Reviews

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

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jaz_aiken's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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thepetitepunk's review against another edition

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2.0

the story itself was captivating, but the execution fell short. the fact that it was told as a series of transcriptions written by a man felt distancing and compromised some of the emotional aspects of an otherwise horrific situation. i read some reviews explaining why the author might have chosen to use POV and narration style, but this doesn't change the fact that it majorly slowed down the pacing of the text and ultimately made it boring. this isn't the first time i've been a bit disappointed in the narration style in one of mariam towes' novels.

k8dagr8's review against another edition

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4.0

this book wasn’t what i was expecting (in a good way)

canadianbookworm's review

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

https://cdnbookworm.blogspot.com/2024/05/women-talking.html

mginn01's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

bookishc's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

seventhswan's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I do so wish this book hadn't been narrated by a man - even more so when I realised it was set in the 21st century, which wasn't immediately apparent due to the setting of the Mennonite community. I sort of understand why this choice was made, but I still think it would have been completely possible to have a woman narrator or a third-person narration; however sympathetic, I didn't want to read about violence against women and decision-making by women from a man's perspective.

Apart from that, though, the actual writing of the book was masterfully done and made for a compelling read despite being, genuinely, very little more than a group of women having an important conversation in a barn. I got a great sense of the different characters and their various motivations, and wanted nothing but good things for them. I want to know what happened next - as well as what happened to the real women the book is based on.

Although the premise of the book relies on horrific sexual violence (so I've marked it as graphic), I'm grateful that it didn't rely on vivid depictions of this for shock value. The few sentences alluding to the impact of the violence on different women and girls both got the point across and demonstrated its routine nature in the community. You don't need to know exact details of what happened to the women - after all, they don't themselves - and I appreciated Toews' focus on the aftermath without resorting to flashbacks and trauma porn.

I would recommend this book, in spite of my issues with the parts of it that focused on August. It felt like an important read.

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