A Witch Woman

Laugh out loud funny! The narrator grew up with an "evil" mother. Was she a witch or just "crazy"? It depends who you ask! ( )

A short story about a 15 year old girl who believes her mom is a witch. This was an entertaining story. I found this on Amazon and was free if you are a Prime member. ( )

An enjoyable short story about the relationship of a mother and teenage daughter in the 1950s and afterwards, with the twist that the daughter is never sure if her mother is a genuine witch or not. Unusually for the period, the daughter's parents are separated and the mother's witchy-ness is a way of coping with some of the difficulties that arise because of this. A heart-warming story which I rate at 5 stars. ( )

3.5 / 5 ⭐️‘s

“My Evil Mother” by Margaret Atwood

“Change the sheets on your bed, they’re practically crawling and pick those dirty clothes up before they fester, panties are not carpets.”

“She was keeping it in a cedar box with some other penises she’d stolen; she was feeding them on grains of wheat. That’s the usual method of tending penises.”

This was short story that packed a crazy punch!

You can read or listen to this one free with Prime Reading on Amazon. ( )

“I still believed that my mother had some influence over the Universe. I’d been brought up to believe it, and it’s hard to shake such ingrained mental patterns.”

Our fifteen-year-old unnamed narrator is being raised by a single mother in Toronto. Growing up she has heard the whispers, seen her mother’s herb garden and the bottles of “goop” her mother doles out to the women who visit her house for "consultations". She has also been on the receiving end of some pretty strange advice from her mother- mostly unwarranted, often intrusive and some downright weird. Why does her mother behave the way she does? As the years progress our protagonist alternates between believing her mother is “evil”, practices witchcraft or is just troubled. As the narrative takes us through the different stages of our protagonist's life from the time she was fifteen and shared a complicated relationship with her mother that continues through her adult life to her relationship with her own fifteen-year-old daughter in which similar patterns seem to be emerging, we witness her feelings towards her mother evolving from resentment to compassion, understanding and acceptance. What a lovely tribute to mother-daughter relationships!

My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood is a fun and engaging read. Hats off to the author for being able to pack so much humor, emotion and insight into a thirty–two–page short story that is such an easy and entertaining read. ( )