โญ๏ธ out of 5 stars
100% insulted me as a female reader.
โฐ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐ฏ๐๐ซ: Heather is the younger wife-to-be of a well-respected doctor. The doctorโs first wife Pam battles dementia and lives in a nursing home. His 2 daughters, Tully and Rachel, are shocked about their fatherโs choice in women, but as they get to know Heather, they uncover truths about their family theyโve buried a long time.
๐ก๐๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฌ: Look, Iโm being honest because itโs time for that, so Iโll say it:
STOP. WRITING. STUPID. WOMEN!
One more time for the authors in the back:
STOP WRITING STUPID WOMEN!!!
Women are not magnanimously stupid so please stop writing them as such. My review will come across as scathing, and thatโs not my intent – I truly adored Hepworthโs last novel The Good Sister and know sheโs a gifted writer, but if anything I am true to my feelings and feel this book somehow morphed along the way into an old boysโ club 1800โs novel, thus my humble English teacher intent is to point out that this NEEDS to stop.
Hereโs my chief review point, spoiler be damned: the author portrays not 1 but 2 women who suffer physical abuse who then convince themselves they arenโt abused, in favor of them beingโฆ โdrunkโ and/or โcrazy.โ
Yup. I really just read that. In 2022.
This archaic portrayal makes everyone think itโs ok to diminish women as โhystericalโ and โcrazyโ and (not surprisingly) โstupid,โ particularly men who started this horrendously inaccurate trope centuries ago which Charlotte Perkins Gilman famously brought to light when she shredded gender roles and the treatment of women in โThe Yellow Wallpaper.โ
Yes, women in this book are viewed as โcrazyโ for trusting their instincts.
Do women make excuses for their abuser? Yep. Do they feel powerless? Yes. Do they think they are going crazy imagining they are abused instead of actually being abused? Iโm guessing universally NO.
No all day this week and twice on Sunday. NO. They deny it to others but they know their shame.
Top it off with the women in the novel having to see therapists for their grab-bag of issues – one a kleptomaniac, another binge eats, and another might be a budding alcoholic. But the men in the novel? Cool, calm, collected, handsome, reassuring. The women? ALL โcrazy.โ
Insulting. The ending is merely a โdid it happenโ Verity-like 4th quarter hail Mary to try to make the women look legit nuts and basically just further irritated me. Please, stop. Women deserve better.
๐๐น๐น ๐บ๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐น๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ด๐.๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฝ๐๐ฏ๐น๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป.
๐๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐: Domestic mystery
๐๐๐๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ: no one.
๐ โโ๏ธ ๐๐จ๐ญ ๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ: everyone
Thank you to the author, NetGalley and St. Martinโs Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for making me realize the fight for a better portrayal of women in literature is certainly not over.
