by Taylor Anderson

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

In the grand scheme of things, it’s tempting to think that any conversation that centers on horoscopes is going to be pretty innocent, right? Well, not so fast. There have been multiple occasions when, for some reason or another, I’ve found myself talking horoscopes with someone who believes they’re real while I’m convinced they’re a load of crap. If anything else, it’s the vaguery of horoscopes that gets me. If a horoscope isn’t specific in any way, then of course a person can find ways to connect it to their own life. But if horoscopes were eerily accurate, would that change my mind?

Members of another cabin at the Lumberjanes camp have begun publishing a daily newsletter. Things are going great with this until Cassi (aka Cassandra — ring any bells?) starts writing horoscopes that are not only accurate, but ominous. This being the case, many of girls at the camp stop their daily activities because they are scared that their horoscopes might come true.

This, as it turns out, is the central conflict of the issue. It’s resolved by having Cassandra write the weather report each day since, you know, she can predict the future. If that sounds a little anticlimactic, trust me when I say that it is. That the only real problem in this issue is that some Lumberjanes aren’t earning badges doesn’t exactly make this issue a page turner. Now, I’m well-aware that Lumberjanes as a series isn’t interested in telling stories that are only full of danger and adventure. Honestly, that fact is what makes the series so much fun! But when the stakes are set so low that literally nothing bad will happen to anyone in an issue, then there’s a problem.

This is especially true in this case, because there are a number of ways the creators of this issue could have made Cassi’s power more interesting. They chose not to and I can only hope that in future issues here power resurfaces to make the series more, not less, interesting.

The conversation doesn’t stop there. What do you wanna talk about from this issue?