Orenda Fink, best known as half of the musical duo Azure Ray, opens her devastating first memoir by describing a screaming fight with her mother that took place over Zoom. In 2019, Fink and her husband, fellow musician Todd Fink, bought a house in Twentynine Palms, Calif., on the edge of the Mojave Desert. It was there, nearly 2,000 miles away from her mother, that Fink began to come to terms with an unsettling reality: her mother "fit the criteria" for borderline personality disorder. For as long as Fink could remember, her mother had insisted that she was different, that they were different, possessing an innate magic. The ineffable nature of magic became a theme that followed Fink through her Alabama childhood and her acclaimed indie rock career. But was this magic real or was it a manifestation of her mother's mental illness?
The Witch's Daughter is as enthralling as it is brutal, and readers won't be able to tear their eyes away from it. Fink employs the same lyrical delicacy as she does in her songwriting to write candidly about the trauma inflicted on her family by her mother's illness. With each recollection of Fink's mother's mania and cruelty, the woman grows into an almost mythical figure: she's no longer just a witch, she's the bogeyman. Fink's story is, at its core, about the healing power of music, and it's dotted with cameos from some of indie rock's most beloved musicians. Fans of Jennette McCurdy's I'm Glad My Mom Died and Michelle Zauner's Crying in H Mart will find The Witch's Daughter haunting. --LeeAnna Callon, manager/bookseller/fishwife at Blue Cypress Books, New Orleans, La.