I’m in the minority about this book…I highly disliked it.

I had a lot of problems with this book so I’ll start with the positive. The authors writing is captivating, and the beginning and the very end of the book I kind of liked. It was in the middle that was the biggest problem for me. Also, the narration is fantastic and if you are interested in this book I would recommend the audiobook.

It had a strong start but became extremely repetitive FAST. It was also advertised as a funny lighthearted book but it was nothing of the sort….the very beginning has a graphic rape scene which I have heard no one even mention, as well as many other heavy topics.

I love a good feminist women’s book, but oh my god this book was exhausting. I didn’t hear about how the sexism in this era emotionally affected the women….all I heard was monologues and speeches every other paragraph from Elizabeth about inequality. We never hear about Elizabeth’s emotions or personal feelings, just facts and statistics. It is 2023 and I am a woman of color living in the US. Yes, I know sexism sucks and that women are equal. I wanted to be shown about the emotional and societal affects these things had on the women of this era and their relationships with each other, their romantic relationships, ect, but instead it was always a speech. It was exhausting to keep listening to and extremely repetitive. There’s also the fact that there is not a single POC in this book….the only inkling that we get is Elizabeth mentioning “gender, race and class” in one of her speeches…..ok.

Another thing that frustrated me is that Elizabeth is always shocked when a man is sexist…..I am NOT saying that she should’ve sat and taken men’s shit, I’m asking why a women living in the 50s constantly forgets that sexism is a very common thing? This book felt like a fantasy at times, and not in a good way.

There is also the use of tropes….of course the smart female character shows no emotion, doesn’t have a sense of humor, looks down on other women for the first half of the book, and has bad social skills. Of course her daughter is a 4 year old genius reading Vladimir Nabokov novels. 

It was small problem after small problem that kept piling up until I couldn’t really enjoy the book at all. I’m really sad that I didn’t like this book, as I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the story felt very sterile and matter of fact.