Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

29 reviews

slrich9024's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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haileyhardcover's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Modern-day witch trials, a search for a missing mother, an island of witches… and an author I just gave a very enthusiastic five stars to! By all accounts, this should have been another easy five stars, but no. I can’t remember the last time I was so disappointed by a book. This is 277 pages of going nowhere SLOW. Every time I thought the story was about to ramp up and get good, I was let down. Like, he most interesting part is when the MC is aggressively investigated for witchcraft, and even that managed to be dull somehow. 

I can see what Giddings was trying to do with this book. The themes of sexism and racism are loud and undoubtedly important, but damn I wish they were presented with a better written story. I’m really sad to be rating this one so low. 

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wlreed312's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

 Well this was glorious.

The Women Could Fly is a novel set in a world that is just a step off from ours, the major difference being that magic is real, but carefully controlled and regulated. It is said that only women are able to access this magic because of their highly emotional nature. Our main character is Jo, who is approaching the age of 28, where she must be registered, and closing in on the age where she must have a man (father, brother, spouse) to be accountable for her actions. Jo is a messy messy character who has a tremendous amount of trauma due to the disappearance of her mother 14 years ago, and her subsequent questioning about witchcraft (torture, not to put too fine a point on it). This is an examination of racism, homophobia, and misogyny, yes. But it's also a story about how bad it screws you up when the adults in your life (especially your parents) don't see everything that you are, and only love an image of you they have in their minds.

This was one of those books that touched me deeply for reasons I can't fully articulate. I love how complicated Jo is, and how she wants to be better for the people she loves. I love that her romantic relationship with a man is complex, because while she does care for him, she resents the fact that she must be in a heteronormative relationship or be monitored in truly invasive ways. There is a power imbalance in every relationship between men and women in this world, and it's explored in interesting ways. My only very minor complaint is that I wish we had a little bit more resolution between Jo and Angie
(how long has Angie had that doll? Why didn't she tell Jo what she knew ?
) I also loved the writing, and highlighted many passages (which is unusual for me). I can definitely see that this is a book I appreciate in a different way because I'm older, but I just really really loved it.



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ajay913's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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minella's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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mj_86's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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aliciae08's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

When I started reading The Women Could Fly, I was expecting a remake of The Hand Maid’s Tale— only “make it Black”. 

I’m really glad it wasn’t that though. I thought it was better and more terrifying. The magic was real, even though the ways to tell if a woman bore that magic were not. The way people act when they have all of the power was real, too. The way men know how to leverage that power, manipulate it so that the women are scared but wouldn’t be able to put their finger on why. It just worked.

There were plenty of things i didn’t like about this book. The pacing for the first two-thirds felt so slow, while the last third flew by. It almost felt like the author couldn’t wait to just finish it. 

None of the characters are all that likable, but I wonder if a part of that was simply that we don’t get to know any of them. Even Josephine keeps us at an arms length. I don’t find Jo or Angie to be that funny either—even though their whole schtick is about using humor/comedy to feel alive. 

Jo’s parents are disappointing in their own way, but I can probably forgive Tiana for leaving when you can see who she married—a man that couldn’t/wouldn’t stand up for his daughter probably did even less for his wife.

Still, this is a book where we can see:
  • how racism and income disparity can impact the enforcement/policing of bodies  that don’t/can’t conform
  • How members of the same sex/gender-expression can also be culpable with oppression even if it goes against their own freedoms
  • How power and control can make people behave to those without

While magic was the thing that was added and feared, we can translate that to be anything that society fears. In fact there were instances where the fear of magic went with:
  • racist stereotypes that played on old tropes of white is might
  • homosexuality and gender nonconformity being dangerous 

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rcsreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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lpdx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75


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sshabein's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Absolutely LOVED this. What a book!

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