“Maybe what shame needs to stay alive is the consent of the shamed.”
What is this book about?
Ariel is a teen mom who tries to find her way through college in the ’90s. Based in reality, but with both feet firmly planted in fiction, we follow Ariel as she discovers what it means to be a woman, a single mother, a lesbian and a writer. The book is a fragmented narrative mixed with feminist retellings of fairy tales, reading recommendations and the occasional spell.
Why is it boring?
It’s really heavy on the feminism and takes magic pretty serious, so if that’s not your thing you will find this book boring. The magic that We Were Witches uses isn’t wand-waving big magic though. It’s mostly using household objects and wishful thinking while using the power of language. I could have used more magic, but I can always use more magic.
Who would you recommend it to?
If you ever worried that you can’t do something because you are … (fill in any doubt you have about yourself), then read this book. It is a book for the ones that feel like outsiders, the people who doubt themselves.
Why should I read it if it’s boring?!
This book was a perfect storm in my opinion. It riled up my angry feminism and sated my longing for the mystical. I like pitching the novel as feminism and witches, but it’s a lot more than that. We Were Witches deals with poverty, parenthood, physical and mental abuse, access to knowledge, and many other modern perils. It does a great job packaging all the problems of the ’90s in a narrative that should make you feel hopeless. But We Were Witches is not a hopeless book. It actually inspired me a lot, as a writer and a feminist, but also as a person who lives in the world with everyone else. It urges you to find your own strength and to write your own stories if the ones that exist don’t fit you.
Besides the message, the writing itself is also gorgeous. Gore seamlessly blends fiction with reality, subverting literary theory and old narratives. It’s filled with snippets of feminist works and doesn’t shy away from experimental form. She includes lists, stories and essays and somehow it never feels like too much or disjointed. There is a clear idea in the story Gore wants to tell and she will use anything she needs to make her point as sharp as possible.
I really love the positive message of making space for yourself, but We Were Witches isn’t positive towards the world it sees. I think Gore asks you to take a good look at the world around you, to not just accept the status quo because you don’t know any better. She invites you to find a world to your own liking, one that allows room for who you are, not for who you should be.
Bored to Death book club 
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