A beautiful mix of hunger games and handmaid’s tale vibes. 

Wow, bunny really is a wild ride. Lost me for a minute in the hatred of everything pink and girly, but won me back so so hard. 

A beautiful historical imagining of the lives and struggles of women experiencing “hysteria” at the dawn of research into neurological conditions. The Madwomen of Paris also reflects on women’s stories and place in society in a time where the perspective was almost always male. 

To say you understand this book is to not have read it. The author has done both a lovely and torturous thing in that everything is constantly something else. There is a story of magic gingerbread, and a story of social woes. There is a story of family, and of being alone. There is subtext abound and simultaneously seemingly none at all. It’s intensely challenging and can be a bit tiresome at points so give it the benefit of the doubt on getting through it. 

In addition, I believe there are important “animal farm-esq” qualities to the writing. Are the dolls literal or are they the questions the author wishes us to ask, or both? Is it a story of mothers and daughters or do the mothers stand for something else entirely…? Perhaps societal expectations put upon us are reflected? Is Gretel a physical girl, a reflection of youth, the narrator’s own inner voice? These are questions you simply will not get the answer to fully. A wonderful and excruciating thing. 

Be prepared to invest time in this book, be prepared to annotate and process and get confused. Good luck! 

Beautiful story, feels more like science fiction than Morgan’s other works. Not nearly as “witchy” as one would have expected. 

A story about womanhood, sisterhood, adversity through tough times, and a little bit of magic along the way. Reads fairly quickly. Some characters more memorable than others but all around a beautiful lineage story. 

Interesting book. Often challenging to piece together the entire picture.  Characters are highly flawed but highly human. Goes where you expect it to. 

A story that will be too familiar to many women. Astoundingly intrinsic to the female experience through the ages.