Wow. What a whirlwind. It read almost like a literary thriller, a page turning story of deception, mixed with compelling questions of identity, race, and life choices. The story is told in third person, but from the perspective of a young woman who is like the antagonist of her own story. I felt like I was watching a train wreck but couldn’t look away, my heart literally pounding at points. It was a quick, rich, thoughtful page-turner that left me wanting to read more from Senza.

I was a little underwhelmed with this one. Traister clearly values centering intersectional feminism in her work, and I think she succeeds there. I just didn’t find the idea that women get mad and that anger propels social change to be a very revelatory thesis. It felt like she essentially wanted to write a book about the state of present-day feminism and that anger was just the angle she chose to look at that from. But much of it felt so recent and familiar that I found myself skimming more than reading. I also went into this book on the heels of learning more about the white women of “massive resistance” who protested against school desegregation in the 50’s. I was curious to see whether Traister would address complexities like these to women’s anger being used politically, and was disappointed to see that she largely didn’t. To me, it felt that she mostly chose simplification over nuance, and breadth over depth, creating a narrative that views women’s anger as essentially progressive, righteous, and altruistic throughout American history. As a citizen, and as a woman with complexities of my own, I personally found that approach unsatisfying. But the book did get me thinking more deeply about the moment we are living in and my personal experiences with anger. Traister is a thinker to watch and I am glad to have been introduced to her work.

Atmospheric, haunting, captivating. Robinson’s writing style is easily 5 stars for me. I adored it and look forward to reading more from her. I thought the book as a whole might be a five star read for me as well, but it totally lost me at the end. I loved what she was doing with the non linear timeline but it got so fragmented in the last pages that I couldn’t make heads or tales of anything and then it was over. Maybe that was the point, but it brought me out of an otherwise brilliant immersive reading experience.