensations when they read my work. Comfort has just never really been on my agenda. It's not who I am at my core. It's not how I live my life. I love a hot cup of tea and a roaring fireplace as much as the next person. But I want that tea to be spiked with mugwort and the fireplace to be in a haunted mansion I may or may not escape. Because facing the hardest most frightening things in life is how we know we're really living. It's how we learn and grow and get better and do better.

So, if THE BANE WITCH challenges you as a man or a woman... Good. That's what it was designed to do. And if if makes you feel seen and validated as a survivor? Excellent. That is also part of the package. And if it simply makes you rage against the machine? Great. Turn that anger into something actionable. Even if it's just sitting down with a friend to tell your story or to hear theirs. If it causes you to wish and long for a vindictive hero who deals out deadly justice to those who will go on hurting people if they are not stopped? Then know you're not alone. We all want to feel safer. We all long to see balance restored. That is the purpose justice serves. It's normal to feel those things. It's normal to want those things. And it's normal to express them and to make art about them.

Art should make you uncomfortable. That's how you know it's doing its job. Or rather, art should make you feel something. I think that's the true litmus test. But my art will never serve to make you more complacent. Probably. I am nothing if not capricious.

So, let's review. It's okay to ask if I thought about the comfort of male readers when writing THE BANE WITCH. And the short answer is no. Comfort was never really the point.

THE BANE WITCH: 3*18

PRACTICAL MAGIC meets GONE GIRL in Ava Morgyn's next dark, spellbinding novel about a woman who is more than a witch—she's a hunter.

"A compelling dive into the darker side of human nature, of good and evil, and the gray areas in between. Thrilling!" –Mindy McGinnis, Edgar Award-winning author of The Female of the Species

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Read the first chapter here: READ NOW