Book Review: The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

This post is a review of The Women Could Fly by author, Megan Giddings.

What is The Women Could Fly about?

This is a book about autonomy, particularly that of a woman over her own mind and body. The setting is magical and the major threat of the day is an accusation of witchcraft, but the underlying threat of having your ability to govern your own life looms large and it's a direct commentary on the loss of protections for women's reproductive rights.

In fact, as a social commentary book, it's about all the inequalities that ail modern American society- racial, gender, and wealth inequality. These are woven into the experiences or viewpoints of various characters within the story, so while the story feels fantastical, it's also firmly rooted in reality.

It's also a book about mothers and daughters- my favorite- and the complex dynamics that can exist within these relationships. In this case, Jo is dealing with the scars and repercussions of her mother's abandonment in a world where her existence was already suspicious. The stigma of Tania's disappearance threatens to make it hostile.

I also found it to be a book about the people who stay. For all the emphasis of Tania's disappearance and the mess that left behind, it's equally about all the people who were there to help pick up the pieces when she left: Jo's dad, her best friend, her aunts.

Storyline (Blurb) of The Women Could Fly

Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler, a biting social commentary from the acclaimed author of Lakewood that speaks to our times--a piercing dystopian novel about the unbreakable bond between a young woman and her mysterious mother, set in a world in which witches are real and single women are closely monitored.

Josephine Thomas has heard every conceivable theory about her mother's disappearance. That she was kidnapped. Murdered. That she took on a new identity to start a new family. That she was a witch. This is the most worrying charge because in a world where witches are real, peculiar behavior raises suspicions and a woman--especially a Black woman--can find herself on trial for witchcraft.

But fourteen years have passed since her mother's disappearance, and now Jo is finally ready to let go of the past. Yet her future is in doubt. The State mandates that all women marry by the age of 30--or enroll in a registry that allows them to be monitored, effectively forfeiting their autonomy. At 28, Jo is ambivalent about marriage. With her ability to control her life on the line, she feels as if she has her never understood her mother more. When she's offered the opportunity to honor one last request from her mother's will, Jo leaves her regular life to feel connected to her one last time.

In this powerful and timely novel, Megan Giddings explores the limits women face--and the powers they have to transgress and transcend them.

What I Liked About This Book

Concept

I really enjoyed the idea of this book: create a world with a magic system that can function as a backdrop for seamless social commentary on racial inequality, gender inequality, wealth inequality, and the structures that keep these systems in place. As a concept, it is exciting and full of so much promise.

Characters

I liked the characters in this book. They felt real and substantial, most were layered in interesting and complex ways. I appreciated the ways in which a lot of them were contradictory and flawed.

Jo's mom, Tania, is a great example. Perhaps most glaringly, in her quest to find out if her love for her family is true and selfless, in wanting to know if the love within her marriage and life can be real if the absence of such commitment would result in forfeiting all her personal liberties, she leaves her husband and child- which is perhaps the most unloving and destabilizing thing she could do to them. Her quest for selflessness made her selfish.

What I Disliked About This Book

Execution

I think I know what this book was supposed to do, or at least I know what I hoped it would do- and it just didn't. At least from a U.S. perspective, I think this was meant to be a commentary on women's rights that are being chipped away with the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade and the ongoing battle of the repercussions of that ruling ever since. Likewise, it attempted to make commentary on the burden of blackness within this society and how it carries penalties that those who benefit from whiteness don't have to face; and even less so those who benefit from both whiteness and money.

I thought the distance created by the magical setting would create a safe, untouched space where all this could be explored without being too on the nose and that the book would manage to feel light and detached from this weight and feel contained within its own story.

What I experienced was either or, and that was more frustrating than anything else. I would have preferred a lecture on the history and impacts of race and wealth on society or a fairytale about witches in modern-day society and how they are forced to navigate the constant threat of persecution. I fully understand what Giddings tries to do in splicing these together, and I respect the vision. I think there was a way to do it well such that it elevated the gravitas of the fairytale without weighing it down with well-reworded statistics. I just don't think she found it.

For me, the blending of the ideas wasn't seamless and I could almost tell when she decided to slip in a fact or even orchestrate scenes in such a way as to reference documented instances. Again, this in and of itself is fine as a tactic and tool and can lead to some really great and stirring writing- but it has to be done well. I found her execution to lack subtlety and I was constantly pulled out of the story to mull over the statistics or a stretch of writing that reminded me of the corresponding statistics.

A Quick Comparison

I recently did a review of An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, and I think hers is a shining example of the execution I would have liked to see here. Part of my review reads:

"To be able to write on such a heavy subject matter as being a black man in America, especially the American South, as it pertains to incarceration and its unjust repercussions not just for the person behind bars but also for all the people that they are connected to- to be able to write truthfully on a subject of this weight and magnitude is difficult enough. To do it with such a light hand and gentle strokes is the work of a master."

So, I know it can be done and it can be done well. Granted, Jones' book has no magical elements, but I don't think that really factors in what I'm critiquing.

Writing

I found the writing to be okay. It wasn't bad in any way, it just didn't excite or inspire me. I wasn't dying to pick up the book and finish the chapter, and in some cases, reading felt like a drag or something to get through just so I knew what happened next. I won't say this happened throughout the book, but enough to be noteworthy.

Verdict: 3 Stars

I think 'social commentary dystopian' is the genre that Giddings is known for and I am yet to pick up her acclaimed first novel, Lakewood, so I don't know how different that non-magical story reads in comparison to this one. It's possible that removing the fairytale aspect is the key to her genius. I do know that having it in this novel took something away from it.

I just think it's not (yet) her element and the final result wasn't smooth which took away from the reading experience. That said, I think the idea was good even if the execution was not. This is really a book I wanted to love and I'm sad that, in the end, I just couldn't.

Let me know if you pick it up and what you think of it.

Other Books by Megan Giddings

• Lakewood

Happy reading and talk soon,

Nonjabulo