A very quick read, and I think the quickness of it does it an injustice. There are really interesting themes of mental illness and women refusing to conform, and how they were punished for that ‘back in the day’ by literally being whisked away to mental asylums for the smallest infractions. The narrative cycles through three POVs without any chapter breaks so you’re thrown around a lot, which adds to the pace of it. I thought Kitty’s sections were the strongest, as she’s suffering with dementia or Alzheimer’s and O’Farrell does a good job of portraying that. But the other sections, and especially the non-main characters, felt a bit superficial. Like we only got to know them on a surface level. I wanted more depth, more introspection, a deeper exploration of the themes. It could have been brilliant and instead was only okay