Book Review: The Night House by Danielle Dulsky

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I recently finished reading Danielle Dulsky's latest book, The Night House: Folklore, Fairy Tales, Rites, and Magick for the Wise and Wild. I was excited to pick up this book because it analyzes the magic of fairy tales, with each chapter tackling a new fairy tale and its magic within. However, it wasn't exactly what I expected, but it was still worth the read.

The Night House is broken down into sections based on the rooms of a house. You can read straight through or choose the stories at "random" to divine your needs and future. I like books that you can approach in a non-linear way, but there are two stories in the final section that do intersect, so if you are attempting a non-linear read, skim through the three rites at the end to ensure they don't build on earlier rites. The first room, "Hidden Rooms and Wild Skins," addresses the cloaks we wear- the red hood, a mossy cloak, the tattered hood, or the swan skin. These rites and rituals build on our connection to the earth, the magic of these skins and cloaks we wear, and how we can access our higher self. The second room, "The Bone Cellar," addresses the liminal space between life and death, connecting us to the lessons we can learn by passing to the Otherworld and listening to its stories. The final room, "The Spirit Tower," addresses the interconnection of our waking and dreaming selves and the deals we make with the "devil" to secure our future.

While I was hoping for significantly more analysis of the fairy tales than what was given (If you have been following me for a while, you know I love a dense academic approach to witchcraft and folklore), I loved how Dulsky wove these tales into reflections of our modern lives, specifically through the witch wound. The witch wound, for those who do not know, is a trauma we suffered collectively during the witch hunts and trials, which turned women against women and outracized those that could be considered "different." This resulted in small magics being passed down in innocuous stories, which Dulsky argues are fairy tales. There isn't a ton of evidence cited in Dulsky's work supporting this theory, but I am sure there is research out there that does.

While Dulsky doesn't offer much critical analysis of each tale, she does provide three rites for each story, some of which feel slightly disconnected without the analysis supporting its inclusion. My favorite story and rites was The Mage's Bird, which is about protecting innocence while still fighting against the atrocities of the world so it can be a better place for innocence. The first rite includes hiding an egg from the world (representing innocence); in the second, you reclaim what is yours and your strengths; the final rite concludes with a banishment of all you want gone from the world so our future children can be born into a better life. This chapter also ignites a fury over the missing ones: indigenous women, children, and others who have been lost. It's a profoundly impactful story, and if you take nothing else from the book, I hope it's the lesson of The Mage's Bird.

Like all of Dulsky's works, the prose is flowery and indirect, making it a uniquely enjoyable experience. If you are looking for something new to get you out of a magical slump, I always suggest Dulsky's works, which now happily includes The Night House: Folklore, Fairy Tales, Rites, and Magick for the Wise and Wild.

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