Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Uma Gaiola de Ouro

I went into this book a little wary of the premise - reading about the so called problems of upper class white families isn't my idea of a challenging or particularly high stakes book. But Lackberg absolutely pulled it off. This book did right everything that Joy Fielding's book All The Wrong Places (which I recently reviewed) did wrong. It's hard not to see the similarity in themes between the two books after reading them almost back to back, so apologies for the unsolicited comparison.

The story arcs nicely, and demonstrates fierce female character development, even if it followed a bit of a "scorned woman" trope. Faye reinvents herself over and over, in a rather inspiring way. Whether or not she takes it too far and destructs her world and loved ones is what you'll be asking throughout. The women were complex and clever, I really enjoyed how none were truly portrayed in only one light, unlike Fielding's "good" and "bad" girls. They learn from mistakes, have complicated friendships, look out for their families inrerests, take risks, and execute plans. These are the types of women I actually want to read about.

The book runs the whole gammet of emotions (I even teared up a little!), and uses tragedy and red herrings well to keep the reader on their toes. It was self aware about privilege and feminism, even if there was a little too much diet talk for my liking. The girl power feminism portrayed was a lever that got pulled on as needed as a means to an end, and it served it's purpose well.

The jump from past to present to future left the reader asking more questions as the blanks got filled, and made for a messy three stand braid. I was guessing up until the last few pages, and was pleasantly satisfied with this read. I'll have to pick up another Nordic noire again soon.

Content Warnings