subject: voodoo*

theme: ignorantia juris non excusat; what you don't know can hurt you; cool motive still murder

narrative inspiration: dead until dark (for murders), pitch black (for the protag. switch), scream + the final girls (for genre smarts), high wizardry (for post-modern magik)

concept + tropes:

• Eveline's boyfriend has to attend an out-of-state, Southern Gothic funeral and invites her. Evie returns home with something she shouldn't have, a trinket with some Hollywood Voodoo.
• One of Eveline's roommates is soon after brutally murdered under improbable circumstances. Evie is Genre Savvy enough to know something isn't right. Fortunately Evie, who may or may not be the Decoy Protagonist, isn't a suspect or anything due to circumstaces, so there are no issues when she tells her on-the-case small-town-cop boyfriend she's going to see her Maiden Sister.
• Eveline gets to her sister Viv's house, and it's best she did, because while the sister is Not that Kind of Witch, Vivian can recognize Blood Magic when she sees it.
  • "Why Did It Have to Be Voodoo?"
• Unfortunately, Poor Communication Kills, and she gets a call that her other roommate is dead too.
• Utilizing a lot of Post-Modern Magik, the girls discover the source of the curse and decide Murder Is The Best Solution.
• Wraps up with either the Final Girl or maybe Anyone Can Die/Virgin Sacrifice (idc, but someone's gonna die) and a little bit of Alas, Poor Villain.
  • or the alternate, american ending:
    • "and i'd have gotten away with it too"

things to research:

• how to write bad cliches
  • mostly: ouija, tarot, palmistry, cleansings, and whatever those emf copper stick fairy rods are.
• curse breaking in and out of pop-media
• the post-modern magik trope in literature
  • i am legend by richard matheson: in trying to find out which vampire-slaying myths are true, the protag proves a vampire who was jewish will be repelled by a star of david, concluding that this, among some other weaknesses, are entirely psychosomatic.
  • ravirn by kelly mccullough: an immortal demigod descended from one of the fates, through his misadventures in a greek mythology-meets-magical-internet multiverse.
  • young wizard series by diane duane: does this a lot, but in high wizardry a new wizard gets a computer that happens to be a magic manual. that really stood out to me in the series.
• the post-modern magik trope in other media
  • the dresden files, supernatural, buffy, john dies at the end, gargoyles the animated series, evil dead
• maybe i want some religion is magic, but i'm feeling a little iffy about it

* warning: i don't practice voodoo, but i do have a very healthy respect and (so much) fear of the religion and practices. while this novel's genre is satirical horror, i intend compose it with respect in regards to the religious aspects. all the characters in the novel, however, are idiots.