Scan barcode
nellsteve4's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Very interesting and engaging storytelling, well written and important.
melpatker70's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
3.0
Felt that this book was really lacking. My expectations were quite high after seeing the series. But this is one of the rare cases where the film version was far better than the book. There was so much kissing in the book. The characters didn’t really come to life in the book. It is easy to see why they had to add so much story line to the series…as the book was so bland. And was the epilogue really the epilogue? My advice, skip the book and just watch it
brunan's review against another edition
3.0
Real. Slightly disturbing. Everything may not just work out after all. The world is full of bias. You just find something to hold on to and move on?
A very different style of writing, which just captivates and pulls you in.
A very different style of writing, which just captivates and pulls you in.
ronniefinley's review against another edition
3.0
i’m gonna rate this 3.6? but rounding down because while i did enjoy reading this a lot, i did have a fair amount of criticism. i felt like it was a really well written and good account of three different WHITE women (very narrow sample). the ending felt abrupt and i feel that the author’s voice overpowered/diluted the voice of the women’s stories. i think the author told Maggie’s story the most powerfully. (also big TW for sexual abuse) however i found myself identifying with different aspects relating to my own take on sexuality. i think the author’s point of view on other women’s role in defining fellow women’s sexuality is a really interesting take and would have loved to see this explored further
charliebee56's review against another edition
2.75
Gah - this book could’ve been so much more. Wish it had had way more diversity and looked at a broader breadth of experience. That being said, it was readable and I enjoyed it but ultimately a lowkey disappointment!
amymariedoug's review against another edition
3.0
You can also read this review on my blog!
Trigger Warning: This review mentions sexual assault and rape.
Three Women was gifted to me in the July 2020 edition of the Books That Matter subscription box, my review of which you can read here. I’ll admit that I had not heard of Three Women before this, so I had to do a lil’ bit of digging! I now understand it to be one of the most talked about American books of 2019. Needless to say, I was so excited to read it! Yet it left me a little… underwhelmed.
Let’s start with the positives first. Three Women is marketed as biographical non-fiction portraying the narratives of the sex lives of three women. Taddeo interviewed and even lived near, these three women for eight years. That’s right – eight years. That is an incredible amount of dedication to put into a book. You can tell that Taddeo is very passionate about the subject she is writing on. One of the biggest strengths of this novel is that Taddeo’s journalistic skill shines throughout the novel’s entirety.
Taddeo’s prose is also beautifully written – it flows, yet it is not flowery. I appreciated this when reading, as it makes it a little easier to get through. Most especially when reading about the difficult subject matters that are written about in this book.
Now – the negatives. There has been a lot of criticism of this novel. The biggest being that although it says it portrays the sex lives of three women, those three women are very similar. These women are all white, all American, all cis, and two out of three are straight. This, of course, meant that these women’s experiences are limited to these categories that they belong to. There is an extreme lack of diversity in the women’s stories and this frustrated me immensely. Especially given the amount of time and effort Taddeo put into writing the novel. The novel feels very 2012/2013 feminist – which makes sense considering this is when her research begun. I just feel that Taddeo could have updated it to modern standards.
Furthermore, it’s just exhausting to read. Despite being marketed as a sex-positive book, there’s a lot of sexual assault and rape. It just left me emotionally tired from reading about such a traumatic subject matter for most of it. Of course, these are important stories to tell, but I felt like Taddeo could have done so much more with eight years of research.
To conclude: read this book if you’re looking for a deep dive into the lives of three white, cis, American women. Just be aware of what you’re getting into.
Trigger Warning: This review mentions sexual assault and rape.
Three Women was gifted to me in the July 2020 edition of the Books That Matter subscription box, my review of which you can read here. I’ll admit that I had not heard of Three Women before this, so I had to do a lil’ bit of digging! I now understand it to be one of the most talked about American books of 2019. Needless to say, I was so excited to read it! Yet it left me a little… underwhelmed.
Let’s start with the positives first. Three Women is marketed as biographical non-fiction portraying the narratives of the sex lives of three women. Taddeo interviewed and even lived near, these three women for eight years. That’s right – eight years. That is an incredible amount of dedication to put into a book. You can tell that Taddeo is very passionate about the subject she is writing on. One of the biggest strengths of this novel is that Taddeo’s journalistic skill shines throughout the novel’s entirety.
Taddeo’s prose is also beautifully written – it flows, yet it is not flowery. I appreciated this when reading, as it makes it a little easier to get through. Most especially when reading about the difficult subject matters that are written about in this book.
Now – the negatives. There has been a lot of criticism of this novel. The biggest being that although it says it portrays the sex lives of three women, those three women are very similar. These women are all white, all American, all cis, and two out of three are straight. This, of course, meant that these women’s experiences are limited to these categories that they belong to. There is an extreme lack of diversity in the women’s stories and this frustrated me immensely. Especially given the amount of time and effort Taddeo put into writing the novel. The novel feels very 2012/2013 feminist – which makes sense considering this is when her research begun. I just feel that Taddeo could have updated it to modern standards.
Furthermore, it’s just exhausting to read. Despite being marketed as a sex-positive book, there’s a lot of sexual assault and rape. It just left me emotionally tired from reading about such a traumatic subject matter for most of it. Of course, these are important stories to tell, but I felt like Taddeo could have done so much more with eight years of research.
To conclude: read this book if you’re looking for a deep dive into the lives of three white, cis, American women. Just be aware of what you’re getting into.