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3.16 AVERAGE
3.16 AVERAGE
I had high expectations for this because I loved Motherthing but it definitely left me wanting. Hogarth prose are incredible and her skill as a writer was on full display with this one. However, the supposed climax was very anti-climactic and overall the novel felt quite half-baked.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Motherhood, female empowerment, character driven, dark humor
I was invested, then I wasn't. I liked the humor and honestly about motherhood. After all, it doesn't come naturally to all of us. Sadly for me, this story slowly went downhill the further in I got and became a bit too unbelievable.
I was invested, then I wasn't. I liked the humor and honestly about motherhood. After all, it doesn't come naturally to all of us. Sadly for me, this story slowly went downhill the further in I got and became a bit too unbelievable.
Honestly, this utopian brothel society did not land. The author took a really complex issue and demonstrated a lack of understanding. Barely any commenting on the exploitation that drives the issue of buying people’s bodies. Wasn’t into it and the end really had no pay off. Research topics before writing about them!
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is like the exact opposite of motherthing where I wasn't feeling the book until the end. This book I didn't mind the beginning but then it just kept getting worse and worse. That ending was SO anticlimactic
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Tenley's gonna be mad at me for 3 starring this but I have to let the people know.
Normal Women is about a lady who has a baby who she loves with a man who she increasingly thinks is a bad person. Her husband is a real estate developer who decided to develop his wife's hometown even though she really doesn't want to move back home. The woman, Dani, finds like a wellness brothel in town run by a woman who has hella cult leader energy. The second part is like a murder mystery type beat where the cult leader goes missing and everyone is a suspect. This book is weird but definitely fun and it's peppered with wisdom about motherhood and being someone's wife and shit. Dani is lovably neurotic and I found myself rooting for her even though she's crazy.
The things I didn't really fuck with were that there were a ton of loose ends that never get tied up. It felt like the author had visions of certain characters but not how they tied into the story. I also didn't like that sometimes Dani would go off on tangets about completely unrelated stuff and that she'd do the Margaret Atwood Classic (ending a sentence with a word and then saying that word again as a second sentence for emphasis. Emphasis.) I can't tell if this was actually confusing or if I just have a head cold. The ending also seemed really rushed like I knew it was gonna end in a couple pages but I didn't believe it or see how that could work but it did through the magic of throwing an ending together.
Normal Women is about a lady who has a baby who she loves with a man who she increasingly thinks is a bad person. Her husband is a real estate developer who decided to develop his wife's hometown even though she really doesn't want to move back home. The woman, Dani, finds like a wellness brothel in town run by a woman who has hella cult leader energy. The second part is like a murder mystery type beat where the cult leader goes missing and everyone is a suspect. This book is weird but definitely fun and it's peppered with wisdom about motherhood and being someone's wife and shit. Dani is lovably neurotic and I found myself rooting for her even though she's crazy.
The things I didn't really fuck with were that there were a ton of loose ends that never get tied up. It felt like the author had visions of certain characters but not how they tied into the story. I also didn't like that sometimes Dani would go off on tangets about completely unrelated stuff and that she'd do the Margaret Atwood Classic (ending a sentence with a word and then saying that word again as a second sentence for emphasis. Emphasis.) I can't tell if this was actually confusing or if I just have a head cold. The ending also seemed really rushed like I knew it was gonna end in a couple pages but I didn't believe it or see how that could work but it did through the magic of throwing an ending together.
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This took me a loooooong time to read with multiple restarts. I just don’t know if I really understood it, to be honest. I think the commentary on sex work and women’s ownership of their bodies and their financial capital in life is really interesting. But Dani, as a character, was entirely too confusing for me. The ending felt unearned? Dani is just very unlikeable to me and for her to receive that ending just felt very dues-ex-machina. It felt a bit like the bottom fell out of the plot. Idk. I’ll have to keep thinking on it.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I didn’t really like MotherThing but I definitely like it way more than this one.