The Women Could Fly

TOCHI ONYEBUCHI, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"For a piece of speculative fiction to succeed, the foundational abnormality must feel present and lived in. Not scaffolding, but substructure. Yet for a good portion of this book, the actual witchery falls away. The island section of the book is thrilling, but with Jo's return to her old life, the speculative elements of the novel's world-building retreat, like the island itself, to the realm of hearsay and rumor. We are left with a gendered McCarthyism ... Sometimes, the idea of timeliness can sit like a curtain over a novel, both emphasizing and obscuring the work itself. 'Timeliness' can infuse a book with greater personal and social resonance, but it can also hollow out a novel, encouraging readers to see "issue" rather than 'story' ... It can be tempting to read The Women Could Fly, which comes in the shadow of the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and call the book timely. But the relationship at the heart of this novel — between Jo and her mercurial mother — is much closer to timeless."