A slightly hesitant 5* ... but I did feel like there was more to this than my standard 4* reads. Lots of "bookclub buzz" about this one, I had a bit of a wait once I'd put it on hold at my library.

I've stuck this on my "historical" shelf. It is set in the 60s ... in a way, that was a dominant theme (expectations of women) yet overall the story felt a bit more contemporary ... except for the treatment of the women throughout. It felt so off, which is hopefully a reflection of some changes in the times.

Trigger warnings for rape. Some language and sexual situations. There were also times I laughed out loud - I went with the audio edition, otherwise I am sure I would have stopped and highlighted some sections. Speaking of the audio, the narrator was good (there were three narrators listed ... was there more than one or were the other voices just the end notes?) but I struggled with her pronunciation of "been" ... which she pronounced "bean" (I googled and didn't find any dialect/accent indicating that as an acceptable pronunciation). It drove me batty!

The story itself skipped around quite a bit - POVs (including the POV of a DOG, which was actually wonderful) and time. I struggled following the time shifts just a bit (not sure if they were any more clearly marked in print than in the audio).