Source: DRC via NetGalley (Amistad)
Pub. Date: August 9, 2022
Synopsis: Goodreads

Why did I choose to read this book?

WITCHES!!!!! No seriously, this book is commentary about how single women are monitored and judged and I can’t wait to see all the ways this book rips.

What is this book about?

If you have an irritating friend who can only think to reference Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale when they are talking about how society imprisons and controls women, please tell them to shut up and read this book to broaden their horizons. This book is about how society, through policy and peer pressure, forces women into marriage and into having children and making it impossible for them to do anything from travel alone to have a credit card without the backing of some kind of male sponsor.

Also there are witches.

What is notable about the story?

The way women are controlled in this book is so…I’m not even sure how I want to say this…sneaky? It’s like, you can live single until you are thirty, but if you aren’t married by then you have to register as a single woman and prove that you have a male figure who can sponsor you and vouch for you and you have to check in with your case handler once a week like you’re on parole or something AND on top of all of that you have to behave perfectly to everyone or else you could be accused of being a witch, and once that happens well…I mean we all know what happens.

You can feel the noose closing around your throat as you read this book. Society makes marriage seem appealing as an alternative to being single, but then are you married because you want to be or are you married because it’s easier, and is it a partnership when all your decisions have to be cosigned by your husband? Is it love of was it just the lesser of two evils? This book was legit scary, but in the most banal way possible.

Also there are witches. I mean, I keep saying this, but honestly the heart of the story is escaping this nightmare and less about being an honest to goodness witch. But they’re in there, and they are captivating, but that’s not the central feeling/theme you’ll walk away with after reading this one.

Was anything not so great?

The Women Could Fly did not have the greatest ending. It was so awesome the whole time and then it was like it disappeared in a puff of smoke. I was left hoping that this was one in a duology or trilogy, that maybe I had missed something. You don’t get to find out what happens next, and I needed to see what happened next to feel closure.

What’s the verdict?

It was so good the entire way that it earned 4 stars on Goodreads, if only for the lack of a satisfying ending. The day Goodreads allows for half stars will be epic, because then I can come back here and rate it 3.5/5.

I’m serious though, if you need a different way of saying “THIS IS HOW IT COULD BE” other than simply saying “A Handmaid’s Tale” over and over again, check this book out. It’s more recent and more likely. A worthy library borrow.

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