My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood is a fictitious novella that broaches into fantasy, historical, and contemporary genres in just thirty-two pages. It tells the tale of a 1950s girl being raised by an eccentric mother surrounded by mystery that will leave you wondering what is real and what is fiction.

The beginning of this novella is very humorous; you’re dropped into the mind of a teenage girl arguing with her very eccentric mother, and like most teenagers, she believes her mother to be evil. You get the sense that her mother is perhaps a witch, and by the end of the novella, I honestly couldn’t say one way or the other if the mother truly believed she was or not. But as much as this opening battle between mother and daughter is funny, these battles with the mother have been more trials that never ended, and as we transition through the ages, this becomes a sadder story, as though the narrator is noticing calling cards she should have spotted before now but were easily missed by being raised with a witchlike woman. This constant battling of someone who always believed she was right, who made comments she certainly shouldn’t have about her daughter, who didn’t pay attention to what was said about her and what others believed about her only, made for more of an uncomfortable feeling for her daughter to struggle through as she bore the brunt of this gossip. This became a strain on the daughter, and as she grew, their relationship naturally became more fraught, but you get the sense that the daughter has moments where she was wistful for certain parts, perhaps the magic that her mother weaved into her early childhood. I don’t want to give too much away as this is such a short read, but this packs an emotional punch that is hemmed beautifully with humour, and I adored how the ending nearly echoed the beginning of this story; it brought a saddened smile to my face.

My Evil Mother weaves you through the ages from the perspective of a daughter and her altering opinion and ever-growing beliefs surrounding her relationship with her mother starting at the age of fifteen. In just thirty-two pages, you are pulled into the web of emotion the daughter felt while being hit with small bursts of humour, reflective thoughts, and mystical beliefs as it taps into your emotions so strongly. Some puzzle pieces were slotted into place towards the end of the novella, but I was so thankful for that modern-day scene that added another burst of almost saddened humour to bring it home because my heart was starting to ache. This story shows the depths of a complicated relationship between a mother and a daughter and how who you are raised by can affect your future, with not only how you feel about yourself but also the way it affects you making relationships. If you are looking for a rapid read that pulls at the heartstrings while making you chuckle with some brilliant one-liners, then I’d say pick up My Evil Mother. This was my first taste of Margaret Atwood, and while I did enjoy it, I’m not itching to look into more of her work. I was left with a question or two regarding what was completely fiction when it came to the mother and what she believed to be true, so my rating is Three out of Five stars.

Favourite Quotes

“When I was four or five, my mother told me she’d changed him into the garden gnome that sat beside our front steps; he was happier that way, she said.”

– loc 173

““Some people collected stamps, she collected penises. Many of us did in those days.””

– loc 364

“The protector was her, the greater power was her, the Universe that took an interest was her as well; always her.”

– loc 398

Finer Details:

Title: My Evil Mother

Author: Margaret Atwood

Pages: 32

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories, Seattle (Published in coordination with Plympton Literary Studio)

Publication: 2022

Language: English

Rating: 3/5