Jasmine Walls

Billie Mae, Loretta, and Cheng Kwan make up the Night Storms, a magic racing team in a 1950s South where people like them - nonwhite, queer - aren't supposed to have magic. But winning races is their ticket out, to more tolerant and inclusive places. Mattie and Emma join the team, hoping to earn enough to pay for a waiver to keep their own magic, instead of having it sealed away, or being taken to a government school, like their cousin Luella was. The sense of community is strong, and the injustices they face almost palpable - based, of course, on real historical injustices like Jim Crow laws, the KKK, and Indian boarding schools. Billie Mae and Loretta are Black, Luella is Mexican and Choctaw, and Mattie and Emma are Black and Choctaw; Emma uses sign language, and Loretta wears a leg brace. Cheng Kwan is Chinese American.

Quotes

"No. It ain't selfish to wish for what was stolen." (Billie Mae to Luella, 78)

"It's okay. Some days you just gotta yell and throw rocks. Long as they ain't aimed at nobody." (Billie Mae to Luella, 123)

"Rest is just as important as hard work. Magic wears you out more than you know." (Luella to Mattie and Emma, 142)… (more)

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss. Content warning for racism and racist violence.)

Set in Mississippi in the 1930s, the world depicted in BROOMS is both all too familiar, and yet also wildly different from our own. Magic is real - but so, too, are institutional racism, white nationalism, and government corruption. Black people are prohibited from using magic, while Indigenous Americans are only allowed to learn magic in government-sanctioned boarding schools. Against this backdrop, Billie Mae and her friends/found family try to eke out a living while pursuing the American Dream.

The captain of the Night Storms, Billie Mae hopes to earn enough money racing to travel to California, where Black folks like herself can wield their magic openly. Along with her second-in-command, Loretta, and Cheng-Kwan, a Chinese American trans woman, the trio compete in illicit broom races. Meanwhile, Luella - a Mexican-Choctaw woman who was stripped of her magic after she fought back at a boarding school - lives with her parents and grandmother. The extended family is trying to keep young Mattie and Emma safe, hiding their emerging powers from government agents lest they be dragged off to a boarding school too. Competing in the notorious Witches' Cackle might help - but can the Night Storms prepare the newbies in time?

I really wanted to love BROOMS: it's got amazing representation (the main cast is comprised entirely of people of color; Luella and Billie Mae are in love; Emma is deaf and communicates using sign language; and Loretta wears a leg brace because of a stroke), and the historical fiction/fantasy dimension allows Walls to explore the institutional racism of America's recent past (and, in many cases, present) in an alternative setting.

However, for a comic that's billed as "a queer, witchy Fast and the Furious," there's precious little action or suspense. I think this primarily boils down to the artwork - the races just weren't all that exciting, and I often had trouble telling what was going on. (To be fair, giving form to magic seems like a pretty tricky proposition.)

Likewise, I felt like there was some gaps in the story. For example, why would a bunch of spoiled rich white boys (The Pedigrees) want to compete in illegal races? Or maybe the better question is: how would they learn of the races, and why would they be allowed in? Not to mention, The Pedigrees is a plot line that never really seems to go anywhere. What is Mattie and Emma's relation to Luella? What happened to Billie Mae's family? Etc., etc.… (more)