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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
My rating: I was between "this is fine" and "I don't care for it at all."
I didn't actively hate this book, which is how I feel with most of my 1-star reviews. There was a lot of promise, like I really wanted more of the early pandemic period. That early time is so underrepresented in media and this was the closest I have seen to capturing the fear and panic of society-- is it crumbling? Will we be whole after this? Is our government going to fail? The collective questioning of systems and people around us-- the pandemic paired with social unrest-- it was a tense and eerie time. It had the makeup of being a character itself in this novel, but... that it was more of a ghost haunting the story than any actual exploration.
The central point of this book seemed to be that women too, are capable of violence and rage. Of course it is about who we all deal with it all that determines our fates. Cool, great start...
There were 4 POVs throughout-- The main two are the central conflict. Florida-- comes frm a privileged background, falls in with the wrong crowd. Lands in prison after getting involved in heavy drugs and becomes an accomplice to murder in the heat of a drug haze. Dios--comes from an underprivileged background, but is granted scholarships. Ultimately lands in prison after defending herself against a rich prick wo attacks her. So, what is the big conflict that brings them together? From what I can gather, the answer is a really disappointing: nothing.
The least involved in the storyline (Kace) felt really pointless. Also, where her POV starts and ends, does not make a whole lot of sense to me. Felt a bit like the author forgot how she started that POV when I read how she ended it.
The last POV introduced, is a detective that is pulled into tracking these two down. She has a lot of internal dialogue and conflict-- which I thought made her the most interesting for a while-- though she's still not likable. And to her internal conflict, her character's resolution also makes little to no sense to me.
Over all it read pretty okay. The pace kept moving. Some of the prose was quite beautiful-- except the employ of food metaphors when she described violent events, I didn't so much care for those. In the end, I wanted more from setting as character and more out of the character development and motivation.
I didn't actively hate this book, which is how I feel with most of my 1-star reviews. There was a lot of promise, like I really wanted more of the early pandemic period. That early time is so underrepresented in media and this was the closest I have seen to capturing the fear and panic of society-- is it crumbling? Will we be whole after this? Is our government going to fail? The collective questioning of systems and people around us-- the pandemic paired with social unrest-- it was a tense and eerie time. It had the makeup of being a character itself in this novel, but... that it was more of a ghost haunting the story than any actual exploration.
The central point of this book seemed to be that women too, are capable of violence and rage. Of course it is about who we all deal with it all that determines our fates. Cool, great start...
There were 4 POVs throughout-- The main two are the central conflict. Florida-- comes frm a privileged background, falls in with the wrong crowd. Lands in prison after getting involved in heavy drugs and becomes an accomplice to murder in the heat of a drug haze. Dios--comes from an underprivileged background, but is granted scholarships. Ultimately lands in prison after defending herself against a rich prick wo attacks her. So, what is the big conflict that brings them together? From what I can gather, the answer is a really disappointing: nothing.
Spoiler
Dios relentlessly pursues Florida in order to show Florida she is violent by nature, just like Dios. First, it felt like there was no support to show that Dios was inherently violent, but rather is a victim of circumstance. She was at the wrong end of someone wielding the power and money, to take her freedom away from her. That is the act that seems to reinforce her feeling that this life of violence is unavoidable for her-- she can't escape it, so why not embrace it. Further, her pursuit to convince Florida to wise her up to her own inherent violence lacks motivation. The entire time, I kept asking: why? There was little to no reason. During a prison riot, Dios witnessed Florida beating up a fellow inmate and Florida tried to keep it a secret. ... I don't know, it would have made a lot more sense if Dios decided she didn't like Florida because she represented the privileged class that was responsible for sending Dios to prison. Classic projecting. Understandable. A sort of noble desire to reveal a person's true nature to themselves... not so much.The least involved in the storyline (Kace) felt really pointless. Also, where her POV starts and ends, does not make a whole lot of sense to me. Felt a bit like the author forgot how she started that POV when I read how she ended it.
The last POV introduced, is a detective that is pulled into tracking these two down. She has a lot of internal dialogue and conflict-- which I thought made her the most interesting for a while-- though she's still not likable. And to her internal conflict, her character's resolution also makes little to no sense to me.
Over all it read pretty okay. The pace kept moving. Some of the prose was quite beautiful-- except the employ of food metaphors when she described violent events, I didn't so much care for those. In the end, I wanted more from setting as character and more out of the character development and motivation.
I read “These Women” by Ivy Pochoda and found it much more intricate and moving - this was was an interesting concept but didn’t hold my interest as it was tough to follow at times and I really didn’t understand how it wrapped up…
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was like a 2 1/2 for me. I can’t really say I liked it as a whole but I liked parts of it.
Starts off in a women’s prison in Arizona during Covid. We read chapters from the points of view of three prisoners- Florida seems to be a rich Cali girl who turned herself in to get a plea deal to being an accomplice to an arson which people died in, Dios who everyone seems to be a bit scared of, is smart but grew up most likely poor and got scholarships to get her into good schools along the way, she hurt one of the rich kids at school and here she is, and Kace who kind of is the overall narrator, she kicks things off to set up the book and she also ends the book, she hears voices of the women who’ve died or left prison. We get to feel the ins and outs of prison life.
Some of the prisoners are released due to Covid. Florida and Dios being two of them. They have to quarantine for 2 weeks at a nearby motel. Florida wants to get back to Los Angeles. After a couple days without food, she ventures out and happens upon a ghost bus taking people to LA. She hops on and guess who else does, Dios.
Turns out Dios is pretty obsessed with Florida. It’s creepy. More crimes are committed. Once in LA we now also get chapters in the view of Lobos, a petite female cop who was abused by her husband and now has a restraining order against him. I liked her chapters the most.
The book is a glimpse into the violence women can do and women can endure.
Starts off in a women’s prison in Arizona during Covid. We read chapters from the points of view of three prisoners- Florida seems to be a rich Cali girl who turned herself in to get a plea deal to being an accomplice to an arson which people died in, Dios who everyone seems to be a bit scared of, is smart but grew up most likely poor and got scholarships to get her into good schools along the way, she hurt one of the rich kids at school and here she is, and Kace who kind of is the overall narrator, she kicks things off to set up the book and she also ends the book, she hears voices of the women who’ve died or left prison. We get to feel the ins and outs of prison life.
Some of the prisoners are released due to Covid. Florida and Dios being two of them. They have to quarantine for 2 weeks at a nearby motel. Florida wants to get back to Los Angeles. After a couple days without food, she ventures out and happens upon a ghost bus taking people to LA. She hops on and guess who else does, Dios.
Turns out Dios is pretty obsessed with Florida. It’s creepy. More crimes are committed. Once in LA we now also get chapters in the view of Lobos, a petite female cop who was abused by her husband and now has a restraining order against him. I liked her chapters the most.
The book is a glimpse into the violence women can do and women can endure.
This book was unlike anything i usually read. It didn't play out how i expected but it was good. I think the three main characters are really interesting with showing how violence kind of presents itself in each person, and how those tendencies are handled. I felt the cops character was useless until the end when i realized the cop shows what Dios and Florida could have done because she had the same situation as them.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
I tried to give this book a chance. I did not like it. I did not like the characters, the premise, the content. I just could not get into it. I couldn’t bring myself to waste anymore of my life listening to it. I do not recommend this book.
I don’t think I’m the right audience for this book but I didn’t hate it? We can’t ignore that it took me nearly a week to finish despite being less than 300 pages. 2.75⭐️
2.5 stars
I’m starting to get really upset the current book blurb writing process. It’s misleading to make books sound like they’re one thing when they’re not. I can’t punish the author for the publishing decisions being made outside of their control. So, I’m rounding this up to 3 stars, though my initial instinct was to rate it 2 stars because the blurb did not reflect the tone of the book at all— it most decidedly is *not* a blend of Killing Eve meets No Country for Old Men. Please stop this trend of trying to name popular books or movies/shows that share even the most remote similarities with your newer authors. It’s an unfair game that you’re playing with both authors and readers.
That being said, I don’t know if I’d have read the book if it had been accurately marketed. It’s not a genre/scenario that would jump out for me (post-jail crime spree). I do like to try new/different things though, but the book itself never really came together for me. I did like the narration and it definitely kept me going to the end where I might have just skimmed if I’d been reading.
*Thanks to MCD, MacMillan Audio & NetGalley for the advance reader and listener copies for review.
I’m starting to get really upset the current book blurb writing process. It’s misleading to make books sound like they’re one thing when they’re not. I can’t punish the author for the publishing decisions being made outside of their control. So, I’m rounding this up to 3 stars, though my initial instinct was to rate it 2 stars because the blurb did not reflect the tone of the book at all— it most decidedly is *not* a blend of Killing Eve meets No Country for Old Men. Please stop this trend of trying to name popular books or movies/shows that share even the most remote similarities with your newer authors. It’s an unfair game that you’re playing with both authors and readers.
That being said, I don’t know if I’d have read the book if it had been accurately marketed. It’s not a genre/scenario that would jump out for me (post-jail crime spree). I do like to try new/different things though, but the book itself never really came together for me. I did like the narration and it definitely kept me going to the end where I might have just skimmed if I’d been reading.
*Thanks to MCD, MacMillan Audio & NetGalley for the advance reader and listener copies for review.