Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of the amazing The Witches are Coming that I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.
From her stint as a writer for Jezebel to her amazing book Shrill, I’ve been a fan of Lindy West. I was so excited when I saw that The Witches are Coming was available to request from NetGalley that I smashed that request button. Later that evening, when my request was approved, it’s possible that I squeaked in delight.
The Witches are Coming did not disappoint. With West’s sharp tongue and shrewd observation, I found myself in a constant state of underlining and nodding. With passages such as: “Art has no obligation to evolve, but it has a powerful incentive to do so. Art that is static, that captures a dead moment, is nothing. It is, at best, nostalgia; at worst, it can be a blight on our sense of who we are, a shame we pack away,” West sums up the battle currently being waged in America between those who long for a more compassionate, sensitive type of entertainment and those who want only to preserve, despite the lack of merit in doing so. Making no apologies for the truth she speaks, West is a soldier with her pen.
The best piece in this collection, I think, was “Joan,” a piece that really highlights the complexities of being a female entertainer. She points out the ways in which female entertainers are pitted against each other, although she adds that it is not as bad as it was when Joan Rivers was struggling to make her way to the top. No longer can there “only be one.”
This book is a must read for anyone interested in gender, intersectional feminism, or simply pop culture. Witty and clever, West doesn’t disappoint at entertaining.
5/5
