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A review by frasersimons
Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
4.0
This was great. The narration is fantastic, really augmenting the testimonial sections.
This is a true, and ostensibly straight forward story of a woman accused of poisoning the child of a neighbour via a herbal remedy. But word of mouth makes even this accusation far more complex. As the hysteria of the people gathers, so to do their stories. Suddenly she also taught curses to people and controls the weather. The small push into the culture of the town rapidly devolves into a very sinister—yet somehow, oddly funny, in the satirical sense—kind of way.
It alternates between the accused perspective, negotiating life after the accusation, and the numerous testimonials, which act as a fluid set piece for the historical aspects, of which many are, I am told, quite accurate.
I’m pretty burned out on Witch trial stories but this just seemed to be the exact right amount of reframing and characterization. Perhaps the fact that the townspeople become subjects under a microscope makes it seem new, or fresh. Either way, couldn’t put it down and highly recommend the audiobook, especially.
This is a true, and ostensibly straight forward story of a woman accused of poisoning the child of a neighbour via a herbal remedy. But word of mouth makes even this accusation far more complex. As the hysteria of the people gathers, so to do their stories. Suddenly she also taught curses to people and controls the weather. The small push into the culture of the town rapidly devolves into a very sinister—yet somehow, oddly funny, in the satirical sense—kind of way.
It alternates between the accused perspective, negotiating life after the accusation, and the numerous testimonials, which act as a fluid set piece for the historical aspects, of which many are, I am told, quite accurate.
I’m pretty burned out on Witch trial stories but this just seemed to be the exact right amount of reframing and characterization. Perhaps the fact that the townspeople become subjects under a microscope makes it seem new, or fresh. Either way, couldn’t put it down and highly recommend the audiobook, especially.