Josephine Thomas just turned twenty eight and she’s not married and bisexual where all women are required to marry by thirty or they have to register to be monitored by the government and homosexuality and any other forms of non conformity around gender are illegal and society is encouraged to report signs of witchcraft
Josephine has heard every conceivable theory about her mother’s disappearance when Josephine was twelve and there have been many theories that she was kidnapped and murdered and she changed her identity for a new start and that she was a witch
I really enjoyed definitely recommend
Thank You NetGalley And Pan Macmillan
I just reviewed The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings. #TheWomenCouldFly #NetGalley

This was a interesting read which I enjoyed to a certain point then it lost it abit for me. I found myself thinking about other books and things I had to do so kept picking it up and putting it down ! It’s a dystopian tale involving witches I won’t say anything to much as don’t want to spoil it ! This is a genre I’ve never been that into so was willing to try ! I will try other things in the future by this author and widen my reading !

At 28, Josephine is nearing the age where she needs to be married. The alternative is lifelong monitoring and control by the state. Neither appeal. But in this world, witchcraft trials never went away and unmarried women are seen as particularly dangerous. And Josephine’s family background means she’s under extra scrutiny. Her mother vanished many years ago, and now Josephine needs to carry out the rather unusual requests made in the Will. An enjoyable dystopian read.

I was given an ARC of this story and it was certainly thought-provoking because it highlighted the absurdity of small, uneducated minds.

The story is set in a time where women are strictly monitored and controlled by men, with special focus on the question of witchcraft. It was reminiscent of the past where women were drowned or burned if thought to be a witch - men's insecurities and fears of women taken to extreme. It was scary and it made me angry at the arrogance and feeling of entitlement by men.

It was an interesting mix of modern day and women without a voice and the idea of magic - well done.

The writing style was good, although, it confused me at times because it tended to wander from the point. I was also perplexed by the use of a capital 'b' for the word black - colours don't need a capital unless a name or at the beginning of a sentence. Heritage in that context does not need a capital as it's not a country like people from Mexico, for example, being Mexicans. I know the idea of racism, gender and poverty were themes within this tale but I think if someone is black or white, capitals are not necessary.

The actions of the people reminded me of the ridiculous hysteria of mobs like in the witch trials of the past and how quickly these people gather on the bandwagon (men and women) - this was described very well.

This was a sad, maddening and frightening story that I hope never happens, although, history shows that even now it's a man's world and women have to constantly fight for their rights.

Worth reading.

A dystopian novel where witches exist. Where woman are closely watched by their family and friends for signs of magical expression or witchcraft. To top it all off; they must be married before, or register and be monitored by the state, their 28th birthday.

The storyline focuses on Jo, a 27 year old, mixed race, bisexual, unmarried woman who identifies as being black. Jo’s mother mysteriously vanished when she was a teenager, leaving her with many unanswered questions. Upon eventually declaring her mothers death and as such, reading her mothers will, Jo has to travel to a small island with two dolls, on one of four stipulated dates and gather some purple apples in order to secure her inheritance!
The book was fascinating and enjoyable to read, there are some vivid descriptions that are so well written you can clearly see them. However, at times I felt the story dragged on a bit. I’d still recommend reading it though, especially if witches and dystopian novels are your thing

What an amazing book!
The book is super exciting and would love to read more from the author!

Thankyou netgalley for the ARC

Megan Giddings’s sophomore novel is highly evocative of those The Handmaid’s Tale inspired dystopias where readers are presented with a near-future where women—sometimes men—live in authoritarian societies where they have limited rights and freedoms and are under near-constant surveillance. When Women Could Fly does offer a more topical take on this genre, especially with what is going on with abortion laws in the States, and although the reality it presents us with is embedded with fantastical elements, reading this story still sent a chill up my spine. While this has been also compared to Shirley Jackson and Octavia Butler, personally I don’t quite see it. If anything Giddings’ novel was highly reminiscent of those early 2010s YA, where the female protagonists are often forced into marriage (this is not meant as a 'snub' as i remember being quite into them). Expect that Giddings’ more mature tone allows for more in-depth conversations about gender and racial discrimination, female bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, surveillance and privacy, and the ye old fear of that which is deemed ‘other’. The imagery and aesthetics did make me think of several horror films produced by A24, and part of me believes that maybe this story would translate better to the screen. That is not to say that it was badly written, far from it. However, several lacunae in the world-building really took me out. Additionally, the pacing was a bit all over the place, particularly in the latter half of the novel.

In this America witch trials are still a thing. To prevent women from becoming witches, the government closely monitors them, watching for any signs of ‘witchy’ stuff. While false allegations are punishable by law, most girls and women live in fear of being accused. The government also requires women over 30 to either marry (a man) or lose almost all forms of autonomy (such as having a job). Some women do choose this option, and are registered as witches, and (if memory serves) under house arrest. Women of color, Black women in particular, are even more heavily scrutinized, especially those like Josephine Thomas, whose own mother is believed to have been a witch after she ‘vanished’ overnight. Josephine, now 28, is ready to accept that her mother will never come back. Josephine has come to resent her mother: for leaving, for leaving without her, and for making her ‘suspect’ in the eyes of the government. With her 30th birthday approaching Jo finds herself forced to consider her options. She doesn’t want to give up her job at the museum, where they are actually somehow allowed to have an exhibition by a verified witch. She is seeing this guy who she kind of likes but feels frustrated by the societal pressure to marry him. Her father, a white guy, is not particularly close to her and he offered little support when Jo was under investigation after the disappearance of his wife.
The narrative opens with Jo having decided to officialize her mother’s death. Her mother’s will includes some specific directions she is to follow in order to then access her inheritance. Jo follows said directions and finds herself coming into contact with a reality that is very different from her own one.

I really liked the writing style, and the ambivalence permeating much of Jo’s narration, in particular in moments when she thinks of her mother or of the way women are treated. I also liked some of the vaguer aspects of this ‘reality’, and I was briefly at times reminded of Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘what-ifs’, where he very much focuses on a group of people and is able to capture their experiences without delving into many details about their world and the society they live.
Alas, here the author is inconsistently vague. We will learn that other countries have possibly banned witch-hunts/the monitoring of women but that’s more or less it when it comes to the outside world (“I cry sometimes thinking about how we’re the only developed country to let this still happen.”). Why don’t more women leave the States? Are they banned from doing so? The story may mention this but so briefly that it didn’t really sink in. In addition, we have a registered witch being allowed to have her art in a gallery… which threw me off a little. Why would the government allow her to do that? Her installations and pieces are fairly unsettling and very ‘witchy’...wouldn’t they worry about this being some sort of witch propaganda? The author is also quite inconsistent when it comes to lgbtq+ visibility and rights. In this extremely authoritarian and deeply conformist country, people identify as lgbtq+...Jo included. She’s bi and ‘out’. Her father isn’t keen on it and she knows she will be unable to marry anyone other than a man but I still wasn’t sure of the kind of rights lgbtq+ ppl had. Jo refers to herself as cis and acknowledges that the whole “women=maybe witch” thing her country has going on excludes ppl who identify outside of the gender binary…but we don’t really go into much depth with that other than once Jo mentions that gay men are sometimes suspected of being witches…it also seemed weird that such an oppressive and reactionary government would ‘allow’ ppl to openly identify as lgbtq+. Still, we do get Angie’s perspective on this, who is using a matchmaker who specializes in arranging safe marriages for gay women (for example by choosing gay men as their spouses).
Also, how are YA books with dragons in them being allowed to be published in a country where magic is considered a real threat? Surely the fantasy genre would be banned?!

minor spoilers:
When we reach the halfway point, the story offers us insight into a community that is very different from the one Jo grew up in and once again I found myself having more questions, and the answers we do get didn’t entirely satisfy. The narrative suggests that they have been undetected due to ‘magic’ but I didn’t quite buy that. It also seemed weird that they would not reach out to more ppl. Jo’s motivations in the latter half of the novel were not entirely believable and the ending felt kind of rushed.

Still, despite my issues with the world-building (one too many holes, inconsistent) and plot (which is slow, fast, slow, fast, and with a few situations that clearly just exist to further the plot, even when they are not entirely convincing) I loved the author’s writing style, the parallelism between Jo’s world and our world (“Sometimes, people say Isn’t it lucky to be a woman now?”...kid you not a male colleague of mine said something along these lines and followed with “it is men who have it hard nowadays”), the use of witchcraft as a metaphor for ‘otherness’, the soft magic, the aesthetics, and the friendship between Jo and Angie.
The author does pose some interesting questions about the ‘cost’ of personal freedom, and throughout the narrative she interrogates themes such as love, equality, guilt, and forgiveness. Additionally, I appreciated the nuanced mother-daughter relationship. Part of me was annoyed at the romance subplot, which in my opinion takes away from ‘page time’ from non-romantic relationships. The writing has this hypnotic, remote yet sharp, quality to it that brought to mind Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid. Giddings is certainly able to articulate thorny and ambiguous thoughts and feelings with clarity, however, she also allows Jo to retain a certain air of impenetrability. Jo's introspections were compelling and I was thoroughly spellbound by her voice. Like I said, the world-building and plot did get in the way of my totally loving this but to be honest I can see myself re-reading this and not minding as much.

This was an incredible novel, with fascinating characters, in particular Jo, who is 28, when it is mandated that all women must marry at 30, or lose their autonomy. That, and the fact that witches were still around made for a good story. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of the book

I was lucky enough receive an ARC of this book. I was so intrigued from the start- a book about witches in a dystopian world where witches are still burnt at the stake in a modern day world, where women are married off before they’re 30.

However this book fell so flat to me. This book was written like it couldn’t be decided on a genre- dystopian, mystery, fantasy. And all of those just fell so insanely flat.

I am a fan of a list as you can tell from my reviews but my goodness did this book just have paragraph after paragraph of lists. I found myself glazing over whole pages due to the boring content of lists.

The characters in this book seemed to develop no other personality traits other than being boring. I had such high hopes for a feminist icon of a main character but she was just annoying and winey.

Overall this book just didn’t hit the mark for me.

This book seems so current, it deals with many of the most pressing discussions of the day but wraps all of that up in a great story. Will recommend this to friends.

This book sounded exactly like my sort of thing.
Mainly the witches, and the not too distant future.
I enjoyed the way witchcraft was being dealt with, a look at once again how women had non of the power I this society.
The story, and the characters never really grabbed me though, I found myself getting easily distracted from it.

It will be one of those I'm pleased I read, but I won't be raving to others about.

A dystopian novel deceptively simply written with a multitude of layers and magical realism.

Set in contemporary times, yet a woman can still be burned for being a witch. Women are watched from birth for signs that they might be harbouring latent magical powers. They must register with the state if they are not married by the age of 28 to a man (of course). Homosexuality and other forms of non-conformity around gender are of course illegal. Society is encouraged to report any signs of witchcraft in neighbours and family.

Jo has just turned 28 and is not only unmarried and bisexual, she is also mixed race having a black mother and white father. A triple bind for her and one that sees her as the perfect target for suspicion. Her mother mysteriously vanished when she was 12 and has not been heard of or seen since and this puts her under the spotlight even more.

They decide it is finally time to accept and declare her dead but a surprise clause in her will sees Jo head out to a mysterious island to find much more than she bargained for.

There are many themes running through this book which would make it a good book club book. The one that stood out starkly for me was that no matter how ‘advanced’ we might think we are as a society, nothing has really changed since the dawn of time around humanity’s desperate fear of “different” and their obsessive need for control.

Whether you liked "the Power" or not (definitely not worth the hype in my opinion), or simply not read it, you will not resist getting mesmerized and engrossed in this oniric tale of a society where non compliant/independent women are deemed to be witches. Not only is the writing phenomenal but the story is also beautifully crafted around a queer mixed race woman looking for her mother as well as for herself. So many current issues are talked about and dealt with successfully and tastefully without trying too hard or just for the sake of it, this in itself is reason enough to grab this gem. Every word is carefully chosen and allows you to picture the setting as well as feeling every emotions at the same time as the protagonist. The women could certainly fly and i went with them for the ride! Absolutely unforgettable!!

I just loved the book it is witty topical and scarily real .A world that had the usual misogynistic and racist attitudes with the addition of anti-witch feelings .Of course the witches were women and of course they were black because these people were calling out for further hate crimes
The female lead character is gay black a woman and to add to it all a witch ,she was doomed from the beginning
The author managed to merge the magical and the real seamlessly to make the world utterly believable
The author has a clear easily read prose style making the book an enjoyable read .she covers a huge amount of heavy topics in a light intelligent way with some sections extremely witty and amusing
I would recommend this book for those who enjoy magical reality
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk

This was an amazing book, well written with a fascinating storyline and well developed charcaters that were both believable and relatable. I really enjoyed it.