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A review by katyboo52
The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
5.0
Josephine Thomas lives in a contemporary America with a twist. In this reality, witches are real. Witches are also feared. As soon as girls reach puberty it is their family's duty to monitor them for abnormal activities and by the time they are thirty they are required to be married and must submit their will to their husband. Any witchy behaviour means that they will be taken into custody by the state and subject to testing and even executed, depending on what they have done.
Josephine's mother disappeared when she was a teenager. Not only did it leave her with unresolved grief and a ton of questions, it has also meant further state intervention in her life as her mother's activities left a question mark over the whole family.
As the book opens, Josephine is 28 and working in a museum of witchcraft. She is under increasing pressure to marry and submit to further state scrutiny. Everything changes when 14 years after her mother's disapproval, they register her as dead and she receives a letter from her mother asking her to fulfil a bequest.
This is an astonishing, upsetting, rich and wonderful book. Like a queer Handmaid's Tale with witches in the very best way.
Josephine's mother disappeared when she was a teenager. Not only did it leave her with unresolved grief and a ton of questions, it has also meant further state intervention in her life as her mother's activities left a question mark over the whole family.
As the book opens, Josephine is 28 and working in a museum of witchcraft. She is under increasing pressure to marry and submit to further state scrutiny. Everything changes when 14 years after her mother's disapproval, they register her as dead and she receives a letter from her mother asking her to fulfil a bequest.
This is an astonishing, upsetting, rich and wonderful book. Like a queer Handmaid's Tale with witches in the very best way.