A review by vampfang
Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

3.0

3.5. this book was really different from books i usually read, and i’m happy i was able to branch out. that being said, i didn’t love it. i don’t want to judge a book’s quality by its speed, but i personally found it a little slow. it certainly had an interesting way of telling its story with its not-exactly-linear flow, but since i wasn’t really used to it it was a bit difficult to follow the plot at times. it might just be my attention span issues, but i never quite felt immersed in the book because of the way it often jumped around without…a lot happening. it was also hard to get a sense of the characters at first—things mentioned in the book jacket don’t come in till later so in the beginning i was a little lost. i liked katharina’s voice, though, and the way the novel explored how gender impacts her situation. while the novel itself tells the story of injustice at the hands of both the justice system AND the court of public opinion, i've seen people interpreting it instead as "this is just like how people get mad on twitter these days," so perhaps galchen could have been a bit more specific. i think there is an issue with people refusing to think critically about things and writing people off too easily today just as in the time of this book, but i'm also wary of people painting the situation as just "people are too angry these days." for that reason, i'm not sure i agree with the "see no monsters" approach. i think if i had spent a bit more time on this book i would’ve enjoyed it more and gotten more out of it, but it didn’t speak to me.