Episode 4: A Layer Cake of Metaphor

The Red Pen

Amanda takes Austin and listeners to wurch (witch church) with a breakdown of the subverted fairytale elements and treatment of puberty as witchcraft within Margaret Mahy's The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance. She delves into why fourteen-year-old protagonist Laura Chant is a boss and why the love interest, Sorry Carslile, is her trauma son. The episode considers questions like: What is up with the monsterification of teen girls? Why doesn't getting your period come with sweet magical perks? And why do so many movie adaptations fail to understand what makes the source material great?

Content Warnings: Mentions of parental neglect and abuse, coping mechanisms brought on by trauma, child sickness, menstruation, and teen girls being sexualized and vilified.

Also, this episode does contain minor spoilers for The Changeover book, and more significant spoilers for its movie adaption.

Works cited:

The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance by Margaret Mahy
The Changeover (Film)
"Fairy Tale and Myth in Mahy's The Changeover and The Tricksters" by Elliott Gose
"The Changeover, A Fantasy of Opposites" by Josephine Raburn
"The horror of female adolescence – and how to write about it" by Lorraine Berry
"The Real Reason Women Love Witches" by Anne Theriault
The Exorcist (film)
Carrie (film)
The Craft (film)
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV show)

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The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean.