The Women Could Fly – Megan Giddings

Megan Giddings is one of the fiercest new voices in contemporary fiction. In The Women Could Fly, her second novel, she imagines a dystopian world where witchcraft is persecuted and single women are not to be trusted.

My endless gratitude to the team at Macmillan for sending me a copy for review!

When the story begins, Josephine Thomas isn’t sure that witchcraft actually exists. It could be a lie perpetrated by the authorities to keep women oppressed. Of greater concern is her mother being declared dead, after she disappeared off the face of the earth fourteen years ago. She left concerning, mysterious instructions in her Will that Josephine must follow to the letter in order to collect her inheritance, and put the past behind her.

Oh, and the pressure is on in Josephine’s casual relationship. Women must marry by age 30, or face a life of restricted movement and intense state surveillance, in the name of public safety. Should 28-year-old Josephine try to make a marriage out of her occasional booty calls with a man she calls Party City? Or might there be another option?

The Women Could Fly is an eerie, prescient novel with the sharp social commentary I suspect will become characteristic of Giddings’ writing. She “explores the limits women face—and the powers they have to transgress and transcend them”. You will finish The Women Could Fly with an intense desire to jump on a broomstick and dance naked under the moon – or, at the very least, write a letter to your local representative.

If you want to check out more Megan Giddings, you can find my review of her debut novel Lakewood here.

Buy The Women Could Fly on Booktopia here. (affiliate link)