Review: Adam Bolivar's BALLADS FOR THE WITCHING HOUR

Although technically this book is a sequel to Bolivar’s The Lay of Old Hex, I read this having only encountered A Wheel of Ravens before. From the two books, though, you can clearly tell that Bolivar has a unique style.

Unlike Wheel, which is written in the Old English alliterative meter, this book primarily appears in ballad form. This creates a smooth reading experience with strong intimations of 18th- and 19th-century British folklore. Like Wheel, though, the poems in Ballad for the Witching Hour share several interconnected stories and characters that Bolivar likes to use in common. Most of this collection’s poems are “Jack” tales (although not all these “Jacks” appear to be the same Jack). There’s also a dream-world, lots of cool mythological references, shared characters such as Scarlet Balladress, and so on.

Overall, I’d recommend reading Ballad for the Witching Hour in one sitting, like I did, because then you can better see how Bolivar’s poems all play off one another than you can if you read them piecemeal.

One of my favorite poems, simply because I like Norse mythology, is “The Mead of Balladry.” This one retells the story of Odin’s Mead of Poetry in the nimble ballad meter. Another very clever poem (on several levels) is “An Elegy for Thomas Chatterton,” the 18th-century poet. Several plays for marionettes are also included, and I thought well of the one that explains the origins of Jack o’ the Lanthorn.

All in all, Bolivar’s a fun new weird poet. I highly recommend Ballad for the Witching Hour.

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