"Why aren't we ever the oppressing assholes? Why is everything a reaction for us?"
"Because," Saloni said. "Women were built to endure the rules men make." 

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. It is also unexpectedly funny. If you are looking for a book that explores the concept that “men should feel lucky that women want equality and not revenge” then this book is for you!

The characters were hard to relate to. There were too many characters referenced and some had no value to the plot. Especially when the author name dropped Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, which felt jarring and not relevant to the over all plot. Also for a book based on so much factual research there were some glaring holes that broke the world building for me, such as there being no art history PhD program at Georgetown and the way Jess gets her job is also unrealistic to the Smithsonian system.

I am in an interracial relationship and I found Theo and Jess’s relationship to be dry. The death of Theo also felt forced and done for shock value which I find gross that a white author would use that as a plot device.

For a book that is set half the time in ante bellum South, it certainly glossed over the atrocities of slavery. I get why people like this book but for me it felt like the type of book a boomer white mom living in the suburbs would read because it was on Reese Witherspoon’s book list.