With a name like Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch, you can be certain that you are in for some tongue-in-cheek storytelling. And that is definitely what you get with this novel!

The story is told from various viewpoints, court documents, etc. All part of the files that make up the accusation of Katharina Kepler being a witch. The story is initially told from Katharina’s point of view as she is telling the story to a scribe. The story reads very much like verbal language and I think the audiobook for this is going to be fantastic.

That said, brace yourself, because Katharina is an old woman and prone to old-lady storytelling (a style I’m very familiar with from my grandmother). Her stories meander, get distracted, go into far too much detail, and bring up people you had no idea were even involved, just to name a few. In that sense, I feel like the author is VERY thorough and I think many readers will get a kick out of this all-too familiar style.

Katharina’s story is also peppered with testimonies from her neighbours told in interview style, ranging from outlandish, to hilarious.

The story itself is dark, but the style brought to it brings some levity to the seriousness of the accusations and the long lasting effects on the community and the accused. This is historical fiction afterall, so there are certainly going to be some dark times.

Much as I agree that there is a certain level of  accuracy required when it comes to Historical Fiction one thing I wasn’t a fan of was the use of the word G*psy (a very serious slur), instead of the name Roma, for the Romani people that were discussed briefly. I will be sending a note to the publisher requesting this be examined before publishing. Additionally, there are some instances of antisemitism that were not entirely necessary to the plot and could have been done without or at least challenged on page. I understand the difficult balances when it comes to accuracy in historical fiction, but I still think there are ways to do it better.

Overall, I found Galchen to be a very talented and entertaining writer and I’m honestly very curious about how the audiobook is going to turn out to be. I think the narrator is going to have a great time with this material!

CW: Racial Slurs, Antisemitism, Body Shaming

*Thank you HarperCollins Canada and NetGalley for the ARC*