Vanessa

Vanessa Tarot
Lynyrd Narciso (U.S. Games Systems Inc, 2006)

Review
It's just as well this deck comes in a tin- objects so obviously destined for my handbag tend to get knocked around a lot.

Interestingly, the card themselves are small and easy to shuffle, making me wonder if handbags are the natural environment of this deck. It's cheerfully gynocentric, without being dourly feminist. The only men visible are love interests, and they're certainly not as ethnically varied as all the women taking on their traditional cards. But on the other hand the title card describes the women as "charming power chicks," which is definitely a clue not to take this deck too seriously.

I'm making it sound dreadful, but actually it's pretty fun. One of the stand out cards of this deck has to be the Seven of Wands, if only because in contrast to her modern sisters this card looks as though she's donned some cheerfully ridiculous fantasy armour, but is still going to kick, er, wand in it. Although the Pages all being adorable little girls is also worth a little smile.

Upon closer inspection of the cards, they're just similar enough to the Rider-Waite that even beginners should find them familiar, and since there's no particularly horrific cards, and no nudity apart from the odd side of a breast, this might be a good (if pretty unbalanced) deck for a younger or less experienced reader.