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A review by kasvi_mavani
Normal Women by Ainslie Hogarth
3.0
Review: Normal Women by Ainslie Hogarth
Release Date: October 10th, 2023
After reading this I’m staying single for life and that horrific description of birth makes me very inclined to steer clear of children.
This book follows Dani, a stay-at-home mother, who can’t stop thinking about her husband's death leaving her and her daughter with nothing. On a trip outside the house, she discovers the Temple and is entranced by the idea of working there to bring people to their greatest potential. She meets Renata, the owner, who suddenly disappears when Dani needs her the most.
After Motherthing, I was highly anticipating this release, but unfortunately, I was a little underwhelmed. Let’s start with what I liked. I love Ainslie Hogarth’s humour and writing style. The dark jokes and sarcasm hooked me right away, and I actually laughed out loud at a couple lines throughout the book. Which probably says a lot about me, so let’s not analyze that. I liked the feminist and toxic masculinity commentary too. The author does a great job of saying what she wants to without taking us out of the story.
Here’s what didn’t work for me. The first half of this book was pretty slow and got a bit repetitive. I was hooked at the start, but by the time I got halfway through, I was starting to feel a bit burnt out reading the same thing over and over. The description of the book was misleading for me since it suggests that her friend going missing is what the book is about, while that was just a super quick plot point at the end of the book. The end didn’t leave me fully satisfied, I felt like we were building up to something different and more psychological than it ended up being.
So while not loving this as much as Motherthing, I’m really very excited to read what Ainslie Hogarth comes up with next.
I want to say a quick thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Genre: Domestic Fiction/Dark Comedy
Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5
Release Date: October 10th, 2023
After reading this I’m staying single for life and that horrific description of birth makes me very inclined to steer clear of children.
This book follows Dani, a stay-at-home mother, who can’t stop thinking about her husband's death leaving her and her daughter with nothing. On a trip outside the house, she discovers the Temple and is entranced by the idea of working there to bring people to their greatest potential. She meets Renata, the owner, who suddenly disappears when Dani needs her the most.
After Motherthing, I was highly anticipating this release, but unfortunately, I was a little underwhelmed. Let’s start with what I liked. I love Ainslie Hogarth’s humour and writing style. The dark jokes and sarcasm hooked me right away, and I actually laughed out loud at a couple lines throughout the book. Which probably says a lot about me, so let’s not analyze that. I liked the feminist and toxic masculinity commentary too. The author does a great job of saying what she wants to without taking us out of the story.
Here’s what didn’t work for me. The first half of this book was pretty slow and got a bit repetitive. I was hooked at the start, but by the time I got halfway through, I was starting to feel a bit burnt out reading the same thing over and over. The description of the book was misleading for me since it suggests that her friend going missing is what the book is about, while that was just a super quick plot point at the end of the book. The end didn’t leave me fully satisfied, I felt like we were building up to something different and more psychological than it ended up being.
So while not loving this as much as Motherthing, I’m really very excited to read what Ainslie Hogarth comes up with next.
I want to say a quick thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Genre: Domestic Fiction/Dark Comedy
Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5