Reviews with content warning for Child death - Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

27 reviews

theabee's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

isobelline's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

I've seen this book being compared to Monty Python and I couldn't agree more.
Overall, a delightful read. I want to hug a cow now

Content Warnings

blogamonika's review against another edition

Go to review page

sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

the book made me frustrated. i really liked katharina, and the way she was questioning and viewing everything around her. and yet her way of life put her in danger because of greedy people

Content Warnings

myfbusters's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

hillbilly_heroine's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a fictionalized account, drawing on historical documents, of the witch trial of Katharina Kepler, mother of astronomer Johannes Kepler. But really, this is a book about flawed humans.

It would have been easy to write Katharina as a more likeable, more relatable-to-modern-women main character, and it would have been easier still to write her “legal guardian,” Simon, as either her sole ally and savior, or as evil and duplicitous. Galchen resists these impulses.

Instead we have a Katharina who is wry, sarcastic, stubborn, meddlesome, and often irrational, but whose love of animals and children is sweet and pure. Her character is not a thinly veiled stand-in for everything modern feminism wants her to be, but she is also clever and brave and kind and difficult. She’s a mother and I love her in the way many of us long-suffering adult children of difficult, obstinate women love our mothers.

Simon is a good friend to Katharina for as long as he can be. We are shown the very real stakes of allying oneself with a woman accused of witchcraft, and the very human (if not admirable) response many would have had at that time. He is very much Going Through His Own Thing throughout this ordeal, so while we are disappointed in him, we ultimately, like Katharina, lack the energy or desire to convict him.

This is the real world: when you find yourself in desperate times, some folks will be utterly heroic and self-sacrificing, but most cannot be. You will understand and be a little sad about it at the same time. You will love them all anyway, because they gave what they could, and we are all fighting our own battles.

Content Warnings