A witch hunter book is a literary work that revolves around the theme of witch hunts or individuals who engage in the practice of hunting and accusing witches. These books typically take place during periods of history when witch hunts were prevalent, such as the Salem witch trials in the 17th century or the European witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries. In these books, the main character or characters are often depicted as witch hunters or witch finders who are responsible for identifying, capturing, and persecuting individuals believed to be witches. These protagonists may be guided by their unwavering belief in the existence of witches and their dedication to their cause, or they may be motivated by personal vendettas or desires for power and control. The plot of a witch hunter book typically follows the journey of the protagonist as they navigate through a society plagued by fear and paranoia. The book may explore themes of religious fanaticism, societal pressure, and the consequences of mob mentality.

24K Magic

On his latest, “Uptown Funk” vocalist and animatronic sequined suit Bruno Mars compresses all of his various personae into one: The retro song-and-dance man who happens to be really, really horny.

It’s good to remember the improbable things in life. For example: “Uptown Funk” vocalist and animatronic sequined suit Bruno Mars once sang the words “loungin’ on the couch just chillin’ in my Snuggie.” Every part of it is retroactively bizarre: the idea that Mars, the hardest-working embodiment of the “hardest-working man in showbiz” cliche, once attached himself to something called “The Lazy Song”; that he once aligned himself with flash-in-the-pan acoustic bros like Travie McCoy; or, more broadly, that he used to make pop in the 2010s that sounded like the 2010s. Much has been made of Mars’ childhood stint as an Elvis impersonator, with reason. The same talent that allowed a squeaky 4-year-old to channel, uncannily, the King’s gruff bark and distant whiff of scandal is the talent that allows Mars to inhabit whatever he wants. He’s as convincing a cheeky horndog (early hits with his production group the Smeezingtons include Flo Rida’s cheesy-sleazy hit “Right Round” and Mike Posner’s dubiously conceived “Bow Chicka Wow Wow”) as he is a worshipful loverman (the chaste stretch from “Nothin’ on You” through “Grenade”); he's as eager an omnivorous music fan (the Unorthodox Jukebox era remade Billy Joel and the Police as faithfully as any R&B or funk referents) as the comparatively laser-focused revivalist of 24K Magic.

Also improbable: that “Uptown Funk,” still inescapable at weddings and stadiums near you, still has life in it, let alone an album’s worth. The title track to 24K Magic is all but an explicit retread: YSL swapped out for designer minks, Chucks for Inglewood’s finest shoes, corny “dragon wanna retire, man” line for corny line about red getting the blues, “Oops Upside Your Head” biting swapped out for only slightly less lawsuit-prone Zapp voiceover vocoders. What it lacks in a hook it makes up for (almost) with vibe, and more importantly, earnestness.

24K Magic, the album, sticks to the same well-trod path. It often comes off as a one-man recreation of Mark Ronson’s similarly retro-fetishist Uptown Special—Ronson himself was tapped early on as a potential collaborator—with one key difference: all roles here are filled by Mars. Aside from a couple guest production jobs by former collaborators Jeff Bhasker and Emile Haynie, the album is largely produced by Shampoo Press & Curl—a mildly reorganized incarnation of the Smeezingtons. And as Mars boasted in pre-album press, there are no features. The idea is that he needs no features. He’s become practically all things to all people—he has enough session-wonk credibility to appeal to the Grammy-voting industry types who’ve adopted Mars as a standard-bearer for Real Musicianship; he has enough pop and R&B cred to keep the radio listeners around; enough showmanship to pull off a Super Bowl halftime performance while barely into his career; enough wedding-reception goofiness to ingratiate himself to anyone left over.

The line between lovingly recreating the music of the past and cynically 3D-printing it for easy profit is fine and much fretted-over, sometimes at book length. And indeed, 24K Magic aims to recreate a time and a vibe much of its personnel weren’t even around for. (Said producer and Mars collaborator Brody Brown of a side project that sounds suspiciously 24K Magic-adjacent: “It’s going to make you feel like 1985—even though I wasn’t born until 1989.”) But in a self-conscious Vegas-revival way, 24K Magic pulls it off. It helps that it compresses all Mars’ personae into one. Go back to Smeezingtons cowrite “Fuck You” and you’ll find a blueprint: a retro-obsessed guy who makes songs your great-uncle recognizes, that also happens to be really, really horny. It helps that the album is barely over 30 minutes and meticulously sequenced, and it also helps that Mars is a notorious perfectionist (in a Rolling Stone interview earlier this year, he bragged about the dozens of versions of these tracks that got scrapped because the vibe wasn't right; routine studio business, to be sure, but Mars evidently takes it more seriously than most).

It helps that the past couple years have gradually whetted pop audiences’ appetite for sounds that might have once been considered too chintzy for top 40. “Perm” may be yet another attempt to revive James Brown, but while it isn’t quite as convincing as Mystikal’s would-be resurrection on Uptown Special, it does gives us the deliberate anachronism of a James Brown song with the line “forget your Instagram and your Twitter.” “That’s What I Like” is a song about opulence that sounds it—it’s sort of like what The 20/20 Experience thought it was—while “Versace on the Floor” and “Too Good to Say Goodbye” are as faithful recreations of mid-’90s R&B as you’ll find outside the decade, from the roller-rink synths of the former to the latter’s slow-dance power balladry (albeit one that, if it actually came out then, would mostly recall Luther doing “Superstar”).

But most of all, it helps that Mars is a consummate performer; this kind of showmanship is much more convincing, and coherent, from one showman than from one dilettante producer. If “Uptown Funk” was the theme-park version of one sliver of funk, 24K Magic is the rest of the park: rebuilt shinier and glitzier and safer, every element engineered to please more than the real thing, and with a hell of a tour guide. It’s not history, not even historical fiction, but harmless fun.

Bruno Mars: 24K Magic review – blinged-up funk

B y any metric, Uptown Funk – Bruno Mars’s 2014 collaboration with Mark Ronson – is a brutally tough act to follow. Even if the song’s ongoing copyright cases prove expensive, this sharp funk throwback remains a record-breaking bestseller, an accolade with enhanced swag in a sales-poor era. The second most famous American to have grown up in Hawaii is also trying to equal or better another beast: his three times platinum (UK), Grammy-winning album of four years ago, Unorthodox Jukebox.

There is no shortage of checking one’s hair and hitting the floor “dripping in finesse” on 24K Magic (a dress code was enforced in the studio). A slow jam, Versace on the Floor, consummates the love-in between Mars and the maximalist Milan fashion house; even the production team here is called Shampoo Press and Curl.

Obsessed as it is with surfaces, 24K Magic packs considerable musical depth in its slavish attention to detail. The cold nihilism of contemporary R&B is anathema to Mars, an old-school song-and-dance man, and so 24K Magic’s vibe of choice revisits the era of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and new jack swing – early 90s R&B.

This is – emphatically – not an album with which to man the barricades, but Mars manages to deliver a lot of conspicuous consumption with more charm than boorishness. “Julio, serve that scampi,” winks Mars on That’s What I Like; presumably, Julio’s got back from getting “the stretch” on Uptown Funk.

The opulently produced title track pushes the same brand of blinged-out funkateering as Uptown did, but now it’s gone beyond uptown: the jet-ski-in-a-fountain feeling is more Dubai. “I’m a dangerous man with some money in my pocket,” huffs Mars, sounding startlingly like Kendrick Lamar.

Two tracks later, Perm is giddy on the funk again. But this time, instead of borrowing heavily from late-80s Minneapolis (as Uptown Funk did), or the gold-trousered dance-offs of the 90s, Mars goes back to source.

Bruno Mars’ ’24K Magic’: A Track-by-Track Guide

No pop historian in the business right now is as successful at reinventing top 40’s past as Bruno Mars. Since his emergence, the singer-songwriter has displayed the ability to capture the essence of what made so many of the greats’ music timeless, making him one of the most consistently popular artists of his era.

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That trend should only continue with Bruno Mars’ latest album, 24K Magic, released Friday (Nov. 18), which pays homage to any number of pop performers from his canon, in winking tributes that still keep one foot (or at least a couple of toes) in the present.

Here’s a track-by-track guide to 24K Magic. Once you’ve fallen under its spell, check out some of the older songs that likely helped influence Mars’ latest gem.

1. “24K Magic”: Zapp & Roger

The title track and lead single from Bruno’s latest synthesizes a bevy of influences into one of his most irresistible concoctions to date, but one will feel particularly obvious to ’80s funk devotees from the first seconds of Mars’ heavily vocodered hit. Zapp & Roger made a career out of such synthetic vocals and sparkling electro-funk, and it’s not surprising that Bruno would borrow their swagger to get maximum bounce to the ounce for his comeback smash.

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2. “Chunky”: Cameo

If you’re talking a slow-and-easy strut based on sweet synths and gently popping bass, you gotta invoke the type’s all-time gold standard: Cameo‘s 1986 pop-funk classic “Candy,” which the second track on Bruno’s new LP echoes down to the letter structure of its one-word title. Also bubbling under the chorus to this one: a little bit of “Outstanding,” the 1983 Billboard R&B No. 1 hit by Mars’ old friends The Gap Band.

3. “Perm”: James Brown

Reaching back a little further than most of the MTV-era grooves on 24K Magic, “Perm” channels the Godfather of Soul for the album’s sweatiest workout. Bruno already went a little James Brown on the album’s title track (“I’m a dangerous MAN with some money in my pocket!”), but here, he and his band go full JB’s, with a superbad soul shuffle featuring Mars in near spoken-word form as he offers his whoopingest rasp over the track: “Throw some PERM on your attitude!”

4. “That’s What I Like”: Jodeci

“That’s What I Like” is one of the least obviously past-indebted jams on 24K Magic — unlike much of the album, you might get through the whole track without getting any particular sense of deja vu. But if you’re transported somewhere by it, it’s probably more to the early ’90s than the ’80s — to R&B that had a little bit of a New Jack Swing and hip-hop edge to it, like the horny harmonies and Uptown production of early Jodeci.

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5. “Versace on the Floor”: Freddie Jackson

Nobody’s storm was quieter in the mid ’80s than soul balladeer Freddie Jackson‘s, with eternal slow jams like “You Are My Lady” and “Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)”. The latter crossover hit in particular reverberates throughout Bruno’s show-stopping 24K Magic centerpiece, with Jackson’s aqueous synths and breezy guitars providing the plushest of beds for Mars to get intimate on.

6. “Straight Up & Down”: New Edition

Not so direct an homage, but the playful lilt of “Straight Up & Down” carries a little bit of the popcorn-love bounce of New Edition’s mid-’80s ballads — even if Mars’ decidedly PG-13 lyrical content might’ve been a little mature for the teen-pop crew back in those days. Also, can’t repeat the phrase “Straight up” as many times as this song does without giving a shout out to Paula Abdul, undoubtedly still forever Bruno’s girl.

7. “Calling All My Lovelies”: Silk

A molasses-slow groove looking to get down tonight by any means, with massive harmonies and bass-voiced spoken-word pronouncements for punctuation — should be recognizable to any fan of early-’90s R&B, in particular Silk‘s Hot 100-topper “Freak Me.” And even though the song certainly didn’t need any extra 1993 juice, an answering-machine message from Halle Berry and a shoutout to Iesha — last repped for in pop music by a contemporaneous Another Bad Creation hit — set the early Clinton-era mood particularly well.

8. “Finesse”: Bobby Brown

“Straight Up & Down” might’ve given you light Bobby B flashbacks, but within five seconds of hearing “Finesse” you’ll be searching for Ghostbusters 2 on Netflix without even realizing it. Indeed, the penultimate track on 24K Magic feels like Bobby Brown‘s entire Don’t Be Cruel album condensed into one three-minute floor-filler — everything from Bruno’s tightly clipped vocal delivery to the orchestral-stab synths to (of course) the song’s slamming New Jack beat.

The book may explore themes of religious fanaticism, societal pressure, and the consequences of mob mentality. It may also delve into the psychological and moral dilemmas faced by the witch hunter, as they question their own actions and the legitimacy of the accusations they make. Many witch hunter books also incorporate elements of horror, as they often depict gruesome torture methods and eerie supernatural elements.

The accused witches themselves may possess magical powers or engage in dark rituals, adding an element of suspense and mystery to the narrative. Overall, witch hunter books serve as a reflection of historical events and societal attitudes towards witchcraft and the supernatural. They provide a glimpse into the dark and dangerous world of witch hunts, shedding light on the hysteria and injustice that often accompanied these periods in history. These books not only entertain readers with their captivating narratives but also encourage reflection on the dangers of prejudice and the importance of critical thinking in the face of mass hysteria..

Reviews for "Exploring Female Empowerment in Witch Huntet Books"

1. John - 2 stars - I found "Witch Huntet Book" to be quite disappointing. The storyline lacked depth and the characters felt one-dimensional. The whole concept of witches and their hunt was interesting, but the execution fell flat. The writing style was uninspiring and the pacing was inconsistent. Overall, I expected more from this book and ended up feeling underwhelmed.

2. Emily - 1 star - I couldn't even finish "Witch Huntet Book". The plot was predictable, and the dialogue was cringeworthy. The main character lacked development and I couldn't connect with any of the supporting characters either. The author's attempt at creating suspense and tension fell flat, and I found myself bored and disinterested. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone looking for a thrilling witch hunt story.

3. Sarah - 2 stars - "Witch Huntet Book" had such potential, but it failed to deliver. The world-building was weak and inconsistent, leaving me confused about the rules of the magical realm. The plot felt rushed and the twists were predictable. The romance aspect was forced and felt out of place. Overall, I was left disappointed by this book and wouldn't recommend it to fans of the genre.

4. Michael - 3 stars - Although "Witch Huntet Book" had its flaws, it had some redeeming qualities. The concept was interesting and had potential, but the execution could've been better. The pacing was off at times, with some parts dragging on while others flew by too quickly. The characters had potential, but they felt underdeveloped and lacked depth. While it wasn't the worst book I've read, it definitely fell short of my expectations.

A Journey Through Witchcraft: Top Witch Huntet Books to Read